Spotify Discovery Mode is a NO BRAINER (Results)

[@AndrewSouthworth]

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[@universemediallc]

This only applies to: Artists who have at least 5,000 streams in the past 28 days, or at least 1,000 followers, in a country that campaigns can target.

[@talmanmusic]

It's just a shame there's not something similar for us artists who don't qualify for this! Although I'll keep trying!

[@ItsBrandonMints]

then get to work G! 😎🍬

[@thisisbug]

it says the requirement is 25k monthy listeners on spotify

[@AirFoxxProductions]

I have that, why don't I have the option for discovery mode?

[@OfficialGooNie]

U just gotta grind and unlock that shi on the app shi not hard just keep pushin yo music💯

[@EllaHarp]

Also gotten good results in for April, 450% stream lift and over 28K streams so definitely been worth it for me. Will be interesting to see if the upswing continues or they just want to start people off with flashy numbers. Regardless thanks for documenting and sharing with us - appreciate you 🙏

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Was looking at a couple people who ran 2 or 3 months in a row, and it seems like in general the first month is the worst performing month for everyone I saw.

[@qobitv]

It’s personally made me blow up, thousands of saves and thousands of streams/monthly listeners and followers, it’s honestly been perfect and I can’t wait till all artists have it so they can benefit as well

[@MrshllWyneRnB]

What was your monthly listener total and stream total for your recommended songs when you started?

[@RichAvePreme]

I can confirm that u can get Discovery Mode with pretty much any number of Monthly Listeners. I got access with around 450. Finishing up my first campaign for April & now I’m over 5K. I had 50 songs eligible & now have 68 for May. I opted everything to see how it goes lol. Depending on what May looks like I might dial back for June & be more selective choosing maybe my top 25 & see how that goes. I THINK it has something to do with ur Popularity Index as far as getting access but I don’t think that’s the only factor. My Listener Lift is almost 3,000% & Stream Lift is over 1,000% but the actual numbers aren’t that crazy since I was starting pretty small. I also did a stream where I showed my back-end recently like u did here. Thought I’d just add that in case someone came across this comment & didn’t believe it & would like to check for confirmation! Peace‼️

[@RichAvePreme]

@Woozy It’s the recent one titled “Tips and Advice to Get Your Music Heard”. The stream was on April 29th

[@RUZLXN]

i got about a 945% lift in listeners and over 1000% in streams for this month, it’s kinda insane , intent rate for most my tracks are 1.2-2%. Overall i’ve only had positive results so far , added more songs for next month im curious to see if it keeps going at a rate like this

[@chrismichaud6919]

I actually had really good results my first month!! I got a 745% stream lift and my monthly listeners went up 14% since last month, Just had a bunch more songs become eligible this upcoming month so fingers crossed it just keeps doing better!! Love your videos man! Always be tuning in :)

[@AndrewSouthworth]

WOW 745% is the biggest stream lift i've seen anyone have. Congrats!

[@chrismichaud6919]

@@AndrewSouthworth I was surprised!! But discovery mode has a lot of potential I think!!! Thank you my brother :)

[@TheSlowMusicMovement]

The amount of streams on Spotify is steady so the early adopters on Discovery mode are canibalising the streams of those better paid artists who don't have access, or who are opting out on principal - my label for instance. So jump on it, grab some money from your fellow artists for short term gain and Spotify's financial benefit and enjoy it while you can, because soon everyone will be on Discovery mode and there will be no finacial benefit for anyone except Spotify, who despite already being one of the lowest payers in the streaming market have just managed to get all the artists to willingly take a 30% pay cut. If you are playing the Discovery mode game then essentially you are a turkey voting for Christmas. Don't dare complain when December 25th rolls round.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Keep in mind the 30% pay cut is only on Radio / Autoplay, which is a pretty small chunk of an artists stream count in most cases. However you are correct. Thats why I think everyone should jump on ASAP if they have it. Many labels are opting out of principal, which gives everyone else an unfair advantage. I respect people opting out, but I and many other indie artists will gladly take every advantage we can, albeit temporary. At the end of the day it is Spotify's platform and they will do what they want. I've complained about this exact thing, when everyone uses it just becomes a way for Spotify to pay artists slightly less. I want them to put more control around the tool so it doesn't just become something artists opt every song into. But I will continue to complain about this while simultaneously using it, because it does work.

