Spotify Secures WhoSampled for Smarter Song Discovery
Spotify, while announcing its new song-credits feature, revealed that it has acquired WhoSampled, the community-driven database company that tracks music samples, covers, and remixes. Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Spotify confirmed that both the team and the entire database are now under its umbrella. According to PitchBook and LinkedIn data, the London-based company had only ten employees.
Founded in 2008, WhoSampled currently manages a massive catalog of over 1.2 million songs and nearly 622,000 samples. This database is now powering Spotify’s new music-discovery tool, SongDNA.
Spotify’s relationship with WhoSampled is not new. The two companies partnered back in 2016, allowing users to access WhoSampled features through the Spotify playlist app.
WhoSampled has said that even after the acquisition, it will continue to operate under its own brand and platform. It is also preparing to roll out several improvements for users—such as faster approval of submitted information, removal of ads from the website soon, and free access to mobile apps.
WhoSampled stated that during discussions with Spotify, it became clear that both organizations value musical context and aim to take listeners deeper into the story behind songs. According to them, Spotify is the most suitable platform to fulfill this mission.
DBTech/BMT/OR
