Spotify acquires music database WhoSampled

Spotify has acquired WhoSampled, the long-running community-driven database that tracks sampled music, the company announced on Wednesday. Spotify also highlighted the acquisition in its broader blog post detailing its new song credit features.

Image Credits: Spotify

While terms were not publicly shared, Spotify confirmed to TechCrunch that the deal includes both the WhoSampled team and its full database. The startup operated with a minimal staff — PitchBook and LinkedIn both indicate the team consisted of roughly 10 employees.

Founded in 2008 and based in London, WhoSampled built an extensive catalogue of songs, samples, remixes, covers, artists, and related music data. Its website now documents more than 1.2 million songs and nearly 622,000 samples, and that information will power Spotify’s newly announced tools, including the upcoming SongDNA discovery feature.

Spotify has been familiar with WhoSampled for years. In 2016, the streaming platform partnered with the company to allow users to connect their Spotify playlists and saved tracks within the WhoSampled app.

In its own announcement, WhoSampled said its standalone platform and brand will remain intact after the acquisition. The team said users will begin seeing improvements as the service integrates more closely with Spotify’s ecosystem. For example, moderation times for new submissions will be reduced, on-site display ads will be removed in the coming weeks, and its mobile apps will be free to download with free subscription tiers.

“Through our recent discussions with Spotify, it became clear that we share a strong belief in the power of musical context — and a vision for helping listeners go deeper into the songs they love,” the WhoSampled team wrote. “Spotify has shown a genuine commitment to our mission, and we couldn’t have found a better home for WhoSampled.”