Spotify is developing a new feature called SongDNA that would allow users to discover music through song credits. This feature would let people explore the writers, collaborators, vocalists, engineers, lyricists, producers, composers, and others who worked on a specific track or album.
The feature was discovered in the app’s code by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, who generated screenshots showing how SongDNA would appear. Based on her findings, SongDNA would introduce a visual experience where users could navigate through the credits, see how the people were connected to each other, and explore their various works.
For example, Wong showed how one artist, Rei Ami from the KPop Demon Hunters cast, had lent her voice to other tracks beyond those from the movie.
If released to the public, this feature could challenge the interactive credits offered by the streaming service TIDAL, which also lets you explore music through the contributors behind the songs. The addition could be useful for music industry professionals looking for collaborators, as well as anyone wanting to learn more about the people who work behind the scenes in music creation.
Shortly after Wong posted screenshots to social media, she noted that Spotify’s app was updated to remove references to the SongDNA feature. When reached for comment, Spotify declined to share further details but did not issue a denial.
Following Wong’s post, another reverse engineer and technologist, Chris Messina, confirmed SongDNA’s existence by finding references to it within the app’s code. According to Messina, the lines of code suggest the feature could be used to reveal the network of contributors behind songs, allowing users to explore more of their work.
While some wondered if SongDNA would be Spotify’s answer to Pandora’s Music Genome Project, it appears that is not the case. The Genome Project uses hundreds of different details, or traits, corresponding to a particular characteristic of the music to classify tracks and determine how they are related. SongDNA, for now at least, appears to be more focused on just the people behind the music, not the music itself.