Get your songs recommended to new listeners.

Your new song is out and your fans are playing it. But how do you reach the people who have never heard of you? Most new listeners find music through Spotify's own recommendations: the radio that starts after an album ends, the next song in Autoplay, the Daily Mixes. Discovery Mode lets you tell Spotify which of your songs you want to push there. In return, Spotify takes a commission on the streams it brings you.

What is Discovery Mode?

Discovery Mode is a promotion tool in Spotify for Artists. You pick the songs that matter most to you right now, for example a new single or an older track that suddenly takes off. Spotify then gives those songs an extra signal in the systems that decide what to recommend to listeners.

That makes it more likely that your song is played to people who do not know you yet, but it is not a guarantee. You stay in control: switch it on when it works for you and switch it off when it does not.

Where your song gets the extra push

Discovery Mode only works in a few places on Spotify, the ones where listeners are most open to hearing something new. Spotify calls these Discovery Mode contexts:

• Spotify Radio: the endless stream of similar songs based on an artist, song or playlist.
• Autoplay: the songs that keep playing after an album or playlist ends.
• Spotify Mixes: Daily, Artist, Mood, Decade and Genre Mixes (in some of them, not all).

Everywhere else, such as playlists, search, your artist page and listeners' own libraries, nothing changes.

Figure 1. Discovery Mode only affects streams in Radio, Autoplay and Mixes.

What does it cost?

You do not pay anything upfront. Instead, Spotify takes a 30% commission on the recording royalties of your selected songs (that is; before your revenue share calculation), but only for streams in Radio, Autoplay and Mixes. Streams anywhere else remain commission-free.

A simple example: say one of your songs earns €100 in recording royalties from Radio, Autoplay and Mixes in a month while it is in Discovery Mode. Then €30 goes to Spotify and €70 is left for the normal royalty split. What the same song earns from playlists, search or people's libraries is not affected.

Releasing a new version of a song during a campaign? It is added automatically, and the commission applies to it as well.

What can it bring you?

According to Spotify's own figures, artists using Discovery Mode saw on average:

These are averages measured by Spotify. Your own results can be higher or lower.

Is it worth it for you?

Discovery Mode is a trade-off: more reach in exchange for less money per stream in Radio, Autoplay and Mixes. Think about it like this:

• It works best if you already have a decent audience. Spotify says it works best from 25,000 monthly listeners.
• Use it for the songs you really want to grow, such as a new single you are promoting, or a song that is already picking up speed.
• Check your results every month. Are you winning new listeners who save your songs and come back? Keep going. If not, switch it off.

Discovery Mode is an official, fair way to pay for reach. That makes it something very different from buying streams, which can get your music removed. See our article Artificial Streaming and other fraud.

Who can use it?

Spotify has set rules for who can use Discovery Mode. Both your artist team and each song you select must meet them.

Figure 2. Spotify's requirements for your team and your songs.

Your artist team

• You have at least three eligible songs.
• You have at least 25,000 monthly listeners.
• Your Spotify for Artists team is registered in one of the countries Spotify supports.
• Your music is distributed by a distributor that offers Discovery Mode. This is where we come in: contact us if you do not have access yet (see the box at the top).

Each song

• It has been on Spotify for at least 30 days. If there are several versions, the earliest release date counts.
• It was streamed at least 20 times in Radio, Autoplay or Mixes in the last 28 days.
• It met Spotify's rules for earning royalties last month.
• If you use Artist Profile Protection, the release has been approved.
• None of the artists on it has an AI persona badge.

How to set up a campaign

Discovery Mode works per calendar month. Only Admins and Editors of your artist team can set it up, in Spotify for Artists on the web.

Figure 3. You pick your songs this month; the campaign runs next month.

1. Log in at artists.spotify.com.
2. Go to Campaigns and then Discovery Mode.
3. Click Set up [month] campaign. You can do this from the 11th of the month.
4. Select the songs you want to push. You choose a song, and all its versions are included automatically.
5. Check your choices and click Submit.

You can change your selection until 00:00 UTC on the last day of the month. Your campaign starts on the 1st of the next month at 00:00 UTC and runs for that month. Want to continue? Set up a new campaign for the following month. See Spotify's guide to creating a Discovery Mode campaign.

Check your results

From day 11 of your campaign, Spotify for Artists shows a performance report for each campaign. It tells you:

• How many new listeners your campaign brought in, and how much your total number of listeners grew.
• Whether those listeners stick around: saves, playlist adds and intent rate, measured up to 14 days after they first heard your song.
• How many extra streams the campaign brought, compared with the 28 days before your song's first campaign.

The engagement figures keep updating for 14 days after the campaign ends. Use them to decide whether to keep a song in Discovery Mode next month.

More information

• Discovery Mode (Spotify for Artists)
• Getting access to Discovery Mode
• Creating a Discovery Mode campaign
• Discovery Mode contexts
• Understanding your Discovery Mode performance report
• Artificial Streaming and other fraud