Announcements
The Spotify Stars Program: Celebrating Values Week!

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

FAQs

Please see below the most popular frequently asked questions.

Loading article...

Loading faqs...

VIEW ALL

Ongoing Issues

Please see below the current ongoing issues which are under investigation.

Loading issue...

Loading ongoing issues...

VIEW ALL

How do I check the genre of a song?

How do I check the genre of a song?

Every month Spotify emails me the genres I listen to the most, but how do I check the genre of a specific song?

Reply
27 Replies

@Tommaniacal

 

It can be done, but through the Spotify Web API console. Are you familiar with getting the Song URI information link, the 22 character string code for song track information?

 

1. First I would open note pad or something similar to copy and paste content into in case something gets closed. To get the track URI information you are wanting to find the Genre information about the song for. Right mouse click on the song to highlight the song, and select from the right click menu options, Copy Spotify URI link which will look something like this: 

spotify:track:7wVdKwd0CZkzLT2cRcTSqz

 

2. Go to the Spotify Web API look up tool for Get - Track information here: 

https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/console/get-track/#complete

 

3. Only copy the 22 digit string code from the song URI link information from notepad into the field that reads, Spotify Track ID: 7wVdKwd0CZkzLT2cRcTSqz <------ Will look something like this to the left.

 

4. Make sure to put in your two letter Region / Country codes into the field that reads.

Market: US <---- For an example. A website to look up two letter country codes: 

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/country_code_list.htm

 

5. Click on the green button that reads TRY IT. Scroll down to the page until you get a bunch of code return information. What you are looking for is the Artist information code link, so that you can get the genre meta data from it, which will look like this for an example.

"external_urls" : { "spotify" : https://open.spotify.com/artist/3pulcT2wt7FEG10lQlqDJL" 

 

6. Make sure to copy and paste that Artist string code link into your text document just in case. Now go to the Spotify WEB API look up information for Get - Artist link here:

https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/console/get-artist/

 

7. Repeat the same that you did for the track information, but only put in the 22 character string code for the Artist like this:

Spotify Album ID: 3pulcT2wt7FEG10lQlqDJL <------ Click on the green TRY IT Button.

 

8. Scroll down the computer code information. In the first couple of code sections there will be one string of code that reads something like this:

}, "genres" : [ "alternative metal", "groove metal", "melodic death metal", "melodic metalcore"

 

You can do this for each song you are interested in with how that artist is labelled with the different music genres.

 

doesn't this just give us the string of the genre of the artist has listed under them and not the genre of a specific song?

True, the steps you explain show the genre of an artist, NOT a song.

Could you explain it better?

Thank you

That's actually pretty interesting...

/goes to play in it with Amon Tobin data/

 

Just in case, went through the Get Album console as well. That one didn't give genres.

 

Yes, it gives the general all-round image of the genres this artist fits into.

I usually check last.fm for genres. It has user-provided data (tags), it's rather correct and it also has genre tags for albums and songs as well as artists themselves.

DIscogs has a neat system too, but not for individual tracks (unless they are released individually).

 

Hope that helps 🙂

SebastySpotify Star
Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution".
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Like.
Note: I'm not a Spotify employee.

In order to check the Spotify song genres it’s convenient to go to:

 

http://organizeyourmusic.playlistmachinery.com

 

This is a side project of some wise guy from EchoNest, the big data company, directly powering Spotify’s database structure. You log with your Spotify login and you can check the genre structure of your whole library, all playlists, followed playlists or a specific playlist. Fun thing is that it gives you all genre tags, both top-level and generic, more detailed and bottom-level geeky descriptions. It gives you an idea how recommendations work, especially Discover Weekly and Release Radar. For example “Yes” in my library is under Rock, but also under “progressive rock”, “symphonic rock”, etc.

 

When you know broad or specific genre, try to look in Spotify for an automatic playlist “The Sound of ...”, like “The sound of metal” or (more fun as geeky genres) “The sound of Mathcore”. You have Christian metal, Christian hardcore, Unblack metal, etc. Metal genres are the best for me. When you find such playlist, swipe to see its description and there you have a rabbit’s hoke of links: Intro to Metal, Edge of metal, pulse of metal, women of metal and a bunch of related genres you would not think of. Have fun!

http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html

 

If you type in an artist in the top right corner search bar, it will generate all of the genres that the artist falls under. It is done directly via spotify and links to their artitst page. You can also use the site to further explore the genre and discover artists with a similar sound! Hope that helps! Happy listening 

Wow! Thanks for that! It adds another dimension to Spotify exploration and gold digging. You wouldn’t think there are so many music genres in the world! And the connection network and instant playlists are super-fun to delve into. Thanks again.

 

Rafal

Note that not all songs have a genre assigned to them...try using Spotify's new Line-In feature to check the song's genre, or submit an edit (although I've never seen any movement on the edits I've made, it's work a shot IMHO).

 

You can hit the Suggest An Edit option, or browse to the site manually:

https://line-in.spotify.com/track/[SPOTIFY SONG ID FROM URI]

 

Example:

Swade - Run It Up (spotify:track:58jbtGnQxIc17KBaCIRFPA)

https://line-in.spotify.com/track/58jbtGnQxIc17KBaCIRFPA

Another option I do is, go to https://www.last.fm and search for an artist and it will show the Genres of that artist.

 

But recently dicovered I think is the best, fastest and easiest solution to find the genre of all your songs in your library, or of any playlist with this site: 
http://organizeyourmusic.playlistmachinery.com/#

 

In this site you can add a song or playlist and they return you the genre and more info. http://organizeyourmusic.playlistmachinery.com

This was perfect! Thank you!

😉

You can use Shazam or TrackID mobile app to determine the name/artist/genre of the song you (actually your phone) recorded and identified.

I see this was originally posted a few years back. But I have used Spotify everyday for several years now. It has always frustrated me that the genre or atleast generic genre of each song isn't displayed within Spotify. I have checked out Organize Your Music which is the best I can find. However, under Track List under any given genre, its limited. It reads, "Showing the first 400 matching tracks." Is there a way to view the rest of the songs for that genre? 

What a hilariously painful, user unfriendly way of displaying a genre when it should be easy to find under credits or literally anywhere else.

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this out. It was helpful, but I'll doubt I'll ever do this again since Spotify is being a pain in the **bleep**.

OrganizeYourMusic is nice, but it doesn't determine individual song genres.

 

Since the project is open source, I've looked at the code. What it does is, it gets the genres of the album a song is in, or if there isn't one, the genres of the artist, and returns the first genre from that list.

Ain't nobody got time for that

this is SO COOL i could spend all day on the chart bit that displays all your data... very interesting and fun thank you

I’m glad you like it so much. I also recommend a sister service (by the same clever guy) everynoise.com — a goldmine to explore almost 4000 Spotify genres (Deep Melodic Black Metal, anyone?). You have automatic playlists for every genre + cool genre relationship map. You can also determine genre(s) for every artist. 

 

You can find those playlists directly in Spotify. Just search for: “The sound of [genre name]” - for a several hour sampler or “Intro to [genre name]” - for “the best of” two-three hour compilation. On computer or tablet (not in the phone anymore) you get also the names of related genres — great way of going the genre rabbit hole.

 

Happy exploring!

Rafal

 

Suggested posts