Discovery Mode boosts the likelihood that opted-in tracks will be listened to on some of Spotify’s personalised playlists.
Spotify applies a discount of 30% to the revenue share from recording royalties generated from Discovery Mode contexts. All other, non-Discovery Mode streams are reported and paid as normal.
You can read Spotify’s explanation of Discovery Mode here:
Discovery Mode – Spotify for Artists
And below is a brief summary
Eligibility
A track is eligible if:
- It’s been released on Spotify for at least 30 days
- It’s been streamed at least 20 times in Discovery Mode contexts in the last 28 days. Learn more about Discovery Mode contexts
- It met Spotify’s monetization eligibility criteria in the previous month
Discovery Mode cost
“Discovery Mode doesn’t require an upfront budget. Instead, a 30% commission is applied to recording royalties generated from all streams of selected songs in Discovery Mode contexts. All other streams of selected songs outside of Discovery Mode contexts remain commission-free.”
Discovery Mode Contexts
Discovery Mode applies to some of Spotify’s personalised playlists. For example, turning on Discovery Mode boosts the chances that a track will be played to someone using Spotify’s Autoplay feature. Spotify call these the Discovery Mode ‘contexts’.You can read a list of those here
https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/discovery-mode-contexts/