[@NevadaSYSTEMmusic]

Agreed, this has been remarkable for us. Saw a lot of hate on Discovery mode when it first came out, but I am averaging 250-300% stream lift per month. Numbers are inevitably going to fall as the pie gets carved up though, so it's more of a temporary bump than anything that impacts the long term (IMO).

[@NevadaSYSTEMmusic]

Also, have you had any luck opening discovery campaigns for non-country eligible artists with a team member account that -is- in an eligible country?

[@TheSlowMusicMovement]

I would suggest it impacts your long term income because over the course of your career then you will be earning 30% less.

[@dreamworldtony]

I have Distrokid and Spotify for Artists, I've got under 1 thousand monthly listeners and don't have the "Campaigns" option at all

[@marsexalted]

I have 8K monthly’s and I don’t have it either. Annoying.

[@BlueLazeMusic]

Supposedly, only people that have 25k monthly listeners can use it

[@kinglamprinie7954]

I got 200 listening and my campaign is set for July 1st it's the quality of the music

[@YaYa-dc5ol]

@@kinglamprinie7954 ?

[@OneOfSixMusic]

Aaarghh they still need to roll it out for the rest of Europe, I think it's only available in the UK atm. Bit unfair

[@MMXVII]

After I started my campaigns, I went from getting a steady 120,000 total streams per month to 94,000. Although I had a lift in listeners and streams on radio / autoplay, it had greater negative effects on my total monthly stream count. I am going to test out next month without the campaign and see if anything changes because it could very well be coincidental timing, but I seem to be getting much less consistency in the algorithm across many of my tracks since starting it. An account by the name of "Venture Music Marketing" manages many artists has had the same experience as me with 10 or so artists.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Weird! Out of the 10+ people I know using it and the several I have direct access to, I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about it. Everyone has been happy with the results and kept it on the next month. No weird inconsistent algorithmic stuff, no drop in listeners, just an increased radio.

[@MMXVII]

@@AndrewSouthworth Yea that's very odd lol a few people who reached out to me as well, and from other content I've seen on tiktok have all said the same thing as you. It's a weird mix of results right now but worth trying for everyone to see what happens

[@BerkanCesur]

It looks promising and definitely boosting stats at the moment. However, if every artist does the same, and turn on discovery mode, artists will give their income share, and everything will be same as at the start as effect will be diluted. This is because more artists will be competing for the same opportunities, which could lead to lower payouts for each individual artist.

[@LWilliamsBeats1]

doesnt work that way

[@oopsySeason]

@@LWilliamsBeats1 that’s quite literally how it works

[@LWilliamsBeats1]

@@oopsySeason 😂😂 "oopsy season"

[@burnastein5430]

All I know 5 songs I entered into discovery mode swan dived down in listeners this first week of discovery mode. One song went halfway back up to what it was prior to entering discovery but even that’s ridiculous, unless Spotify singled handled wants to sift thru millions of songs to find my songs and put them higher in the discovery queue idk what to expect lol then again that is my expectation now idk how else it could skyrocket so Spotify if one of your employees see this somehow get on it is all I can say or I won’t use it again … discovery mode a no brainer??? I’m basically a living version of the “change my mind” meme at this point lol

[@DeweyDaDon]

I’ve heard some people say use fewer songs and you get more streams. But i opt in about 44 songs and my last campaign got 36k streams 🤷🏾‍♂️ and it grows month to month

[@AndrewSouthworth]

It seems to be very hit or miss between artists. I know some people doing the fewer song approach, others opting in everything. Seems to be more genre dependent than anything.

