Artists and labels will soon have another promotional tool on Spotify to get music in front of more users—after the streaming giant gets its cut, of course. On Monday, November 2, the platform announced a new feature, “Discovery Mode,” appearing in Spotify’s Radio and Autoplay features upon launch.
In exchange for altered royalty rates, artists and labels can elect to have targeted material promoted across Spotify’s recommendation algorithms to boost visibility to users. According to a blog post on Spotify’s website,
“In this new experiment, artists and labels can identify music that’s a priority for them, and our system will add that signal to the algorithm that determines personalized listening sessions.”
The feature will roll out in the US initially, ahead of a worldwide launch if the Discovery Mode experiment is found to be successful. The Swedish streaming platform promises strong returns in coordinated press statements, though the amended royalty rates have yet to be made public. What’s more—Spotify’s policy states that the new feature will not “guarantee placement to labels or artists.”
The launch of this new feature coincides with a new campaign from the United Musicians and Allied Workers Union, lobbying to have Spotify raise its average streaming royalty from $.0038 to a penny per stream for all artists.
H/T: NME
