The short version: open the song's credits screen (View credits in Spotify, View Credits in Apple Music) and look under production. If no producer shows up, try Apple Music, the only streaming app that named one on all three tracks I tested, then Discogs for anything with a vinyl or CD release, Genius for rap and WhoSampled for samples. A blank producer field usually means the label or distributor never sent the credit, not that nobody produced the track.
Song credits are the names a label or distributor sends along with the audio: writers, producers, performers and engineers. The Recording Academy holds the producer accountable for "delivering the recording as a finished product", and that includes handing the label the credit list.
The three test tracks were Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" (Interscope, 2024), Fred again.., Anderson .Paak and CHIKA's "places to be" (Atlantic Records UK, 2024), and Burial's "Archangel" (Hyperdub, 2007), checked across nine apps and databases.
Where to find song credits in each app
Don't know what the song is yet? Shazam it or hum it into the Google app first. An unreleased ID from a DJ set has no credits screen yet, so follow whoever the tracklist names and wait for the release.
- Spotify: three-dot menu or right-click, then View credits on the web player. On mobile, Spotify says View song credits, or scroll to Credits in Now Playing. Older guides still say "Show Credits". More on how Spotify song credits work.
- Apple Music: More, then View Credits. On music.apple.com it works without a subscription, but the credits load a few seconds after the page, so if it looks empty, wait. Apple's iPhone guide ties credits to a subscription, so non-subscribers are better off on the web.
- TIDAL: the Credits button on an album or track page. Readable on tidal.com without signing in.
- YouTube Music: Menu, then View song credits, which only appears when the label's metadata includes writers or producers.
- Amazon Music: nothing in the web player. Amazon documents credits in the app's X-Ray panel on Now Playing. I didn't test it.
Which apps show producer credits? Three tracks, nine sources
Desktop web, October 1, 2026. SongDNA is mobile-only, so its row comes from Spotify's documentation.
| Source | Producer | Mixing, mastering | Writers | Samples | Names clickable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | All but "Archangel" | All but "Archangel" | All 3 | None | Main artists, some writers |
| Spotify SongDNA | Yes | Not documented | Yes | Samples, interpolations, covers | Yes |
| Apple Music | All 3 | All but "Archangel" | All 3 | "Not Like Us", "Archangel" | No, not on iPhone either |
| TIDAL | All but "Archangel" | All but "Archangel" | All 3 | None | Every name, engineers too |
| YouTube Music | "Not Like Us" (Mustard only), "places to be" | None | "Not Like Us", "Archangel" | None | No |
| Amazon Music | None in the web player | None | None | None | Nothing shown |
| Discogs | "places to be" (digital single), "Archangel" (vinyl) | "places to be", plus the Untrue mastering studio | "places to be", "Archangel" | "Archangel", as a release note | Yes |
| Genius | All 3 | All but "Archangel" | All 3 | "Not Like Us", "Archangel" | Yes |
| WhoSampled | All 3 | None | None | All 3, with type and year | Yes |
| MusicBrainz | "Not Like Us", "Archangel" | None | "Not Like Us", "Archangel" | "Not Like Us", "Archangel" | Yes |
If you only check one app, make it Apple Music, the only one with a producer on all three. If you want to keep pulling the thread, TIDAL's better: it's the only streaming app I tested where an engineer's name opens their own page.
Why is the producer missing from a song's credits?
The apps don't research credits. They display what the label sends, and two of them say so on screen: Spotify's credits dialog ends with a Sources line ("Hyperdub" on "Archangel"), and YouTube Music's ends with "Music metadata provided by" and the label. Spotify admits some distributors don't support credits yet, and Amazon says it also uses third-party data providers.
"Archangel" shows the spread. Spotify, TIDAL and YouTube Music show one writer, "W. Bevan" (Burial's legal name), and no producer. Apple Music shows Burial as producer, Ray J as sampled artist, and five composers, four of them the writers of Ray J's "One Wish", which the track samples. Apple doesn't say where that extra data comes from. TIDAL credits Will Bevan as producer on "In McDonalds" from the same album, just not on "Archangel".
Role labels drift as well. Sounwave and Sean Momberger are Co-Producer on Spotify and TIDAL, Producer on Apple Music, missing on YouTube Music, and folded in with the producers on Genius, WhoSampled and MusicBrainz.