[@vishalnaidu]

Another day, another feature from Spotify not available in India. Smh. It's the hard way for us guys ^.^ Edit : Thanks to Andrew Southworth for clarifying it is available in India! I checked I didn't have a credit card, after adding that I went to support and asked for access, they gave me a form to fill and after 2-3 weeks Iater have access! Excited to try it out in June for my tracks!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

It is available in India actually! You guys beat most of the EU with this one.

[@vishalnaidu]

@@AndrewSouthworth Is it? I wonder why I don't see it then!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah India is listed as one of the countries. You need to be using one of the 5 or so distributors that have it, and you need something like 5k monthly listeners ish. You need to set your billing country in Spotify for Artists as well. They're also rolling it out still it seems, sounds like some people meet all requirements and for some reason still don't have it.

[@vishalnaidu]

@@AndrewSouthworth Gotcha! Thanks! I’ll look into it, I do fit all the criteria, and my distributor is Distrokid! Thanks for the info!

[@princemillion50]

I still don't have access to discovery mode even though I signed up

[@felixmartinmusic]

Andrew, would you have an advice on how many songs I should summit on Discovery Mode? I noticed when I summited 30, it did way better than when I summited about 45 of my songs. So I'm back and summited 30 only. Not sure if that matters?

[@tylersowards8469]

I went from 159k monthly listeners to 1.5 million with discovery mode. Worth it, but giving up 30% is a LOT.

[@drugsta]

damn bro wtf is your artist name

[@tylersowards8469]

@@drugsta Mass Anthem. Up to 2.2 Mil now

[@drugsta]

@@tylersowards8469 your comment is the reason i chose to activate discovery mode wish me luck. heard mixed things.

[@FelixSunMusic]

@@drugsta good luck! I just opted a few songs in as well. Fingers crossed.

[@FelixSunMusic]

@@drugsta good luck! I just opted a few songs in as well. Fingers crossed.

[@nathanielgraham21]

What I’m struggling to understand is how the maths will work in the long run. Eventually I’m certain Spotify will add release radar, discover weekly (and maybe even editorials) to Discovery Mode. At that point all algorithmic traffic will be subject to the commission. Now hopefully this means Spotify put more effort into increasing how many people they can reach algorithmically for artists as our incentives are aligned. However, without that, there’s a risk that all that happens long term (when all artists have access to the tool) is a -30% effect on royalties. As you say, at the moment it’s very worth doing as it’s not rolled out to most of the world yet. Again, it’s why we shouldn’t get too excited about the math as we’re benefiting from Spotify rolling this out in a fairly exclusive way.

[@wavetearz]

yup, exactly this

[@AndrewSouthworth]

The fact that some major players aren't using it and many artists hate the business model behind it is exactly why if you have access to it now, you should be using it. You're totally right that this could set a precedent that leads to Spotify continually taking more and more from artists. I personally don't think they'd go as far as you're saying they could, because they're always balancing this line of being the best platform for artists and trying to be profitable. As much problems as Spotify has, they're the only DSP that gives us this much data and this many tools. I think they need to set some limits to Discovery Mode so that it requires some strategy to make the tool useful. At the moment every artist can just opt in all eligible songs with no real downside for doing so. When everyone has access to DM i'd like to see some type of cap for how many songs you can opt in, or how many months in a year you can use it, or something like that. Rate limiting the tool ensures artists have to choose the right songs for the tool, and that the entirety of Radio & Autoplay isn't consumed by exclusively DM songs. In the mean time while access is limited. I think we should utilize the hell out of it and take any unfair advantage we can get.

[@nathanielgraham21]

@@AndrewSouthworth yes I’d probably agree with this. They’re can still be upside if it incentivises Spotify to push algorithmic streams more on the platform (it’s always good when incentives are aligned). To counteract the royalty cut, it would help if Spotify could also do things to boost the basic royalty rate. Stuff like increase their prices after they’ve been frozen for years and years and years.

[@AlexSaheli]

Y the only problem is that I don't have it :-)

[@darminhusic]

It’s only available to artists who have 5k streams in the past 28 days, or at least 1k followers

[@johndoe_1984]

So unfair for artists who really need to be discovered

[@marsexalted]

I have 20K streams past month steady each month and I don’t have any access.

