You can add the Hydra bot to your server, but you won't be able to play music with it. This all comes down to YouTube sending the bot a copyright strike (more on this later).
The thing is, most music bots in general don't work anymore - YouTube has also taken legal action against them. But it's not all bad news: you can use Kenku Fm instead. It's an audioboard that lets you play music while on calls. I've been using it on my server since Hydra shut down, and one of my friends actually asked me how he could use it too.
If like him, you also want me to explain how to use it, you can read ahead.
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Although it's easy to invite Hydra bot to your Discord server, remember that you can't use it to listen to music anymore. You can only use it for reaction roles - I've run through a detailed explanation on this later on.
If you still want the bot, you'll have to go to the Hydra site, and then click on the invite button. Downloading it is completely free, if you're wondering.
But you won't be able to add it unless you have administrator access on your server. Most mods don't have this permission. If you own the Discord server, you have nothing to worry about.
Once you've invited the music bot, you'll have to set it up so that Discord users can start using it.
Here's how you can go ahead with inviting Hydra bot to Discord servers:
Once you have invited the Hydra bot, you will have to set it up. Here's how you can do this:
This all comes down to YouTube not liking that they were able to play music without ads. Along with Hydra, you can't use most other music bots anymore, like Rythm and Groovy.
As of February 2023, the Hydra bot in Discord stopped being able to play music. This was a shame, since it was one of the most well-known music bots, and probably the most powerful music bot out there. But like I said, server members can still use it for reaction roles.
Kenku FM is an audioboard that you can set up like a Discord music bot. You can get it to play anything, even YouTube videos.
I know what you're wondering - how come Kenku hasn't got banned? It all comes down to it respecting company policies, and playing ads.
Although Kenku is free to use, it does ask you for a donation to keep it going. This can be any amount that you want. If you choose to ignore this, that's fine: you'll automatically be taken to the Download page to start the installation process.
It's a multi-step process to start using Kenku FM. But I've broken it down for you.
Here's part 1:
Here's part 2:
Here's part 3:
Here's part 4:
Here's part 5:
Just like you would add the Hydra bot to your server, you can follow the same exact process to invite any other bot. Head to the bot's site page, click on the Invite button, and then authorize and give it the proper permissions.
Once again, though, you won't be able to do this unless you have the necessary administrative access.
Although it's unfortunate that you can't use the Hydra bot for music anymore, you can still use it for reaction roles. So basically, server members can react to a Hydra message and then get a specific role assigned. This can be any role that you've set up - there are no restrictions to this.
Before you get to any of this, you'll first need to create the role that you want to let users assign to themselves. Here's how you can do this:
Here's part 1 of what you do on Hydra afterward:
Here's part 2:
When you open the text channel that you chose earlier, you should see a message from Hydra asking users to react with the emoji that you set. Once they do this, they'll get the custom role.
Answered below are some popular questions.
Yes, you can play Spotify on Discord. Like with listening to music bots, you can get other Discord users to join you. When they click on your username, they'll see a button that will let them play what you're listening to on their Spotify account.
This feature is pretty neat, as it syncs their Spotify with your account. So if you stop playing music, what you're playing will pause for them. And if you skip to another song, it will skip for them too.
The thing is, you'll need to be a Spotify Premium subscriber to use this feature. No, you won't need Nitro, if you're wondering.
It's quite easy to get and use the Hydra bot on your Discord server. But as mentioned, you can only use it for reaction roles. I think this is a shame, as it was one of the top Discord music bots out there - it was really reliable and had good streaming quality every time.
Now, all's not lost, as I ran through a good replacement for it - Kenku FM. It's completely free. But expect all YouTube videos that you play to have ads.
I ran through all kinds of additional information while touching on the topic too, like whether you can use play Spotify on Discord, and why you stopped being able to request songs on Hydra in the first place.