Names are the other trap. Writer credits usually use legal names, production credits artist names. "Dijon McFarlane" in the "Not Like Us" writers is Mustard (TIDAL links both to one page), and "Mark Anthony Spears" is Sounwave (TIDAL gives him two separate pages). The "Ray Charles" in there really is Ray Charles: the beat samples Monk Higgins' 1968 take on "I Believe to My Soul", a Ray Charles song. Ray Charles Brown Jr., the recording engineer, is someone else. And Apple lists Ray J twice on "Archangel", once as sampled artist and once as composer William Ray Norwood, Jr.
Discogs, Genius, WhoSampled and what to skip
Discogs is deepest when a physical record carries liner notes. The Hyperdub double LP of Untrue lists "Written-By, Producer - Burial", Transition as the mastering studio, and the Ray J sample. Spotify shows the "W. Bevan" writer credit and nothing else. Digital releases depend on who did the data entry. Someone entered all 18 credits for the "places to be" single, producers Boo, Fred again.. and Skrillex included. The three official "Not Like Us" digital entries have none. Discogs only takes credits shown on the release itself, or ones flagged Uncredited with a cited source, and nobody's added any there. For a new major-label single, check the streaming credits screen first.
Rap fans already know the next stop. Genius had producers on all three tracks and mixing and mastering credits on two, though it's community-edited and it shows: five writers on "places to be" against the label's seven.
Samples are a separate hunt. WhoSampled lists them with type and year: three in "Not Like Us", five in "Archangel". Spotify bought it in November 2025, and SongDNA, the Premium mobile feature that went into beta on March 24, 2026, pulls covers, samples and interpolations from it. More on SongDNA and other credit-based tools.
The open option, MusicBrainz, had producers and samples on two tracks and nothing on "places to be".
Skip BMI, ASCAP and Songview, even though they often top the results for this search. They register writers and publishers, so a producer only shows up with a writing share. Skip Jaxsta too: plenty of credit guides still point to it, and it now shows a hibernation notice.
What song credits mean, role by role
Producer: overall creative and technical oversight, from choosing final takes to supervising the mix and master. Mustard on "Not Like Us"; on the Untrue vinyl it's Burial himself.
Co-producer vs additional production: a co-producer shares some or all of that job, like Sounwave and Sean Momberger. Additional production goes to someone handed one area of the project who reports to the producer, and the Academy doesn't count it toward a Grammy statuette.
Programming: building the parts in a sequencer, drum machine or DAW. Apple credits Burial with it on "Archangel".
Recorded by: runs the recording but stays out of the final mix. Ray Charles Brown Jr. on "Not Like Us".
Mixed by vs mastered by: the mixer turns the recorded tracks into one mix-down (Johnathan Turner on "Not Like Us"), and the mastering engineer makes the final adjustments before release (Nicolas de Porcel). Vinyl adds a cut. "places to be" is also on Fred again..'s Ten Days LP, and Discogs credits that pressing's mastering and lacquer cutting to "Stu". Spotify lists Fred again.. and Skrillex as mastering engineers.
Songwriter, composer, lyricist: the composer writes the music, the lyricist writes the words, and songwriter (or just writer) covers either or both. Which word you see is the label's call: Spotify says "Composer • Lyricist" on "Not Like Us" and plain "Writer" on "places to be".
Producer tag: a short audio signature on the beat. "Mustard on the beat, ho" is YG's voice, taken from his 2011 track "I'm Good", which WhoSampled lists as sampled in more than 300 songs.
One person can hold most of these at once. Spotify credits Fred again.. as producer, mixer, mastering engineer, engineer and programmer on "places to be".
Found the producer. Now what?
A producer credit is one of the better leads for new music, and the apps waste it. Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music give you a name and nothing to follow, and Spotify's Release Radar only counts main and featured artists. TIDAL has a Follow button on Nicolas de Porcel's page, but I couldn't find anything saying it alerts you when he masters something new. So I built Tracknack to follow the credit itself: follow a producer, songwriter or engineer, artist profile or not, and it matches credits from Spotify, Discogs and Genius to put their new work in your Spotify or Apple Music playlist, free for up to 30 follows. It's only as good as the credits it gets, though. Plenty of tracks reach it with no producer or writer named, and some stay that way, so a producer follow catches less than the credits screens above might suggest. I've written up how I follow producers and songwriters if you want the setup.
How do I check who produced a song?
Open the song's credits screen and look under production: View credits in Spotify's three-dot menu (View song credits on mobile), View Credits under More in Apple Music, View song credits in YouTube Music's menu, or the Credits button on a TIDAL album page. If no producer is listed, check Discogs, Genius or WhoSampled. A missing producer usually means the label or distributor didn't send the credit.
