 So I've been getting a lot of requests in the comments and in my Discord where you can actually request videos for me to do just like this one. It's seemingly everyone wants me to talk about Spotify's latest feature they're rolling out, Discovery Mode, which is now in a pilot program and becoming available to more and more artists each day. And the reason I'm being asked to weigh in is, well, it's pretty controversial. Since in exchange for getting discovered by more potential fans that have a high likelihood of enjoying your music, Spotify wants musicians to give up 30% of their royalties that happen in Discovery Mode to get their music recommended, which at best is shady, unethical and frankly, another of Spotify's short-sighted aggressions against the musicians who make up their platform and enable them to make money. But the rub is that it can really help your music get heard by new fans and the numbers you see some artists posting of the growth from it are wild, which can help your dreams come true. So it's quite the conflict. So I want to unpack this and give straight facts since some of these YouTubers haven't been doing that and figure out if you should use this new tool. So first off, what is Discovery Mode? Essentially, if you enable a mode in the back end of Spotify for hours for certain songs in your catalog, those songs you enable will then be put into heavier rotation on Spotify radio playlists and the autoplay feature, which will prioritize your songs for play. Now, if you don't even know what those futures are, allow me to explain. When a listener clicks a Spotify artist radio channel, well, that's radio and autoplay is what happens when an album ends and the algorithm then plays related songs. So from the language Spotify specifically uses, this doesn't mean it's going in release radar or discover weekly. As some YouTubers who have reading comprehension issues have stated, this feature has nothing to do with release radar or discover weekly. Now, some of you may be thinking, what the hell even uses these features Jesse? It sure ain't me. I just vibe on the sick playlist I make all the live long day. You feel me? My dude, I promise you, I do not feel you. But a good example I like to think of is unlike you who is sitting at their computer all day answering every comment on the thirst traps you lay on Instagram and TikTok. Some people, how do I put this work for a living? And they don't have the time to change the playlist every 30 to 60 minutes when one ends. So autoplay starts suggesting music. And some of us, meaning me, like to keep a playlist where I add all my favorite songs and I intentionally let autoplay happen because Spotify gives me helpful recommendations that end up on that playlist. But one of the most common places I see radio used is I'll walk into my local coffee shop and a cuporista will be listening to something and I'll be like, oh, sick, you like mama? Household name is like my favorite record of last year. And they will say, oh, um, cool, man. I hit play on Paramore radio. This just played. Also, why are you drinking iced coffee? It's like four degrees outside. And after I tell her, when you're this hot, you got to cool down and she dies from rolling her eyes rolling back into her head. We never fall in love. And here's the thing. I particularly know that there's a lot of ways to experience music listening. We should all remember a golden mantra of this channel. Only a fool assumes other people listen to music the same way they do. So understand that these features are pretty popular actually. Anyway, then you're wondering what are the benefits of discovery mode? According to Spotify, artists average 50% more saves, 44% more playlist ads at 37% more follows, which if that's the average, I would say people who actually have good songs are doing way better than that since the trash is probably bringing that number way down. And we all know most songs on Spotify are trash. According to Spotify, 97% of the artists who opt into discovery mode stay in. And I imagine this is factual because up to crackheads or influencers, I've rarely seen a group of people who would do more ridiculous things for what they want than musicians. So giving up some of the royalties Spotify pays you when you get heard by new listeners seems pretty light since I think most of you would sell your significant other into slavery for a little yachty feature. But if you're not into it, you can opt in or out of this on a month to month basis. And as we know, with any new program, especially from Spotify, it's not ruled out to anyone and everyone at first. It seems that the songs eligible are released within the last few years. I've seen some as old as eight years in this, but that is based solely from what I could see from artists in my friend's circle or the ones I do consults with who asked me about it. But here's what Spotify lists as the criteria to get into this program. You need to have your songs uploaded through a participating licensure. Now funny enough, this seems to only be available for artists who go through what we call a la carte distributors or aggregators like tune core, symphonic, distro kids, CD baby, et cetera. Some suspect the reason that this is not available to artists on other distributors that are bigger is that they negotiate through Merlin, which really is like the union for indie artists and gets better royalty rates for indie artists than you do going through the a la carte distributors. But that, my friends, is another story for another time. But it's believed they don't have to give up