What is Spotify Discovery Mode?
Spotify Discovery Mode is a new audience development tool that helps you reach new listeners and grow your fanbase, with no upfront budget required. Discovery Mode gives artists and labels the opportunity to influence the personalization algorithm in select personalized listening contexts. When Discovery Mode is turned on for a given track, it increases the likelihood – but does not guarantee – that songs reach listeners in these contexts.
Since TuneCore is owned by global digital music company Believe, all TuneCore artists using Discovery Mode will be utilizing Believe’s customized track selection technology, which selects the songs that have the best shot at excelling in the program. This means you don’t need to opt tracks in and out because we will take care of this for you.
How much does Discovery Mode cost?
Discovery Mode doesn’t require an upfront budget. Instead, a 30% commission is applied by Spotify to recording royalties generated from all streams of selected songs in Discovery Mode Contexts. All other streams of selected songs outside of Spotify Discovery Mode Contexts remain commission-free.
Starting January 1, 2024, tracks included in TuneCore Accelerator programs such as Spotify Discovery Mode will be subject to an additional 20% commission on net royalties generated on the streams of tracks included in specific TuneCore Accelerator programs, and only during the period they are included and promoted in such programs. You will continue to keep 100% of revenue for streams not generated through TuneCore Accelerator.
In line with the expected 2-month sales posting delay, the earliest sales report where this commission will be taken is the March 2024 sales posting (for January 2024 Radio and Autoplay streams). Any negative Spotify numbers on your downloadable sales reports reflect this information.
You can opt in or out of TuneCore Accelerator at any time on a rolling basis. You must opt out before the 12th of the month to be sure your tracks are excluded from the next month's campaign. For example, if you do not want to be considered for the January campaign, you must opt out by December 12th.
How do I opt in?
If you’ve already opted in to TuneCore Accelerator, you’re all set–Spotify Discovery Mode is now a program within TuneCore Accelerator!
If you've opted out of TuneCore Accelerator and would like to opt in again, you can do that directly from your TuneCore dashboard.
Please note: Spotify Discovery Mode is a program within TuneCore Accelerator. You cannot opt in to any individual tools within TuneCore Accelerator. When you opt into the program, you are giving us permission to opt you into all of the services offered with TuneCore Accelerator.
How do I opt out?
You can opt out at any time directly from your TuneCore dashboard.
You must opt out before the 12th of the month to be sure your tracks are excluded from the next month's campaign. For example, if you do not want your tracks to be included in the June campaign, you'll need to opt out before May 12th.
Please note: Spotify Discovery Mode is a program within TuneCore Accelerator. You cannot opt out of any individual tools within TuneCore Accelerator. When you opt out of the program, you’ll lose access to all TuneCore Accelerator services.
What are the eligibility requirements?
Important: Meeting these requirements does not necessarily guarantee that your track will be chosen for Discovery Mode, but it must meet all of these requirements to be eligible for consideration.
The eligibility requirements are:
- The track must be distributed through TuneCore
- The artist must be credited as a main/primary artist or remixer
- The track must have been released on Spotify 30+ days ago
- The track must have at least 1 radio or autoplay stream in the last 7 days
For the most recent eligibility requirements, see here.
Can I choose the tracks used in Discovery Mode?
No, TuneCore Accelerator does not allow you to choose specific tracks to opt in or out of promotional programs, including Discovery Mode. However, you can see how your tracks that have been selected have performed within your TuneCore Accelerator Dashboard!
If you've opted into TuneCore Accelerator, all of the eligible tracks in your account will be considered by our track selection technology for Discovery Mode. If you've opted out, none of your tracks will be considered.
How are my tracks selected for Discovery Mode?
With the aid of our parent company Believe’s track selection technology, TuneCore helps take the guesswork out of picking your tracks. We’ll select tracks with the highest likelihood of excelling in Discovery Mode based on data from hundreds of thousands of tracks. Neither we nor Spotify guarantee the performance of any tracks that are selected for Discovery Mode.