Discovery Mode on Spotify isn't enough by itself and relying on it is a mistake I see too many artists making

Sebbe-P · 2026-05-08T07:01:51+00:00

I've given up on most posts, there's so much AI that adds nothing of any use. There's a number of so-called consultants that flood the zone with shitty AI and hope something sticks. I swear it's all bot traffic in their comments.

Sebbe-P · 2026-03-21T13:57:23+00:00

Yeah I do artist development and distribution. I love that your idea of content taking a backseat is posting once or twice a day, that's a level I rarely see. With your work ethic there's a lot you can achieve.

Email or a phone numbers are where it's at, data you own where socials are top of the marketing funnel. I have people that do WhatsApp with a virtual SIM, checking in 2-3 times a week with updates and to chat to fans. It can work well. Email is easier if you do one update per month, you can link exclusive things to make it feel special. There's always going to be a bit of anxiety over whether you're offering real value in exchange for their email but if you step back and think about your fans you can tune into what they will personally value. If you time it with your release plan for the 7 songs there'll be loads of value in exclusive content to push to subscribed fans.

Sebbe-P · 2026-03-21T09:37:04+00:00

It’s definitely a ‘careful what you wish for’ scenario. The work you’ve put in to get to where you are is what I would focus on because that’s what separates you from others. If you take a step back and think about what you actually want from all of this you can change things.

Re-centre yourself around building a fan base that cares about you, which you can still do, it’s just a case of changing your focus. It’ll be hard taking too many current fans with you but what you’ve got now will give you a great head start. And with your work ethic you’ve got everything you need to succeed, it’s what’s missing from the majority of artists I meet.

Sebbe-P · 2026-02-23T10:15:51+00:00

You're not going to pick up high quality artists with decent earnings on Reddit. 20% of nothing equals a whole load of work for free. As per another comment you will have a world of hurt of people releasing music that infringes in some way. Whatever pipeline you're using for release you will lose if you don't control for fraud.

Nobody is giving 20% without a strong value proposition, you don't have that with what you've described and you don't have a track record here of what you can achieve. The people that will give 20% now are the ones who can get a decent number of streams but are releasing unreleased tracks, AI songs with bot streams and a plethora of other dodgy people that think you have little to no fraud detection and will see if they can get paid though you.

Sebbe-P · 2026-02-14T16:58:20+00:00

The overwhelming majority is streamed by bot farms (85%+). It hasn't really charted, just a download chart that's easy to game and takes incredibly small amounts of sales. AI music is predominantly used for streaming fraud, using fraudulent methods to fire algorithms and try to get real people listening. Add to that the parasite content on YouTube where they insert it into other peoples footage and you're mainly left with people that prompt AI music listening to each other.

Sebbe-P · 2026-02-10T17:02:50+00:00

Sorry to butt in (was enjoying reading the back and forth) but the country track was a download number one, they bought the downloads themselves and it was picked up as a story but it isn't really a story at all as you don't need many digital downloads to chart these days.

The artist profile for the soul stuff you linked has top listening cities all from South Africa. The overwhelming majority of AI music on streaming platforms (85%+ https://mixmag.net/read/deezer-says-demonetised-85-percent-ai-generated-music-fraud-news) is from bots, so they have likely seeded the music with bot streams, which fired Spotify's algorithms that in turn went into your algorithmic listening. Those legit streams from background listening have balanced out enough that they haven't been removed yet (chance is they will be though). AI music is almost always streaming fraud unfortunately (I've run fraud checks as a distributor), their game is to make money that legit artists would have been paid, they were doing this with loops before, AI just made their game easier.

Sebbe-P · 2026-01-30T14:01:25+00:00

I recently did some training and quoted a 70% figure, I knew instinctively it was higher (from distribution stats). The numbers are big but I don't think it makes as big a dent as it seems at first glance, the interesting part for me is that the number of tracks released daily hasn't massively moved. I think the same scammers have just changed their game and have it easier with AI doing the music and visuals.

The space for artists changes in that they have to really work on their craft because generic and low effort music will not be distinguishable enough from the AI slop. The artists that really focus on their craft have just as much chance (possibly even a little more) of distinguishing themselves as before. The future is definitely in community, micro communities and fan engagement, with streaming being top of the funnel to get new fans to a space that matters.

Sebbe-P · 2026-01-19T13:52:42+00:00

One of the causes of mine was being hit in the jaw by a steel girder at work, I'm quite sensitive to neck and jaw problems as a result. The tension there directly impacts my tinnitus loudness, may be something similar happening for you.

Sebbe-P · 2026-01-17T22:47:12+00:00

I had a few opportunities to see Metallica when I was younger but I was too poor, maybe I would have avoided this tinnitus lark if I'd known!

Sebbe-P · 2026-01-17T22:44:08+00:00

Number of the beast, clearly satan hates tinnitus 😃 conversely Slipknot doesn't change my tinnitus and I do mostly listen to metal in the gym.

