Spotify unveils new tools to help listeners explore the people and stories behind their music

Spotify has announced a suite of new features aimed at helping listeners delve deeper into the people, histories and creative influences behind their favourite tracks. The updates, revealed on Wednesday, will shine a spotlight on the wider network of contributors involved in music production — including producers, engineers, songwriters and background vocalists — and introduce tools that map how songs are connected through sampling, covers and collaborations.

Central to the rollout is SongDNA, an interactive feature that presents detailed information about any given track. Users will be able to see which songs have been sampled, who has covered the tune and what other projects the credited artists and collaborators have worked on. The development of SongDNA was first reported by TechCrunch in October, after references to the feature were discovered in the app’s code by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong. The tool builds on Spotify’s existing Song Credits feature, which previously highlighted only key roles such as performance, songwriting and production.

The new sampling and reference data is powered by WhoSampled, the community-built database that Spotify has acquired. Other streaming platforms, such as TIDAL, already provide similar interactive credit explorations, but Spotify’s integration aims to offer a more expansive view by combining contributor histories, sampled tracks and related projects.

Spotify is also preparing to introduce About the Song, a feature that will appear as swipeable cards in the “Now Playing” view. These cards will provide insights such as the inspiration behind the track, contextual stories, cultural impact and more, sourced from third-party platforms. The cards will include links to external sites ranging from informational pages like Wikipedia to news outlets. The approach expands on earlier attempts at contextual storytelling, including Spotify’s past collaboration with lyrics site Genius, which offered limited backstory content based on Genius’s database.

The upgraded Song Credits begin rolling out on mobile from Wednesday and will reach desktop users in the coming months. Meanwhile, SongDNA and About the Song will be available exclusively to Premium subscribers and will launch early next year through the Spotify for Artists Preview programme. This preview phase will allow artists and collaborators to review and correct their credits before the features are released to the broader user base.