[@ElvisDrew]

I have 6Million streams monthly and I don't have access :')

[@marsexalted]

@@ElvisDrew LOL

[@hiphopheaven]

Another reason for me to never use recommendation algorithms to discover music

[@beingwithyou1111]

What’s your current update on this? I think Discovery Mode streams are now just replacing my past radio and other free streams but now with a cost. I’m having lower overall listeners too. Was good at first but not so sure now….and it’s more passive listeners too.

[@afineproduction3745]

My first month of discovery mode didn’t go to great, only got like 200 streams on 10 songs, I’m gonna keep pushing tho

[@michaelmoneytv]

yea I guess tunecore has not got it yet I got an album on there and not seeing it on discover mode yet I am going to try this on a different album I have with distrokid though see how it goes I have 70K+ listeners (Beyond Unbroken)

[@freyafoxmusic]

Not for me. It doesn’t really work. Nobody saved my songs or liked them cause I think they didn’t serve it to the right audience who likes edm

[@AndrewSouthworth]

The engagement rate on Radio & Autoplay is naturally super low, since Discovery Mode is just an extension of that same placement it has the same general engagement. It's just a super passive listening experience, most people aren't even looking at their phones when autoplay is happening.

[@freyafoxmusic]

@@AndrewSouthworth makes sense. So you still think running ads off platform is better or influencer marketing

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I don't think influencer marketing is worth it. Even with something like a $5k influencer marketing budget it often fails and doesn't move the needle. Whereas that $5k spent on FB ads would cause over a million streams if it was a great performing campaign. Even a bad FB ad campaign at that budget would do a ton.

[@freyafoxmusic]

@@AndrewSouthworth really? Even for getting the song as trending audio on Tiktok ? I create all my music with TikTok challenges in mind

[@PrinceManuh]

The Billing method has to be from the US , UK or Australia other wise you are out. If you don't have a credit card from those countries you are out of the game. Restrictions are hard my friends , get ready !

[@noseboramusic]

I'm only 10 days in my first month, but it looks like only 3 consecutive days have been pushed hard on radio/autoplay and then the rest of the days have been almost no activity... has anyone else noticed the fluctuation with their discovery campaign? I had great activity on those three days, 100+ song saves (good for me at my level) and a ton of new follows but just cut off after the third day. just felt weird.

[@alexanderforselius]

According to Spotify for Artists' website, Spotify is closely monitoring how tracks perform during a campaign and can throttle the promotion if the response isnt well

[@dimitrios_siranidis]

Hi friend if a song has a good results on Discovery Mode campaign is there any case moved to editors playlist? I read that rumor fro AI search ?

[@tidalwave_music]

I just got Discovery mode available today? Should I literally use it for all my songs? Currently Spotify offered me 15 and a couple of them are odd choices tbh

[@islandvibeschill4692]

Awesome video Andrew! I'm on a Sony distributor, any idea why I can't use it? Do I have to release a song through distrokid to use it? Also do you know how to check what country my spotify for artist it based on? I travel a lot so I don't know. Thanks!

[@mortysand]

Is there any way to get it as a German?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I don't believe so. It isn't available in most of Europe yet.

[@mortysand]

@@AndrewSouthworth I hope it's coming soon. Thank you for your answer though!

[@user-tc9kd7tf1i]

See most ppl worry about the money on spotify when they miss the fact that record labels only care about how many ppl are hearing your music theres a bigger bag then spotify folks

[@JavierMartinez-rz4vc]

That mode only apply to songs about to release? Or you can activate to songs that are out already?

[@thereesebonneau]

SOMEONE HELP : it says discovery mode you need 25,000 monthly but Andrew said that isn’t true? Can someone help?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I have it in several projects with 5k-10k monthly. You have to be from one of the countries that support it, the right distro and even then they’re rolling it out so it could take a few months.

