Spotify’s latest move is about depth, not just breadth. By bringing WhoSampled into the fold, the company is betting that richer context will keep listeners engaged for longer and help artists get their due. While financial details weren’t disclosed, the strategy is clear. Turn every song into a story you can explore.

Nadav Poraz, WhoSampled’s founder, framed the moment as a new chapter. “WhoSampled will not only continue to grow and improve, but also bring its unique flavor of music discovery to the world’s largest music streaming platform,” he said in a public statement.

What is SongDNA and why does it matter?

Think of SongDNA as a musical family tree for each track. It pulls in credited composers and lyricists, plus the samples a track uses, the covers it inspired, and related remixes. As TechCrunch’s Ivan Mehta noted, SongDNA is rolling out to Premium users and leans heavily on WhoSampled’s metadata. The idea is simple. When you understand where a song comes from, you connect to it more deeply.

The team at Music.AI put it plainly. Spotify wants browsing that goes beyond pressing play. Context, not just catalog size, becomes the differentiator.

How does WhoSampled’s database change the Spotify experience?

WhoSampled brings an enormous, community-vetted dataset. We’re talking more than a million songs, hundreds of thousands of artists, and hundreds of thousands of documented samples. It’s the connective tissue of modern music, from golden‑era hip hop chops to pop’s clever interpolations. If you’ve ever asked where you heard that drum break or hook before, this scratches the itch.

Users will also notice changes on WhoSampled itself. The service is becoming ad‑free, its mobile apps are free to download, and content moderation is speeding up to keep entries accurate. As Music Business Worldwide reports, Spotify’s first big integration is SongDNA, which lets listeners tap through the lineage of a track. This could influence how we think about algorithms and what “discovery” really means.

Will WhoSampled stay independent?

Yes. WhoSampled says it will continue to run as a standalone site and app while collaborating with Spotify on improvements. The promise is business as usual, only faster and cleaner. Free to use, no ads, same deep catalog.

So you can keep diving into music history on WhoSampled, or explore those connections inside Spotify. You can even pull up a track on a smart speaker like the Google Nest Mini, then open your phone to trace the song’s lineage with SongDNA.

Recommended gear

Want to hear more of the hidden layers you uncover with SongDNA? A compact speaker like the Google Audio Bluetooth Speaker delivers clean sound that brings samples and subtle production touches into focus.

How does this help artists and the people behind the music?

Streaming made liner notes disappear. This move brings some of that credit back. Spotify is expanding song credits so producers, engineers, session musicians, and writers show up more clearly. That helps with recognition and, over time, can support better attribution and rights conversations.

As Nadav Poraz said in an official WhoSampled blog statement, the partnership is about spotlighting the creators behind the music. That matters even more as AI reshapes content production and raises fresh questions about data use and artist rights.

What happens next?

Nadav Poraz is joining Spotify as Head of WhoSampled, which should help the community keep its identity while tapping into Spotify’s scale. TechCrunch reports that some tools will reach artists first through Spotify for Artists, followed by a wider rollout.

Zooming out, Spotify is making a long‑term bet that context‑rich discovery will set it apart as the market matures. While competitors chase search with more AI horsepower, Spotify is weaving human‑curated music history into the listening experience. As we noted in our broader coverage of AI and search, Dropbox is picking up AI talent to upgrade discovery. Spotify’s angle is different. Humans map the relationships, and the app makes them tappable.