Spotify has taken its next strategic move to strengthen its competitive advantage by acquiring the London-based startup WhoSampled. Operating since 2008, this startup, which creates the “genealogy” of music, is considered the largest and most reliable source for information on samples, covers, and remixes. Its unique feature lies in the fact that over 1.2 million songs and 622,000 samples in its database have been meticulously collected over 17 years by a dedicated community of music enthusiasts.
According to the agreement, both the startup’s professional team and its rich database will be fully integrated into the Spotify ecosystem. This merger will allow the company to enhance music discovery tools like SongDNA and provide listeners with deeper, more accurate information (“credits”) about the songwriters and producers of tracks.
Although the WhoSampled platform will continue to operate after the acquisition, experts see this move as giving Spotify a significant edge in the race for music data. The startup’s resources could play a crucial role in future music rights tracking and the development of AI systems.