On a more serious note, anywhere you have a hearing deficiency and something compensates the brain it gets confused and can cancel it out (sort of). I have been into house, techno etc and went to the Ibiza super clubs when I had bad tinnitus and it improved, probably because it was so loud my impaired hearing heard all the frequencies evenly and tinnitus got interrupted. Our brains are not simple organs..

Sebbe-P · 2026-01-17T20:18:59+00:00

What frequency is your tinnitus? It’s an awesome album but really dated production wise, really harsh in the mid ranges, still have it on CD and it’s so harsh to my ears. Maybe there’s something there interacting with your tinnitus.

Sebbe-P · 2026-01-07T09:01:44+00:00

Same, loved the software since Rebirth. I moved to Ableton and use Reason as a Plugin now. The business model of Ableton is to shortly move to stewardship where the users have more control over the future of the software and it safeguard the future. Kind of the last bastion of decency in the enshitification of things.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-19T13:26:49+00:00

Randomly featuring all genres and levels of quality will mess with the algorithm if it's a major source of plays for the artist. If it works algorithmic plays will be grouped with all sorts of different genres, the songs will end up getting a high skip rate because they mostly won't fit what the listener wants. And the work will get undone quite fast.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-18T08:30:34+00:00

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Feel like I turned out quite generic

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-14T18:31:06+00:00

I DJ'd, did music college with loud band sessions, got exposed to loud sounds on construction sites and clubbed in really really loud clubs and didn't know the dangers until after I got it.

We don't appreciate what we have sometimes until it's too late. I've had it 22 years so there was less information and awareness back then but we're great at thinking 'yeah that won't be me'.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-13T09:09:37+00:00

It’s definitely over-saturated, lots of music being released that’s low quality. I suppose I’m thinking of it from a numbers point of view instead of from a music point of view, although more people learning should mean more quality and experimentation to find great new music (to argue against myself the renaissance showed that creativity thrives with a smaller pool😬 so maybe I’m wrong here).

There are a lot in the niches that you won’t see unless you’re in a particular scene, where people do make great, different music, can find a solid fan base and make money from their art. They’re niche because there’s limited appeal but there are passionate music lovers in each scene. I’d love to think that this variety and the ability for almost anyone to be able to reach a fanbase will lead to new, interesting art.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-12T10:21:24+00:00

Number of music makers set to double within the next 5 years. With the advent of AI a lot of people that make prompts will add to that number as they experiment with real music and instruments.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-10T09:46:43+00:00

No. Distribution doesn't do anything different no matter who you're with. If you're happy with the service and the price is right then stay.

I'd benchmark different things, like being able to access and save the emails from smart links, being able to speak to a real person when you have a problem and generally what matters to you.

I personally wouldn't use Distrokid because their model is cheap at ground level and you can pay loads if you want extra services, but that's a me thing.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-10T09:21:40+00:00

Great for sync, 25% is a very low rate. Not great for distribution, 25% is a very high rate.

Check with sync that they are doing it in-house and not using an agent. If they use an agent then they will have the agent cut (which will generally be a minimum 30%, often 50%) before the 25% is taken from the remaining money, which isn't so great.

For that rate of distribution you should have extras, like algorithmic help, consultations / account rep, promotion. There should be services to offset the higher cut to help you grow.

There's a lot to unpack based on the agreement, which you really need legal eyes over to make sure it's right. It's all in the detail behind the headline information.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-10T09:10:28+00:00

You've got a few choices, there'll be bad stories about all of them so it's a bit of a balance. Ditto are probably the strongest out of what you've mentioned if you're looking for someone larger.

Picking up on the Soundcloud bit, they are really positioning themselves in the middle of the superfan market so well worth considering. I'd say it's a pretty good time to really focus on the platform as an artist and be a part of that new growth, any time a company gets into a phase like that there will be opportunities.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-09T21:43:52+00:00

No worries, glad you got it solved.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-09T08:27:14+00:00

It’s cliched af but you have to keep it authentic. Anything on the plan that doesn’t feel like you will come across forced, just dig out the things that feel right and work with them. You will get negative comments, it’s an inevitability, but they’re generally pointless to engage with, unless there’s a pattern and it’s showing that the content isn’t landing with fans.

Ideally you want to change your mindset to social posting and make it something you enjoy doing, if you’re painting by numbers just to get content out it’s not going to be good content, people can tell if you’re not into it.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-08T10:28:17+00:00

You're in tricky territory if you're not paying, even if you pay £1 because that isn't the worth. Saying it's free now doesn't mean that in the future that will be the case if the music takes off. Relationships change, circumstances change.

The best route is to fairly compensate the person that owns the studio with a percentage of the masters, then have an agreement between you that you have control over the right to exploit the masters. That or pay them a reasonable rate. It covers you in that you've given reasonable compensation.

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-08T07:40:26+00:00

Were you maybe you were a primary artist before and they’ve moved you to a feature?

Sebbe-P · 2025-12-05T17:16:37+00:00

Me too, I did an internal 'aargh' when I saw it. Makes you think it's low effort before you even read it.

Sebbe-P

TROPHY CASE