How do I find the credits of a song?
Open the credits screen in your streaming app. Apple Music's web player at music.apple.com shows credits without a subscription, and TIDAL's credits pages work without signing in. For anything released on vinyl or CD, check Discogs, which transcribes credits from the physical release and can list people the streaming apps leave out.
Which streaming service shows producer credits?
Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL and YouTube Music all show producer credits when the label supplies them. In a three-track check of their web players on October 1, 2026, Apple Music was the only one with a producer on all three, YouTube Music left out co-producers and engineers, and Amazon Music's web player showed no credits at all. TIDAL linked every credited name, engineers included, to its own page. Spotify linked only main artists and some writers. Apple Music linked none, on the web or on iPhone, and YouTube Music linked none on the web.
What is a music credit?
A music credit names someone who worked on a recording and the role they played: writer, producer, performer, or recording, mixing or mastering engineer. Streaming apps show the credits the label or distributor sends with the audio, so a role the label left out doesn't appear, even if someone did that job.
What does additional production mean?
Additional production credits someone given one area of responsibility on a recording who reports to the producer or co-producer. The Recording Academy groups it with assistant and associate producer and doesn't count it toward a Grammy statuette. A co-producer, by contrast, shares some or all of the producer's responsibilities.
What does mixed by mean in song credits?
Mixed by, shown in apps as Mixer or Mixing Engineer, credits the person who combined the recorded tracks into the final mix before mastering. On Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us", Spotify credits Johnathan Turner as Mixing Engineer and Nicolas de Porcel as Mastering Engineer.
What is a producer tag?
A producer tag is a short audio signature a producer drops into their beats, usually in the opening seconds. Mustard's tag, "Mustard on the beat, ho", is YG's voice, taken from his 2011 song "I'm Good", which Mustard produced. It's heard in the first seconds of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us", right after "Psst, I see dead people."
How to find who published a song?
Search Songview, BMI Repertoire or ASCAP ACE. Songview combines ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR data. They list a song's writers and publishers, not its producers, so a producer only appears there if they also have a writing share.
Sources and notes
Checked on October 1, 2026. Hands-on checks ran on desktop web: Spotify in a signed-in web player, the other services signed out, Apple Music on its US storefront. Apart from confirming that Apple Music's credit names can't be tapped on iPhone, no phone apps were tested, so every mobile path above comes from the platform's own documentation. Deezer's signed-out web page showed no credits and I didn't test its app; Qobuz wasn't checked. Three tracks is a spot check, not a measured coverage rate.
- Spotify support: Clickable song credits - credits come from label or distributor metadata, some distributors don't support credits
- Spotify support: AI credits - View song credits and the Now Playing Credits section on mobile
- Spotify Newsroom: SongDNA beta - March 24, 2026, Premium on iOS and Android, writers, producers, samples, interpolations and covers
- Spotify support: SongDNA - covers, samples and interpolations managed by WhoSampled
- Spotify support: Getting music on Release Radar - main or featured artist rule
- Apple Support: Show song credits on iPhone and View song credits on the web - View Credits, credits tied to a subscription on iPhone, web credits without one
- YouTube Music Help: View song credits - shown only when writers or producers are in the label's metadata
- Amazon Music for Artists FAQ - X-Ray credits in the iOS and Android app, third-party data providers
- Discogs Database Guidelines 10: Credits - credits taken from the release itself, Uncredited credits only with a stated source (10.7.1), producer as an indexed role
- Recording Academy: producer credit definitions (2019), engineer credit definitions (2019), credits and recording metadata (2021)
- ASCAP: Songview expansion - September 29, 2025, ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC data in one search
- Pages checked: Spotify Not Like Us, places to be, Archangel; Apple Music Not Like Us, places to be, Archangel; TIDAL Not Like Us credits, places to be credits, Untrue credits, Nicolas De Porcel; Discogs Not Like Us master, Untrue LP, Ten Days LP, Places To Be digital single; WhoSampled Not Like Us, places to be, Archangel, YG "I'm Good"; Genius Not Like Us, places to be, Archangel; MusicBrainz Not Like Us, Archangel
- TechCrunch: Spotify acquires WhoSampled - November 19, 2025
- Wikipedia: Mustard, Sounwave, Ray J and "One Wish" - producer tag origin, legal names, "One Wish" writers
- Jaxsta - hibernation notice
