What type of music is in your genes? Ancestry and Spotify have teamed up to find the answer for its users. The genealogy company is using genetic components to figure out people’s musical DNA based on their AncestryDNA results. This is either creepy or cool, depending on your perspective.
“It’s so much more than the stats and the data and the records,” Vineet Mehra, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Ancestry, told Quartz. “How do we help people experience their culture and not just read about it? Music seemed like an obvious way to do that.”
Here’s how it works. Simply input the various ethnicities and regions of your heritage as determined by your AncestryDNA test results, and your Spotify and Ancestry’s custom playlist is generated. It only takes a few seconds. The system covers 350 regions around the world.
The platform compiles a range of songs that correlate to the culture of your ancestors. People with Asian heritage will have a completely different playlist than those with Eastern European heritage, for example. It’s a great way to connect with your origins and listen to music from countries such as Germany, Sweden, Korea, and so forth.
According to Danielle Lee, global head of partner solutions at Spotify, the partnership between the two companies will “encourage [Ancestry’s] audience to explore the soundtrack of their heritage.”
Over 10 million people have taken AncestryDNA tests (which cost US$99), and 10,000 of them have signed up to get their own custom playlists. At the very least, it will introduce you to some music and artists you haven’t heard before. Hopefully, you’ll listen to a few that you really like and discover some really great bands.
Or, you may be one of those people who isn’t keen on sharing genetic information with corporations. Fortunately, you can still take advantage of the service.
Music fans who haven’t had their DNA tested can still determine their “Musical DNA” whether they do or don’t have a Spotify account (check it out here). This writer, who has not had a DNA test, input her Norwegian and Germanic heritage and got the following results: “No Roots” by Alice Merton, “Moby Dick” by Gurr, “Descent” by Mental Overdrive, and many others.
The platform also examines your listening habits and spits out a breakdown of genres by percentage. Maybe, for example, you listen to 51 percent hard rock, 25 percent ‘80s, and 24 percent smooth jazz.