[@thereesebonneau]

@@AndrewSouthworth thanks so much Andrew

[@AirFoxxProductions]

Most of my streams come from radio. I am on about 1.5k playlists but those only bring in about 40 percent of streams. I get about 50 from radio/auto play and 10 other. (artist name milofi)

[@paolomora-pinzon755]

Hey Andrew! How do i activate this? :) Great content btw

[@blackshotband]

I meet ALL elegible criteria to get access to it except that I only have 2 tracks with distrokid. I've got 30k monthly listeners. if I upload one more track with distrokid will I get access automatically after it stays released 30 days?

[@jomindo9956]

Just to clarify, is Sony black listED or did they blacklist it themselves? Using The Orchard myself and would love for this feature to show up.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Sony blacklisted themselves, last time I checked they aren't allowing any artist on their label or any subsidiaries to use Discovery Mode. Talked to a few people at the Orchard and they asked their support person, and they confirmed that they aren't allowing artists distributing through them to use it.

[@arlwav]

does discovery mode take away from all radio plays or just the excess that it creates? for example if i normally get 3000 per month on a song off spotify's "radio playlist" and the discovery mode gives me an additional 2000 , is it taking 30% from my total or just the 2000 that it added.

[@FelixSunMusic]

I have the same question!

[@arlwav]

@@FelixSunMusic it does, its actually a scam kind of, so if u have a song already doing well, dont put it into discovery

[@FelixSunMusic]

@@arlwav Oh dang thanks for the response! Have you tried it? Most of my plays are from radio, so it would be a pretty hard hit to lose 30% from all of them. I'm at around 1,900 monthly listeners right now, so I'm surprised they even offered me Discovery Mode.

[@SpaceyBlurr]

I recently hit 5000 monthly listeners, but don't have discovery mode yet.

[@tidalwave_music]

How do you enable Discovery Mode?

[@arcfusofficiel4480]

i would love to do it, just to let more people hear what i'm doing, but i guess it's not up in France yet, i don't even have the "campagn" thing on my artist page, i just have "Audience & Music"....sad thing

[@anythingspossiblemusic]

I have almost 2000 followers but not 1000 from one country so do i qualify? I dont have the 5k stream numbers

[@arianagomez7803]

Question, Originally I had my music on distrokid and signed up on that discovery mode type form. I waited about 30 days and I still didn’t have access so I ended up taking my music off of distrokid and moved it to another distributor. This morning I just found out I have access to discovery mode but now I have no songs on distrokid anymore because I took them all down (I shouldn’t have) so today I re released all of my songs using the same Isrc’s. They are saying I have to wait till may 11th to see eligible songs. Will my songs I re released be eligible and will they pass that 30 day requirement or will the be viewed as brand new releases in the eyes of discovery mode ?

[@SapphireUnique]

can i ask which distributer you changed to which allowed this?

[@arianagomez7803]

@@SapphireUnique I’m confused on your comment. The two I was talking about was distrokid and tunecore

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I actually have no idea. You might need to wait 30 days because the songs were just added, but maybe not because they're technically not new. I guess you'll find out! Also TuneCore doesn't have Discovery mode yet, for anyone else wondering.

[@SapphireUnique]

@@AndrewSouthworth thanks dude, any advice on how to get discovery via distrokid?

[@GeorgiKrastevMusic]

So bummed out it's not available in Europe. We are getting royally screwed over as everyone else gets access to it and out out-competes us in the algorithm

[@PAAYNE]

Is available for a few countrys in EU "Sweden, UK, Norway, Ireland"

[@GeorgiKrastevMusic]

@@PAAYNE Oh... well I'm in Germany :(

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah wish they would just release stuff worldwide too. It’s in a few EU countries but maybe not yours.

[@billt3031]

Do you know when this feature is going to be available in Greece?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Unfortunately they don't give me any insider information. Although even if they did, i'm sure i'd be under an NDA to not share any of it haha.

