Music release planner: every deadline from upload to release day

How long before release to upload, by distributor

Each distributor answers this slightly differently. These are their own words, with the date we read them. The DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby and Ditto help centres block automated reading, so those quotes come from search snippets of the named articles; open the article to confirm before you rely on it.

Why four weeks, when the minimums are shorter

Two chains of events have to finish before release day. Your distributor reviews the release and delivers it to every store, which takes from a couple of business days to two weeks or more (CD Baby without Fast Forward). Then Spotify lists it: the release shows in the Upcoming tab of Spotify for Artists around 48 hours after delivery, and you can only pitch once it is there. Spotify needs the pitch at least 7 days before release. Put those together and two weeks is the bare minimum. Four weeks gives editors time to listen, lets you build a pre-save and announce the date, and absorbs a rejected artwork or a metadata fix.

Every distributor also offers an "as soon as possible" release. It skips the pitch window entirely, because the song goes live before it can sit in the Upcoming tab for seven days. If you want Release Radar for your followers and a chance at editorial playlists, set a date and give it the lead time above.

Spotify's rules the planner follows

When to pitch Spotify editors

Pitch as soon as the release appears in Spotify for Artists, and no later than seven days before release day. Count back from release day: seven days before is the last safe day, and the earliest is about two days after your distributor delivers. With four weeks of lead time that window is two to three weeks wide; with two weeks it is a few days. Most guides aim for three to four weeks out. Spotify has not published a preferred lead time beyond the seven-day floor, so treat an early pitch as a courtesy to the editors, not a ranking factor. Pitching does not guarantee a playlist placement.

If you are late

• Release in eight or more days and the song is in the Upcoming tab: pitch today.
• Release in under seven days: no editorial pitch is possible. Move the date if your distributor still allows it, or release without a pitch and pitch the next single early.
• Already released: the pitch form is closed for that song. Your own fans, independent curators and a real promotion campaign are the remaining routes; be wary of anyone promising placements.

What time does the release go live?

By default, at midnight local time in each territory. Spotify's documentation for distributors calls this Store Turn: "the release goes live at Midnight, the start of the day for each territory. Daylight savings time can change this." Midnight arrives first in New Zealand and last on the US West Coast, so in December Auckland hears a Friday release at 11:00 UTC on Thursday and Los Angeles at 08:00 UTC on Friday, a 21 hour spread. A distributor can instead set a timed release (one chosen moment), but few independent distributors offer it. The planner shows your own local time for each market under the plan.

What the planner adds around the rules

The platform rules decide what is possible. The rest of the plan is advice from CD Baby's DIY Musician guide to releasing a single, marked as advice in the timeline: set the release at least 6 weeks out, announce about 4 weeks before, pitch national press 4 weeks out and local press 2 to 3 weeks out, send fans the pre-save two weeks out, add Canvas and credits a week before, and follow up three days after release. Holidays need more time: DistroKid and CD Baby both ask for three to four weeks around late December.

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