How to plan a music release: timelines, pitching and pre-save

Your song can be on Spotify in a matter of minutes. But if you want to give it a chance of making playlists and reaching your fans from day one, it is worth preparing ahead. Here is the order to follow.

1. Choose a date with time to spare

We recommend submitting your release in line with standard industry timelines, several weeks before the release date. That allows time to review it, make sure it reaches every platform correctly and pitch it to playlist editors.

2. Check the metadata

The title, consistently spelt artist names, songwriter and producer credits, language and whether it is explicit. Incorrect metadata can put your song on another artist's profile or cause a platform to reject it. And the artwork must meet each platform's rules: no text or logos that do not belong there.

3. Agree the rights splits from the start

If several people are involved in the song, make each artist's and collaborator's share clear before submitting it, as well as the shares among composers and lyricists. Sorting it out afterwards is always harder. We explain this in our guide to collecting your music royalties.

4. Pitch to the editors

Before release, pitch your release to playlist editors: genre, mood, instruments, what the song is about and how you plan to promote it. On Spotify, if your pitch arrives at least seven days before release, the song also reaches your followers' Release Radar.

5. Share the pre-save

A pre-save link lets your fans save your release before it comes out, so it is already in their library on release day. Share it on social media as soon as you have it. Once the release is out, the same link works for promoting it.

6. Release day and beyond

Update your artist profile, share the song on social media with short videos and track its streams and playlists in your analytics. The first few weeks count.

How we do it

At MusicAdders, you release in three steps through Workstation and send your release's promotional information to the editors from the same screen. You get your pre-save link when you submit it. We are a Spotify Preferred Provider, offer Discovery Mode, and a dedicated team pitches all our releases to the leading playlists at no extra cost. More about playlists.