[@billt3031]

@@AndrewSouthworth Thanks for answering... So I guess I have to wait...it's okay

[@RenegadeAngel]

It's kind of ironic it is called "Discovery" mode while they demand you need 25,000 monthly listeners to be able to turn this feature on! You would think it is primarily artists with LESS than 25k listeners who need to be discovered 🤯

[@AndrewSouthworth]

You actually don't need 25k monthly listeners, in the video I show one of my projects that has Discovery Mode with only 5k monthly listeners.

[@highhyena]

You need 5k streams in the last 28 days or 1k followers in 1 country

[@THAMNOS]

If only it was available in Poland :/ Still not even showing up on my Spotify for Artists

[@AndrewSouthworth]

This is the official country list as of now: Australia, India, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, or the United States.

[@8ightshark]

@@AndrewSouthworth Im pretty sure you also need either 5k streams or 1k followers to opt in

[@Gama7a]

​@@AndrewSouthworth the country list they have elected is a non sense...US and Trinidad and Tobago BUT not Europe? We'll be already out of the game when they will allow us to use it. Suxx

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah I don't know how Spotify picks these countries. Additionally, their official country list isn't even accurate. I know people in other countries that use it.

[@DaveWhitcroftKDMusic]

The threshold is 5,000 monthly streams or 1,000 followers.

[@PAAYNE]

i got 4.5k followers and 4.3k MS and Distrokid, got nothing atm! Maybe i need the 5k MS to break the threshold.

[@DaveWhitcroftKDMusic]

@@PAAYNE that’s a great following 👏🏼! I’ve less than 500. Maybe if you email Spotify support to point out you clear the threshold they’ll switch it on for you?

[@BgJimy]

I wish it was available to France

[@xmun2450]

Is this only for US customers ?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

No it’s for Australia, India, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, or the United States.

[@BOF303]

funny, I get as much radio plays as you on this video, but without discovery mode and I have 1/5 your listeners.

[@theandroidmeme]

Not even an option on our Spotify for Artists account yet.

[@ottomanbeatsofficial]

Your distributor has to invite you in.

[@theandroidmeme]

@Ottoman Beats Official we have been hovering just under 5k monthly listeners so maybe that's part of why Distrokid hasn't invited us 🤔

[@JaiCrenshaw]

How you take 30% of .3333 of a cent 😭

[@masondurst6841]

anyone heard of it working the Level Music Distributor??

[@PeakPerformanceWorkouts]

👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾

[@zanza8651]

Spotify discovery mode is designed for artists who don't need to be discovered. What a sick joke.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

This isn’t true. You only need around 5k monthly listeners to get it. Even if someone has 50k monthly, they still need to be discovered more.

[@andyroze]

@@AndrewSouthworth I don't really understand why do they do this limits, is it something bad for an artist with even 0 listeners to be discovered?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

It's because they use your listener data to figure out who to target algorithmically. If you have no data, they don't know who's radio to add you to. I imagine there may also be a 'seriousness' factor to it to Spotify. By restricting it to only people with at least 5k they reduce the risk of diluting the pool with artists that don't take music seriously. I'm not a fan of limits, but I think they did a good job setting the bar quite low. Something like 100k monthly would be frustrating because its out of reach for most indie artists on a reasonable time frame. It's approachable for a brand new artist to hit 5k / month within a month of their first release if they have a small budget, or several months if they have no budget but work hard.

[@andyroze]

​@@AndrewSouthworth It's reasonable about the algorithm. But there's one more thing, the budget of 2000 dollars for a guy from USA is the same that 20 dollars for a guy from Transnistria, or 300-600 dollars for a guy in Poland, for example. I'm talking approxiamtely, it just depends on average salary in the country. In Transnistria it's $360, for example. In Tadjikistan it's $170. Poland is around 1500, USA is about 4K. So, there is no equal conditions, and 5K listeners is much harder to get just because of the really low budgets for many musicians in the world. And the poorer the country the less music possibilities are developed in general in that country (even if you decide to work somehow without any budget). I think they should take this into consideration and lower the limits for different areas in the wrold, at least. And by the way, it could be a very good topic for your next video - how to prepare and promote the release with no budget, the steps and the strategy on your opinion.