10 Essential Tools for Music Discovery and Creation

Chris Dalla Riva, a writer for the Substack "Can't Get Much Higher" and an employee at the music streaming service Audiomack, has curated a list of ten essential tools for individuals interested in discovering, learning, and creating music. His debut book, "Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves," published by Bloomsbury on November 13, 2025, explores the relationship between music and data, drawing from his experience listening to every number one hit in history.

For those seeking to understand song lyrics, Genius offers a crowdsourced platform where users can find detailed annotations, often provided by the artists themselves, sometimes accompanied by explanatory videos. This resource is available for free. To explore the intricate connections between songs, WhoSampled serves as a valuable tool. It utilizes crowdsourced data to map relationships through samples, interpolations, and covers, providing a comprehensive view of musical lineage. This site was instrumental in Dalla Riva's research for his book, particularly in analyzing trends like the decline of cover songs. WhoSampled is free to use, with an optional paid tier at $3 per month for enhanced features.

Discovering new music is facilitated by Every Noise at Once, a project maintained by Glenn McDonald, formerly of Spotify. This interactive map visualizes all genres present in Spotify's catalog, offering four playlists for each of the thousands of genres: "The Sound Of" for a broad overview, "Intro" for beginners, "Pulse" for current fan favorites, and "Edge" for more experimental sounds. Beyond discovery, tools for learning and creation are also highlighted. Chordify simplifies learning songs by automatically generating chords from any song on YouTube, Spotify, or Deezer, making it accessible for guitarists, pianists, and ukulele players. It offers a free version with limitations and a premium subscription for unlimited access and advanced features.

For aspiring musicians and producers, tools like Splice offer a vast library of royalty-free samples and loops, alongside a cloud-based platform for collaboration and project management, supporting creative workflows. Amper Music and Jukebox by OpenAI are presented as AI-powered composition tools that can generate original music based on user-defined parameters such as genre, mood, and instrumentation, catering to content creators and musicians seeking unique soundtracks or inspiration. These platforms represent the growing integration of artificial intelligence in music production, offering new avenues for sonic exploration and content creation. The list also includes tools for music notation and performance, such as MuseScore, a free, open-source notation software, and Band-in-a-Box, a comprehensive music accompaniment software that generates backing tracks in various styles. These tools collectively empower users across the entire musical spectrum, from casual listeners to professional creators.