Did you know that Chappell Roan got the inspiration for his hit song Pink Pony Club from The Pink Cadillac, the name of a hot-pink strip club in his hometown in Missouri? Or that Wayne’s song Fountains of Stacy’s Mom was inspired by his friend’s crush on late founder Adam Schlesinger’s grandmother?
If you’re a fan of juicy tidbits about popular songs, you can find more trivia in About the Song, a new feature from the Spotify giant that’s similar to VH1’s classic Pop-Up Video show.
About Song is available in the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia, initially only for Spotify Premium members. It is only available for certain songs, but will continue to stream more music. Music facts are taken from various websites and summarized by AI, and appear below the lyrics when you play a particular song.
“Music fans know the feeling: A song stops you in your tracks, and you immediately want to know more. What inspired it, and what is the meaning behind it? We believe that understanding the art and context behind a song can deepen your connection to the music you love,” Spotify wrote in a blog post.
While this version of the feature is new, it’s not the first time Spotify has revealed fun facts about the music it plays. The streaming giant partnered with Genius a decade ago for Behind the Lyrics, which includes themed playlists and factoids and trivia about each song. Spotify kept this up for a few years before canceling due to a number of controversies, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams blasting Genius for using incorrect and outdated information.
Spotify soon began testing its Storyline feature, which includes fun facts about songs limited to specific users, but it wasn’t released as a central feature.
About Song is the latest in a long line of announcements from Spotify, including Page Match feature that allows you to easily switch to an audiobook from a notebook, and An AI tool that creates playlists for you. Spotify also announced that it will start selling virtual books.
How to use it About Song
If you’re a Spotify Premium user, the feature should be available the next time you listen to music on the app.
- Start listening to any supported song.
- Scroll down past the lyrics preview box to the About Song box.
- Swipe left and right to see more facts about the song.
I tried this with a few tracks, and was happy to learn that it doesn’t just work on the latest hits. Spotify’s chart for Metallica’s 1986 song Master of Puppets marks the song’s rise in popularity after it appeared in a 2022 episode of Stranger Things. The second card discusses the band’s Master of Puppets album art and how it was conceived.
To see how far support for this feature has really come, I looked at a few tracks off the beaten path, like NoFX’s The Decline and Ice Nine Kills’ Thank God It’s Friday. Spotify supports all the tracks I tested.
There seems to be a limit to the depth of happy truths, which makes sense since not all songs have a complex story. For those songs, Spotify automatically switches to trivia about the album with the music or an AI summary of the words and what they might mean.
