Spotify Launches SongDNA, Connects Harry Styles to Wu-Tang

Photo Credit: Spotify

Spotify rolls out SongDNA in beta for Premium users to pull back the curtain on the collaborators, samples, and interpolations woven into any track.

After Spotify confirmed in November that it was developing a feature to help users discover music through a song’s credits, SongDNA is finally here in beta form. Now available to Premium subscribers, the feature provides an interactive experience that aims to pull back the curtain on the “creative DNA” behind any track. You can explore the collaborators, samples, and interpolations that make up or are made from a track’s sound, and browse the covers it inspired.

This, Spotify points out, can reveal some surprising connections, like a music-themed game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The streamer lists an interesting example: Harry Styles’ link to Wu-Tang Clan via John Mayer, Pino Palladino, D’Angelo, and The Roots. Similarly, Beyoncé’s “Lemonade,” which just turned 10, connects her to blink-182 via Jack White, Beck, and Roger Joseph Manning Jr.

It’s more or less an expansion of Spotify’s existing “About the Song” feature, providing more info about the writers, producers, and collaborators behind a given track. But for those in the music industry, SongDNA could even help artists discover new producers or other new collaborators they might like to work with, increasing the visibility of those often overlooked in the background of music production.

“By bringing collaborators, samples, and covers together in one place, we’re making it easier for fans to discover new music and see how songs connect and come to life—while giving songwriters, producers, and rightsholders meaningful recognition for the role they play in creating it,” said Jacqueline Ankner, Spotify’s Head of Songwriter & Publisher Partnerships.

SongDNA also builds upon data from the community-built music database WhoSampled, which Spotify acquired last year. The streaming giant didn’t specify whether artificial intelligence was used in the feature’s creation, given its crowd-sourcing roots, but with the prevalence of AI in the current climate, it wouldn’t surprise us to learn of a connection.

Either way, SongDNA should provide Spotify an edge, given that most of its competitors do not currently offer such detailed data about a song’s credits. The closest thing out there is probably Tidal’s interactive credits.