Sample Heads and digital crate diggers of the world can formally tip a collective cap to the innovative WhoSampled family today. The website and platform that has become the principal haven for those seeking the original audible ingredients of their beloved songs, as well as an easy-to-use list of song covers, remixes, and more. Now, WhoSampled has unveiled an ambitious update to their already esteemed app, officially introducing music recognition within their mobile application model.

Similar to music-recognition giant Shazam, WhoSampled now allows their users to immediately identify surrounding audio tracks in your day to day life within seconds. Where WhoSampled has shifted the music identification game though, is now music enthusiasts can not only receive a track’s title in prompt fashion, but also the samples used within the track, who has covered it in the past, and any alternative renditions of the song as well.

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WhoSampled’s CEO Nadav Poraz said in a press statement, “We had always dreamed of adding these features from the moment we launched the app six years ago. You can identify the song playing around you, then dig deeper and find out what other song was sampled in the song you’re hearing. For example, the chorus or riff might sound familiar but not from the song that is playing, it’s from somewhere else. Other music recognition apps will tell you the name of the song you’re hearing, but WhoSampled is the only app that will give you the answer you’re looking for, allow you to understand the origins of the composition and reveal the other recordings that sampled it.”

The most inviting aspect of WhoSampled’s transformation is that its momentum is largely in part due to the fans of the music themselves. Largely a crowdsourced database, what was once an index of 200 songs, has grown into an impressive archive north of 500,000 tracks. Poraz explains, “Our data would have been impossible to gather or deal with algorithmically. It’s all created manually and vetted by humans. That makes it incredibly valuable and helpful in figuring out hundreds of thousands of samples and how they are all connected.”

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This wiki of sample info may be met with controversy. As DJ Premier famously called out “sample snitches” at the end of Gang Starr’s “Royalty,” the move could make veiling found elements harder for producers and artists. On the other side of the coin, it creates greater awareness to the backbone elements to some great songs across all genres.

WhoSampled’s update will come with a $3.99 monthly fee on iPhone (ad-free), or if you have an Android, the app will be available free of charge (with ads). Both platforms offer a premium yearly subscription for only $9.99, that comes free of ads and with unlimited music recognition capabilities. Within the app, iPhone users are able to scan their personal music libraries on Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes to disclose all of the samples, covers and remixes, while Android users can currently scan their personal music libraries on their local devices.

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Discovering music has never been easier than in today’s progressive technological climate, but now uncovering what helped shape, inspire, and guide that same music into creation is accessible with the same velocity. A digital playground for those fascinated by the evolution of music, and a resounding blessing for those constantly hungry for more information about its history.

#BonusBeat: Check out the #WaxOnly samples that Organized Noized used to make OutKast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik: