Discover Weekly: What Artists Can and Cannot Control

What Discover Weekly is

Discover Weekly is one of Spotify’s personalized playlists. Spotify says personalized playlists are unique to each listener and are created by its algorithms, which look at factors like what the person is listening to and when. They carry a “Made for” byline with the listener’s name.

So there is no single Discover Weekly playlist. There are as many versions as there are listeners.

Why there is no submission form

Because each Discover Weekly is built for one listener, there is nothing to pitch. The pitch in Spotify for Artists goes to Spotify’s editors and, with the right timing, decides which song your followers get in Release Radar. Spotify does not describe any way to pitch Discover Weekly.

That also means nobody can sell you a Discover Weekly placement. Treat any offer that claims to as a red flag; our scams guide explains why.

What Spotify publicly says about personalized playlists

Spotify says personalized playlists are built by algorithms from what each person listens to and when, and that for some personalized playlists its editors pick the pool of songs the algorithms select from. In its explanation of recommendations, it says it aims to recommend songs listeners have a high probability of enjoying, and that in some cases commercial considerations can influence recommendations.

It does not say which signals Discover Weekly uses, or how any signal is weighted.

Signals Spotify publicly discusses

In its explanation of how recommendations work, Spotify names these categories of signals:

• A listener’s actions, such as searching, listening, skipping and saving to Your Library, which shape Spotify’s read of their taste.
• Information the listener shares, such as general location, device, language, age and who they follow.
• Trends, and the general tastes and behaviors of listeners.
• Characteristics of the content itself, such as genre and release date.

What artists can influence indirectly

You cannot act on Discover Weekly directly. You can affect who hears your music and whether they come back, which is the listening Spotify describes. Spotify’s own artist advice, in its Fans Also Like article, is to encourage fans to stream, save and add your music to their playlists.

• Reach real listeners who like your genre. Fans who genuinely enjoy the music are the only kind of listening worth having. How to grow real listening.
• Get your metadata right. Genre and release date are among the content characteristics Spotify mentions, so accurate details at delivery matter.
• Build followers and keep releasing. Followers get your new music in Release Radar, and each release is a new chance to be heard.
• Choose playlists that fit. A placement in front of the right listeners helps them find you, but Spotify does not say it leads to Discover Weekly.

What artists cannot control

• Whether any particular listener gets your song in Discover Weekly.
• How Spotify weighs any signal. It publishes no thresholds for saves, skips or streams.
• Timing. Spotify documents no window after release for personalized pickup.
• Knock-on effects. Spotify does not say that editorial or independent placements lead to Discover Weekly.

Editorial, independent and personalized playlists are different

The three kinds of playlist are decided by different people or systems, so the way in is different for each. The full routes are in how to get on Spotify playlists.

How to see whether Discover Weekly is sending streams

In Spotify for Artists, source of streams groups Discover Weekly with Release Radar, Radio, Autoplay, Daily Mix and other personalized sources as programmed streams. A rise there suggests Spotify is recommending your music to more listeners. It does not tell you why.

How to read source of streams, and where attribution stops, is covered in playlist promotion: what you can measure.

Myths to ignore

What about Discovery Mode?

Discovery Mode is a separate marketing tool in Spotify for Artists. Artists and labels mark songs as priorities, and Spotify adds that signal to the algorithms behind certain personalized listening. Spotify says it “increases the likelihood of the selected songs being recommended, but does not guarantee it.”

Spotify lists its contexts as Spotify Radio, Autoplay and Spotify Mixes (Daily, Artist, Mood, Decade and Genre Mixes). Discover Weekly is not on that list, so Discovery Mode is not a way to submit to Discover Weekly. Spotify also says it is not active in editorial playlists.

There is no upfront fee. Spotify charges a commission, a percentage of revenue on streams of the song in Discovery Mode contexts, deducted from future statements; streams elsewhere are commission-free. It is available to eligible artists whose distributor participates, and to labels through Spotify.

Practical next steps

1. Grow real listening

   Reach people who genuinely like your genre and give them reasons to come back. Get more Spotify streams without bots.

2. Use Release Radar properly

   Build followers and pitch each release on time. How to get on Release Radar.

3. Get placements that fit

   Independent playlists with the right listeners help people find you. The Playlist Fit Checker shows which of ours fit.

4. Watch source of streams

   Track personalized streams release by release, without reading more into them than they show.

5. Keep the full plan in view

   How to promote a song on Spotify puts every piece in order.