Spotify's 'SongDNA' Feature Launches

Spotify's SongDNA launched on March 24, 2026, and it's currently in beta exclusively for Premium subscribers on iOS and Android. You'll find it as an interactive card in the Now Playing view, revealing producers, engineers, samples, interpolations, and covers for supported tracks. It's powered by the WhoSampled database, which Spotify acquired in November 2025 and covers over 1.2 million songs. There's plenty more to uncover about how this feature works and what it means for music.

Key Takeaways

• SongDNA launched on March 24, 2026, and is currently in beta, exclusively available to Spotify Premium subscribers on iOS and Android.
• The feature is powered by WhoSampled's database of over 1.2 million songs, acquired by Spotify on November 19, 2025.
• SongDNA appears as an interactive card in the Now Playing view, mapping collaborators, samples, interpolations, and covers for supported tracks.
• Unlike TIDAL's per-song credits, SongDNA connects dots across tracks and artists, offering network mapping with WhoSampled integration.
• Artists and labels can manage SongDNA visibility through Spotify for Artists, while missing data corrections can be submitted via WhoSampled.

What Spotify's SongDNA Feature Does

Spotify's new SongDNA feature pulls back the curtain on the creative forces behind any given track, surfacing the collaborators, writers, producers, engineers, samples, interpolations, and covers that shaped it.

You'll find it as a SongDNA card in the Now Playing view on supported tracks.

It's not just a static credits list — it functions as an interactive lineage that lets you trace a song's DNA from its core contributors outward.

Tap into collaborator pathways to explore their other projects, follow samples back to their origins, or discover artists who covered the track.

It transforms passive listening into active exploration, giving you a fuller picture of how a song came to exist and who made it happen. Users looking to explore more music-related discoveries can also browse trivia and informational tools designed to make learning about topics like music history both easy and accessible. The feature is currently in beta and rolling out to Premium users globally on iOS and Android mobile devices.

When SongDNA Launched and Who Can Access It

Launched on March 24, 2026, SongDNA is currently in beta and exclusive to Spotify Premium subscribers across all plans — including Premium Lite, Standard, and Platinum in India.

The launch timeline began with a global beta rollout announced via Spotify Newsroom, with news coverage following on March 27, 2026. Spotify plans to complete its phased expansion to the full Premium base by the end of April 2026.

Premium access is your ticket in — there's no free tier availability. You'll find SongDNA on iOS and Android devices, integrated directly into the Now Playing view. Artist teams can also review their tracks' SongDNA data through Spotify for Artists.

Built on the WhoSampled database acquired in November 2025, the feature carries no regional restrictions, making it a genuinely global rollout. The feature is designed to reveal creative teams behind tracks, including producers and collaborators involved in a song's creation.

Users looking to explore additional music-related facts and information can turn to online fact-finding tools that organize content across categories like science, sports, and more.

How to Find SongDNA While You're Listening

Finding SongDNA is straightforward — just pull up the Now Playing view in the Spotify mobile app while a track is playing and scroll down to locate the SongDNA card. The card itself acts as a visual cue, appearing as an interactive element on supported tracks, so you'll know immediately whether the feature's available for what you're hearing.

Quick access works the same way across both iOS and Android, keeping the experience consistent regardless of your device. Not every track supports SongDNA, so the card only shows up on compatible songs. Once you spot it, tapping it opens an interactive map revealing the collaborators, samples, interpolations, and covers connected to that track — turning your listening session into an active exploration of the song's creative history. The feature is available exclusively to Premium subscribers, so you'll need an active Premium plan to access the SongDNA card during playback.

Samples, Covers, and Credits SongDNA Surfaces

SongDNA pulls back the curtain on three core layers of a song's creative makeup: samples, covers, and credits.

For samples, it maps influences through an interactive view, pulling data from WhoSampled — so you can trace, for example, 90s hip-hop roots in a Drake track. This transparency directly supports sampling ethics by crediting the original creators.

