Spotify has officially acquired WhoSampled, the beloved website that has long served as the Wikipedia for music nerds. For years, WhoSampled has helped listeners trace the genealogy of samples, covers, interpolations, credits and the whole web of musical influence that makes music culture so rich. Many of us, myself included, listen to a song, hear something familiar, and immediately head to WhoSampled to find the source. Sometimes it’s the other way around: you hear an old track for the first time, notice a riff that feels recognisable, and go hunting for its modern rendition. It’s a daily ritual for me, and for countless music nerds across the world.
The Community is Unhappy
Naturally, the acquisition sparked a wave of skepticism online. People worry Spotify will ruin the site, bury its features, restrict access, or absorb it into their platform in ways that lose the original spirit. The pushback is intense, but also kind of beautiful. It shows just how deeply people care about WhoSampled. Still, I land on the opposite side of the discourse. I think this acquisition is good news, and possibly too good.
It’s Shazam All Over Again
This entire situation echoes Apple’s acquisition of Shazam. At the time, Shazam was in financial trouble: lower valuations, rising operational costs, and a very delicate balancing act between monetising and keeping the product accessible. Apple swooped in, and Shazam became not only healthier, but instantly ad-free. It was preserved, not cannibalised.
WhoSampled was a Distressed Service
WhoSampled has been struggling with a similar problem, and its website made that painfully clear. Over the past few years, it became nearly impossible to navigate. Pop-ups everywhere. Autoplaying video ads. Banner ads layered on top of banner ads. On my low-end Intel N4500 laptop running Linux Mint, the site barely functioned unless I closed every other tab and quit half my apps. It was the perfect example of how the modern web deteriorates under the pressure of ad-driven survival. These weren’t just ads, they were a cry for help. The site was trying to squeeze out every cent just to stay alive, without locking its knowledge behind a paywall. This acquisition likely arrived just in time.
What Changes Now
As part of the announcement, WhoSampled confirmed two major improvements: the site will become ad-free, and content moderation turnaround will become faster. That alone is transformative. Separately, Spotify announced a new feature for artists and listeners called SongDNA, an expansion of the existing credits section. It will integrate WhoSampled data directly into Spotify, giving listeners richer context and deep-dive lore about their favourite songs. It’s the kind of feature that feels obvious in hindsight, something Spotify should have had years ago.
A Mutually Beneficial Match
For WhoSampled, this acquisition means stability, sustainability, and a drastically improved user experience. For Spotify, it adds a layer of depth and uniqueness that their streaming competitors simply don’t offer. Just as Apple gained a permanent edge through Shazam, Spotify gains one through WhoSampled. There’s only one WhoSampled, and now it has the resources it always needed.
Spotify doesn’t need to pick it apart to benefit from it. The best outcome is the one they’re signalling: WhoSampled remains its own product, but better. And Spotify finally enhances a part of its ecosystem that, until now, remained underdeveloped. It’s a win-win situation, panic not.