their 30% royalties to get this special treatment. And reports are A2IM, along with three other major labels, are not pleased with this as it loosens their grip on power and, well, takes away streams from their artists. And yet again, I say that every idiot who tells you that Spotify is controlled by the majors isn't paying attention to the reality of the music business. So I pulled up the seven artists I actually have and handle on Spotify for RS, which range from literally zero monthly listeners since it hasn't uploaded anything, to hundreds of thousands to three million. And only one had access. And sure enough, it was the one who was through tune core instead of the ones through the bigger distributors or major labels. But also, I am just making deductions here. And sadly, there's not good reporting on this. And all I can do is speculate here. Anyway, another qualification is the track has to have been released on Spotify for at least 30 days, which I imagine is so that they have enough data so they can see if the track has a popularity score worth putting it into rotation. The track also has to have been streamed in radio or autoplay in the last seven days, which yet again, I imagine is they want to make sure the song is actually likable enough to not just get skipped immediately, which brings me to, I know a lot of people see this and think of it as guaranteed plays, but it seems like that if a song is performing bad, it really just doesn't get played. Whereas the better the song is performing, well, they're playing it more, which makes more sense. And Spotify will lose users if they pollute it with a flood of crap. I could see this in that some of the tracks of my consulting clients are getting thousands of streams a day that they weren't getting before, and some are getting a stream or three. Anyway, so I imagine to a lot of you, you can't wait to sign up for this. So what's the controversy I spoke of? Well, you give up 30% of your royalties when in this mode, in exchange for them putting you on more algorithmic suggestions. But this includes only the streams that come from Discovery mode get the reduction of the 30% royalties, which definitely softens the blow since if people like your track, it will definitely be made up for. But let me address why this is shady at best. Now we all know Spotify is trying to become profitable, so it tries pushing podcasts where they don't have to pay royalties, so they have less losses, and they're doing that so you won't listen to music where they do have to pay out, which sucks. As well, this is why they recently launched audiobooks, since it's far cheaper to pay for an audiobook that takes up eight hours or more than paying for when you listen to music. Trust me, I've seen audiobook royalties. I have an audiobook out. Yes, it's profoundly uncool that the company that pays out 80% of streaming royalties to most artists actively tries to lessen your pay, and it's almost like some lawyers should think of a class action lawsuit for that. And many people have argued this is essentially paolo, which technically there are laws against, but it's going to take some boring guys in cheap suits with bad tasted restaurants to fight that in court. And I'm merely a YouTuber with sick restaurant tastes in great fashion sense. Like many tech companies today, Spotify is constantly playing with buyer in getting an anti-trust lawsuit against them. And this is the latest aggression in which I'm sure some moneythirsty lawyers drooling like Dracula, seeing a neck as thick as mine filled with blood on a day I haven't ingested any garlic, which is rare when you got this stuff in the house. Anyway, Spotify has to keep finding ways to become profitable, which it kind of has done with some caveats and taking a certain type of place off their balance sheet can help get them there. And let's make no mistake, this isn't to help ours. It's that they got to make the board happy. And as usual, it's at musicians expense. So if that rubs you the wrong way, don't opt in. But the upside of course is if you opt in, you can of course be in one of the best marketing opportunities in literally music history. You can get to be heard by fans of ours similar to you. And if your song has a high susceptibility rate, aka the majority of people who hear it like it, well, this could be part of what sets you up to have a big gains in your fan base from the people most likely to enjoy your music, which is a perfect marketing opportunity. Some people say they see for even 10,000% increases in streams. And while you'll be opting to gain less royalties when people hear it, if it blows up for a month or three, and this is the start of as the fools say big things coming, well, you're not gonna be crying over losing 30% for a few discoveries if people keep listening to your music over and over. And honestly, if you're interested in this, I think you should walk not run since in Congress, the judiciary committee has already sent a letter to Spotify about it. And as someone who's an expert in two things in this world, politics and music, I can tell you straight up, I doubt this thing lasts very long. So if you're interested in it, get well, the getting's good. And that's really the lay of the land. But if you know anything about Spotify, you know getting on playlist is their other biggest opportunity. If you don't know how to write a pitch that gets you on editorial playlist, well, you're in luck because I have a video on how to do that in 2023 that has all fresh new information that's on the screen you should watch that and keep learning