Spotify Discovery Mode - The Best Opportunity Ever??? CONTROVERSY EXPLAINED

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

I'm fine with this deal. It's something you have to do because your competition is using.

And builds up a moat against those not doing it.

Again, great content! Thanks for the research! I appreciate it!

This is fuggin ridiculous! I went in the SFA to look for Discovery Mode me I found out that that the eligibility requirements are even higher than Marquee. 20,000 monthly listeners? Aren’t these tools supposed to help you get there in the first place!?!

To be very honest, I feel like Spotify trying to "help" indies is just another way to keep indies trapped under the major's monopoly. Majors own shares of Spotify, yes, so even though they don't control Spotify, they obviously are relevant stakeholders. Do some research on the Merlin folks and that'll answer you some questions. They all connect with each other so no, nobody is an idiot for saying the majors control the industry. Maybe you're saying this because it'd affect your channel negatively since your channel is all about you feeding hope into indies. Why would Spotify want to step on their toes by giving advantages to a group of artists that the majors don't highly benefit from and that could pose as real competition to their signed artists? And considering that a large chunk of indie artists even pay for Spotify plays that will cause Spotify to dish out royalties to them, I could argue Spotify loses money with indies.

I just submitted 13 songs for an April campaign. Let's see what happens :)

Also thanks for your jokes! Please keep them coming. They are gold. 😂

At least it’s not 30% permanently for all future streams or something like that… might be fair enough a trade off.

Thanks for the always straight forward info Jesse

What popularity score is needed for this?

To be fair, Spotify isn't where the money is made anyway so 30% for more visibility isn't all that bad

I’m not sure if you’ve always been crackin jokes like how you are in this video but if not man keep doing it. Like this more open and comedic style w/ the information you’re giving us

Thanks Jesse!

Random question for you Jesse. Do you have an opinion of PR firms and whether the ones that work with bigger and smaller indie acts are worth going through?

T-shirt as great as the video

😅 I won’t even qualify to participate soooooo

I feel like the initial boost it’s giving artists will become the new norm

Kinda like how a lot of social media starts with good organic reach and then ads can give you the extra boost so everyone starts doing it so now you have to pay just to get the reach you had before
Hell some platforms you even have to pay just to reach more of your own followers

I just heard about this, but I can tell you now it is worth it. How much do you spend on marketing? Plus everyone needs to realize. Spotify and Apple Music, Ect are nothing more than another social media account. Money is rarely made here as an independent. Good luck.

i listen to most of your videos when i dont have free time an be work on other things and i get the stuff you talk about can be applied to every genre artist but anything different for producers of bass music?

Now I need the story on Merlin 😅

This is so rad

This Discovery Mode seems a lot less like a scam given that it takes 30% of the royalties only for streams generated *by the campaign(s)*, as opposed to just taking 30% of whatever the song generates in perpetuity. Also comforting that you can opt out month by month. At that point, seems pretty low risk

The longer-term implication of this system is kinda scary. This could quickly become a situation where Spotify’s regular algorithm is going to be less rewarding for artists and we’re pretty much forced to run Discovery mode if we want any shot at gaining algorithmic traffic to our music. On the real world side, are Spotify monthly listeners and similar stats going to become less meaningful? If it’s going to now be “easier” to get your listeners up, are certain benchmarks going to be less impressive? Food for thought

Can you make a video on what types of viral content will blow up songs using TikTok/Reels? love ur channel man

lit.

I was at 45K monthly listeners at the start of February and I’m now at 90K after ONE Campaign, I can verify that THIS works. it’s actually insane.

;)

Thanks for this hadn't even heard about it.

I'd rather give up 30 percent of something then get 100 percent of nothing but I am getting something on Spotify with some.mjld success. I have some songs doing well. Can you opt in on a person basjs? I'll give it a go I have some songs doing well others not so much but If I can select which ones I can let be discovered that could be cool.

Finally, it's kinda dumb artists have give up 30% of royalty's then pay another 30%ish for tax from the remaining 70%. Indie artists don't have LLCs and tbh if an artist got their 100% royalties then took 30% for marketing that would be a tax deduction. I bet Spotify pays less tax then all the indie artists in the game put together

i came here for the advice stayed for the jokes! love the jokes!!

I just signed the form. Get on the machine before it looses steam. There is no question here. For others willing to wait. Hey ho with all due respect 🫡 I won’t be waiting to be told twice. I would upload my discovery soon

You'll get the barista some day Jesse, I believe in you.

How do you access it? I loaded my Spotify For Artists profile but i don't see it

How do you enable it though?

I had a buddy with 550k monthly listeners opt in for February and is now at 830k to end the campaign. He told me about it, I submitted the form and it was made available for me after that weekend. My campaign starts March 1st for 3 songs and I’m currently at 10,250 monthly listeners. VERY interested to see the results. I believe the popularity scores for these 3 songs are between 25-300 currently. One had made Fresh Finds Country back in October.

"Artists must have at least 5,000 streams in the past 28 days, or at least 1,000 followers, in a country that campaigns can target."

Surprised no one has pointed out your shirt yet! I had to double check to make sure it was what I thought it was—Excellent taste.

I noticed this on the Gyrostream dashboard, a small Australian distributor, have switch it on for one track, so will see how it goes.

damn im not even pulling enough streams to participate it says lol

Hey bro! So ive been pitching to indie playlists trying to build relationships like you mention but almost every single time i get a response its "just click this link and pay for a submission, heres my discount code". What do you reccomend i do about this? Pay them or keep grinding out and contacting?

Love your content bro you keep me going ! Remember this post !

I skipped the first 2 months that I was offered this. But I think I'm going to finally sign up this March. I'll let you know how it goes. My only qualm with it is, I feel like discovery mode rolled out RIGHT when my spotify radio stats dropped off for me. I used to get 18k streams on just spotify radio a month, and it has since dropped to 1-5k a month on Spotify Radio. So, it makes me feel like they'll basically be returning me to where I previously had been, but at a 30% pay cut (on radio only of course).

Thank you for this info jesse! I will def try this one out and see what results brings me 🔥🔥🙏🏼🔄

To be honest I make so little money and don't get a lot of streams so it's not bad for me

It's 30%, only while in discovery mode, correct?

Hi Jesse, Ulises from B'lyn here. :-) I'm dying to get on Discovery Mode. I've always noticed people have an instant positive reaction to our recorded catalog. I have almost 2K listeners a month and now have 11 great well-produced tracks on Spotify. I wonder if I'll be invited to do Discovery mode now that I just released another great track last Friday (2/24). I've been implementing lots of what you suggest and the needle IS moving for me. Thanks.

I've heard that Discovery works on a mid-month basis and people are asked to respond to their invite by the 15th of the following month. Also, does it become available under the campaigns tab? Thanks again for this and all your videos, Jesse!

I don’t see the harm in this. You’re getting 70% royalties but it only takes effect on the plays that you wouldn’t have received anyway. I‘d say this is a win for artists until everyone starts using it then we’re just back to where we were before

EDIT nvm I have been convinced this is a shitty move L Spotify