Spotify acquires music database WhoSampled

Spotify has acquired community-run database that tracks sampled music, WhoSampled, the the company announced Wednesday. The streaming service had also shared the news as part of Wednesday blog post about the potential of the new songs.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Spotify confirmed to TechCrunch that the acquisition involves both the WhoSampled team and the database. (The company had only a handful of employees, according to data on Pitchbook and LinkedIn, which confirm about 10 employees.)

Launched in 2008, London-based WhoSampled offers an extensive database of songs, samples, covers, remixes, artists and more. According to its website, it now tracks more than 1.2 million songs and nearly 622,000 samples. That data fuels Spotify’s latest features, like its upcoming music discovery tool SongDNA, also announced Wednesday.

However, WhoSampled has been known to Spotify for some time, having worked with the streamer back in 2016 to allow its users to access Spotify playlists and saved tracks in its application.

At WhoSampled’s communication about the acquisition, the company said that its standalone platform and brand will remain after the deal closes and that it is expected to offer some improvements for users as it becomes part of Spotify’s larger business. For example, the company said that moderation times for submissions will be speeded up, the site will be able to remove display ads in the coming weeks, and its mobile apps will become free downloads with free subscriptions.

“Through our recent discussions with Spotify, it’s become clear that we share a strong belief in the power of musical context – and a vision to help listeners dig deeper into the songs they love,” the post written by the WhoSampled team reads. “Spotify has shown a genuine commitment to our mission and we couldn’t have found a better home for WhoSampled,” he said.