Spotify’s New “SongDNA” Feature Is Actually a Great Way to Learn More About Your Music.
Spotify has been steadily adding new features lately. Last week, the company launched ” Exclusive Mode ” for desktop users, allowing them to listen to music in the highest possible quality; last month, Spotify announced ” Smart Reorder ,” which automatically sorts songs by BPM; and in January, after an exclusive overseas launch, ” Suggested Playlists ,” created using AI, arrived in the US. Picking a favorite among services like Apple Music remains a challenge, but Premium subscribers can at least say Spotify gives them something for their money.
Now the company is launching another new feature that looks like a truly interesting way to learn more about your music. On Tuesday, Spotify announced SongDNA, which shows all the people who contributed to a song, as well as all the samples and interpolations used in that song. SongDNA is located directly below the lyrics tile in the player window. I’m already seeing it on mine, though Spotify labels the feature “Beta” to indicate it’s still in testing.
How Spotify’s SongDNA Works
When SongDNA appears below a song, the artists who worked on it are displayed in one corner of the screen. This could be the main artist, or any composers, producers, musicians, or writers who contributed. On the SongDNA tile, the main artist is displayed in a pop-up window, but if you tap the icon, you’ll see a map of all the project’s collaborators. You can tap any of these names to see how many other artists they’ve worked with, how many songs they’ve collaborated on, and what their “most popular song” is (presumably the most popular song they’ve worked on on Spotify).
To the right of the artist icon is the sample and interpolation icon: here you’ll see all the fragments the artist or artists have taken from various other songs to incorporate into their own tracks. For example, in Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta,” I see that they sampled the drum loop from Curtis Mayfield’s “Kung Fu” and vocals from James Brown’s “The Payback,” among other things. Spotify will pinpoint where in each song the sample was taken and offer a play button to listen. You can also scroll down to find songs that use a sample from the song in question: Cavi’s “F The Disco” features vocals from “King Kunta” at 1:28, as does Villain Park’s “Brain Cells” (at 1:59). Scroll down a little further, and you’ll find all the cover versions of the song available on Spotify. 8-Bit Misfits has an amazing interpretation of the song that sounds like Kendrick wrote the music for the NES.
Honestly, I’m a fan of Apple Music, but I have to say: it’s absolutely fantastic (no pun intended). Most of us listen to music without much knowledge about how it was created—except, of course, the artist. SongDNA makes it easy to learn more about how your favorite songs were created, where the inspiration came from, and who, besides the singer or artist, contributed to the hit. You can contact the lead engineer or producer of your favorite song to find out what other projects they’ve worked on, or view full versions of songs that used samples to discover new music to listen to. While it’s a shame this is only available to Premium subscribers, it’s a great move on Spotify’s part.
Does Spotify SongDNA use artificial intelligence?
I reached out to Spotify to ask if SongDNA uses artificial intelligence to generate this information, and as it turns out, it doesn’t! For the most part, anyway. Here’s what a Spotify spokesperson told me: “SongDNA is not a generative AI feature and does not use large language models (LLMs) to generate or predict information. This immersive music experience is based on official creator data we receive from artists and their teams, supplemented by community input. While we use technology to visualize these complex relationships, the data itself is based on human-verified industry sources, not AI-generated content.”
While it’s unclear what “technology” was used to visualize the relationships, it’s reassuring to know that all the data is human-sourced. Spotify may use AI for its user interface, but unlike many new app features, this one won’t generate incorrect samples or invent song captions.