Spotify’s SongDNA is like a musical Wikipedia on steroids — I just can't stop using it

Down the rabbit hole once again

04 Apr 2026, 10:00 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/rowan-davies · TechRadar

Features By Rowan Davies published 4 April 2026

(Image credit: Future)

Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter

Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox

Become a Member in Seconds

Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful

Join the club

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

Explore

An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter

Sometimes listening to music just isn’t enough, and part of the streaming experience for a lot of music enthusiasts is digging beneath the surface of the songs and albums they love the most, which is why Spotify’s SongDNA is one of my favorite new features to come from the service.

It’s not the first music streamer to do this, however. Tidal Credits has been around since 2019, but SongDNA adds a layer of depth to Spotify’s playback tools, and after spending ample time testing the waters, I’ve decided that I simply can’t get enough. Here’s how my first hands-on went down.

An endless sonic encyclopaedia

That’s what SongDNA is in a nutshell. Ever since it was leaked back in October, I’ve been waiting patiently for SongDNA to drop, and when more users started seeing it in beta last month, I knew it was near. It basically runs like a mindmap, spotlighting every collaborator behind a song from composers to lyricists, producers to sound engineers, and it’s designed for ultimate music fans who want to get to know their favorite songs on a deeper level.

Article continues below

First off, SongDNA is very easy to find and use. You just tap any song you want to listen to, and scroll down in the playback page to find SongDNA under Lyrics. You don’t need to be listening to the song to explore SongDNA either, and you can just tap the three-dot icon on any song and explore it that way, though I found the experience to be smoother when you use it while listening to the song you’re researching.

But where SongDNA shines is how it connects artists and producers through an intertwining web of information, and just when I thought I knew everything about my favorite songs, SongDNA put me in my place.

(Image credit: Future)

While listening to Jessie Ware’s song Ride, one of my favorite new releases, not only did I discover more about its producer, James Ford, but SongDNA connected Jessie Ware to artists including Arctic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine, and Depeche Mode just through this one producer. Not only that, it showed me Björk served as a songwriter on one of Madonna’s biggest hits back in the ‘90s.

I often find myself falling into Wikipedia black holes, accumulating knowledge on some of the most niche and unhinged topics, so SongDNA is perfect for this. But aside from its list of collaborators, it tells you what samples and interpolations are being used. This is where it really caught my attention.

Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors