Spotify’s new features let listeners explore the people and stories behind their favorite music

Spotify has introduced a new set of features to highlight the people who help bring users' favourite songs to life — including producers, engineers, songwriters, background vocalists, and others who contribute behind the scenes. The company is also preparing tools that reveal how tracks are connected and what inspired them.

The second set of tools will appear in an interactive experience called SongDNA, which shows which tracks a song has sampled, who has covered it, and what other projects the song's contributors have worked on.

TechCrunch first reported on SongDNA in October after references to the feature appeared in Spotify's code, spotted by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong. Through SongDNA, users can dive deeper into a track's credits, exploring the broader creative work of artists, musicians, and collaborators involved in its creation.

Image Credits: Spotify

Until now, the existing Song Credits feature has only displayed the primary performance, songwriting, and production details.

Information related to sampled tracks comes from WhoSampled, the community-built database that Spotify has acquired. TIDAL, notably, also offers interactive credit exploration for users interested in contributor-based music discovery.

Spotify is also rolling out a feature called "About the song," which will appear as swipeable cards inside the "Now Playing" screen. These cards will offer insights into the inspiration behind the song, its creation, and its cultural significance. Every card will link out to external sources for more context.

Image Credits: Spotify

This sort of behind-the-music material echoes Spotify's previous collaboration with Genius, which once provided background details on select tracks. However, that older feature was limited to the content in Genius's library. In contrast, the new version will link to a broader range of resources, including Wikipedia and news outlets.

Image Credits: Spotify

Spotify says the expanded Song Credits begin rolling out today on mobile and will be available on desktop in the coming months.

As for SongDNA and About the Song, these premium-only features will launch early next year. They will first appear through Spotify for Artists Preview, giving creators and contributors a chance to review and verify credits before the tools reach the wider audience.