Cover connections work similarly, linking originals to their cover versions and opening discovery opportunities for covered artists — relevant when cover royalties come into question.

Credits go deeper than what you'd see in Now Playing, surfacing engineers, mixers, background vocalists, writers, and producers. Sources include labels, distributors, and community contributions. Much like how draft pick value charts allow analysts to quantify trade fairness from multiple perspectives, SongDNA layers multiple data sources to give a fuller picture of a song's true creative value.

Main artists control what's visible, and you can submit corrections or missing connections directly through WhoSampled.

SongDNA is accessible at the artist level too, where you can view all collaborators and see which tracks have SongDNA from an artist's profile page.

The WhoSampled Database Powering SongDNA

Behind SongDNA's sample and cover mapping is WhoSampled, a database Spotify acquired on November 19, 2025, along with its team and extensive catalog.

The platform covers over 1.2 million songs and 600,000+ samples, all built through crowdsourced verification rather than algorithms.

Music fans, producers, and historians manually contribute and vet every connection, making the data something no automated system could replicate.

That community governance model is what gives WhoSampled its credibility and depth.

You're seeing sample origins, cover versions, and remix lineages that humans have traced and confirmed over years.

WhoSampled continues operating as a standalone brand post-acquisition, but its catalog now feeds directly into SongDNA, giving you a richer, more accurate picture of how songs connect across music history. The platform also offers a mobile app with music recognition technology that identifies samples within a detected track, going beyond simple song identification to surface related database content.

How Artists and Labels Manage SongDNA Data

While WhoSampled's community-verified catalog powers the sample and cover data you see in SongDNA, artists and labels aren't just passive recipients of that information. You can actively manage what appears through Spotify for Artists, where artist verification and label workflows come together in a dedicated dashboard.

If you're an eligible artist or primary contributor, you can review components like collaborators, samples, interpolations, and covers. You can also choose to show or hide specific contributors and song connections, keeping your creative story accurate. Profile admins and label teams handle this data directly for tracks featured in the Now Playing SongDNA card.

During the current beta phase, your input shapes how these management tools evolve, giving you real influence over the feature before its full April rollout. SongDNA itself became accessible to Premium users worldwide beginning March 24, 2026, marking the start of its broader beta availability.

Why SongDNA Matters for Producers and Songwriters

For producers and songwriters, SongDNA finally brings your contributions out of the shadows. It gives you meaningful recognition directly within Spotify's platform, where listeners already spend their time. Royalty transparency becomes clearer as your name appears alongside the tracks you helped create, reducing dependence on labels or distributors to manage your credits. You can even review and update your SongDNA components directly through Spotify for Artists.

Networking opportunities open up naturally through SongDNA's interactive map view. Industry professionals can trace your work across multiple tracks and catalogs, making it easier to identify you as a potential collaborator or engineer. Your connections to samples, covers, and shared projects become visible in ways a static credit list never could. SongDNA positions your behind-the-scenes work where it deserves to be seen. The samples and covers data powering these connections comes from WhoSampled, now part of Spotify, adding a well-established layer of music lineage tracking to your profile.

How SongDNA Compares to What TIDAL Already Offers

Spotify isn't the first platform to put contributor credits front and center—TIDAL's been doing it for years. TIDAL's interactive credits give subscribers artist visibility by highlighting background production roles within individual songs. It's a solid feature, but it stops there. You don't get network mapping, sample origins, or links to related projects.

SongDNA takes things further by visualizing music as an interconnected ecosystem. You can trace collaborators across multiple tracks, explore who sampled what, and discover artists tied to songs you already love. TIDAL's credits are per-song and standalone, while SongDNA connects the dots between tracks, artists, and influences. TIDAL also has no WhoSampled integration, meaning its sample data can't compete with what Spotify's acquisition brings to SongDNA's discovery experience. Premium subscribers on iOS and Android are the first to get access to SongDNA, with Spotify gradually rolling out the beta feature through April.