Here's how you can find out WhoSampled your favorite music on Spotify

Given the hundreds and hundreds of years over which it’s been produced, music has resulted in hundreds of thousands of connections, including samples, covers, and remixes of songs by other songs. But given their sheer volume, it’s not often easy to recognize who sampled whom, which covered which, and how this was remixed by that. Fortunately, there’s WhoSampled.

What is WhoSampled?

WhoSampled offers a database of information about sample-based music, cover songs, and remixes. It’s readily available from any Web browser through its website, which was launched in 2008. But it’s also accessible on iPhone through its official iOS app, which was released in 2012.

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WhoSampled for iOS lets you directly search for an artist or a song whose sampling data you want to view. More interestingly, it can scan your device’s iTunes music library to determine who among your favorite artists have sampled, covered, and remixed other artists. Likewise, it shows you which artists have sampled or covered them. You can compare the different versions of the sampled songs by listening to them through video services such as YouTube and Vevo. Links to purchase the matched songs from iTunes are also included.

WhoSampled samples Spotify

Through its latest update, WhoSampled has gained Spotify integration. As a result, the app can now scan your Spotify libraries and playlists, in addition to your iTunes library, to surface musical connections related to the songs in your Spotify collection.

To get started, tap the Connect to Spotify button in the My Library section of WhoSampled. Log in to your Spotify account, whether Free or Premium, and then tap Scan Now to allow WhoSampled to scan your Spotify libraries and playlists.

After scanning, WhoSampled lets you view your Spotify tracks, artists, and playlists right within the app. Feel free to browse your Spotify collection in WhoSampled to explore the inspirations behind and interpretations of your favorite songs. You can then add songs you find within WhoSampled directly into your Spotify playlists. And if you have a Premium Spotify account, you can also stream songs in their entirety within WhoSampled directly from Spotify.

For example, while browsing music by One Direction (one of my followed artists on Spotify) within WhoSampled, I confirmed that the boyband’s “Steal My Girl” indeed contains samples of “Faithfully” by Journey. I could then add “Faithfully” to my Spotify playlists and since I’m subscribed to Spotify Premium, I could also stream the song right within WhoSampled. It’s that easy.