The six-week release plan

Why six weeks

The usual way to release a song is to announce it the night before and push it for three days. By the time anyone pitches a playlist, the window has closed. By the time creators hear the song, the moment has gone. The song isn't the problem. The timeline is.

Six weeks isn't a magic number. It's the shortest plan that fits the deadlines the platforms set and still leaves room for something to go wrong. Spotify only accepts a pitch for a song that hasn't been released, and asks for the song to be delivered at least seven days before release so its editors have time to listen. A distributor needs time before that. Creators need the song before the public does. Work back from the release date and six weeks fills up quickly.

1. Week −6

   Finish and brief

   Final master, artwork, credits, release date and budget. Agree the goal. Choose the 15–30 second hook.

2. Week −4

   Deliver and pitch

   Deliver to the distributor and lock the date. The song appears in Spotify for Artists; the editorial pitch goes in.

3. Week −3

   Creators

   Shortlist creators by format, size and city. Send one brief to all of them.

4. Week −2

   Announce

   Announcement, pre-save link, teaser schedule and the YouTube Premiere page.

5. Week −1

   Lock

   Every creator confirmed with a posting window. Every link tested on a phone.

6. Release day

   Check, then post

   Store checks first. Then the artist posts, the premiere runs and the first creator wave goes up.

7. Weeks +1 to +8

   Widen and report

   Further waves on what works, Shorts cut-downs, curator follow-ups, and a report at week eight.

Week −6: finish and brief

The plan starts when the song is finished, not when it's nearly finished. Final means the master you will deliver, signed off by the artist, the producer and anyone else with a say. A mix that changes after week −4 means delivering again, and delivering again puts the pitch at risk.

At week −6 I want five things on the table: the final master, the artwork, the full credits, a release date and a budget. The credits matter more than people think. Singer, lyricist, composer, producer and any featured artist, each spelt exactly the way it appears on every other release. A name spelt two ways can end up on two artist profiles. ISRC, Content ID and metadata explained has the full spec for audio, artwork and metadata.

Then we agree the goal. "Make it a hit" isn't a goal. New listeners in Canada, more Spotify followers, the hook in every reel this wedding season: those are goals, and each one changes where the budget goes.

Last, the hook. Pick the 15 to 30 seconds people will use in reels and Shorts. It isn't always the chorus. It's the part someone would put under a bhangra step, a car edit or a sangeet entry. Everything from week −3 onwards is built on that cut.

Week −4: deliver and pitch

Week −4 is delivery. The distributor gets the master, artwork and metadata, and the release date is locked. If the recording doesn't have an ISRC and the release doesn't have a UPC, they get them now.

Once the distributor has delivered the song to Spotify, it appears in the Upcoming tab of Spotify for Artists. Spotify says to allow around 48 hours after you submit it through your distributor. If it doesn't appear, check that it was delivered to the right artist profile.

That's when the pitch goes in. Anyone with Admin or Editor access to the artist's Spotify for Artists can write it. You pitch one song at a time, and it has to be unreleased. Seven days before release is Spotify's minimum; I treat it as a line we should never be near. Delivering at week −4 leaves room for a file to be rejected or a credit to be fixed, and still gives editors weeks with the song instead of days.

We write the pitch. The artist's team can submit it from their own account, or give us Editor access. How Spotify editorial pitching works covers what goes in it. The same week we draw up the list of independent playlist curators and, where there's a budget for it, the ad plan.

Weeks −3 to −1: creators, announce, pre-save

Week −3 is creators. We shortlist creators by format, size and city: Punjab, Delhi, Brampton, Surrey, Southall. The artist approves the list and flags anyone they don't want. Every creator gets the same brief: the sound, the format, the posting window and the disclosure rules.

Decide now which Instagram sound counts. If creators use a teaser's original audio and the official track arrives later, the reels split across two sound pages and neither shows the real count. One sound page, and why it matters explains how we keep a campaign on one.

Week −2 is the announcement. It goes out with a pre-save link and a teaser schedule. For an album or EP, Spotify's own Countdown Page is worth setting up if you qualify: Spotify requires at least 3,000 monthly active listeners, and only new, original albums and EPs are eligible. Singles aren't. On release day Spotify sends everyone who pre-saved a push notification and adds the release to their library. For a single, use your distributor's pre-save link or a pre-save service.

The YouTube Premiere page goes up the same week. Scheduling a Premiere creates a public watch page where fans can set a reminder, comment and chat; YouTube notifies them about 30 minutes before it starts and again when it does. Title, thumbnail options, description with credits and lyrics: done now, not on the night. If the video is in 4K, test the upload early. YouTube's help says Premieres don't support output above 1080p.

Week −1 is quiet on purpose. Every creator has confirmed a posting window. Every link has been opened on a phone. The artist knows what they're posting on release day and at what time. Anything missing at week −1 can still be fixed. On release day it can't.

Release day

Release day is for checking, then posting. Before anyone shares a link, we open the song on every major store and check the artist name, featured artists, artwork and lyrics, then search the sound on Instagram. Only then does the artist post. The premiere runs with the artist in the chat, and the first creator wave goes up inside its window, all on one sound page.

For the first seven days of a new release, Spotify for Artists shows a live stream count that updates every two seconds. Watch it if you like, but don't steer by it. The main stats update once a day, at about 9 pm UTC, which is 2:30 am in Punjab, and Spotify counts days in UTC. Judge the first full day, not the first hour.

Time zones decide when "release day" happens for each fan. If you have listeners in Canada, the UK, Australia or the Gulf, read Releasing for the diaspora before you set the release time.

Weeks +1 to +8

The first week tells you what's working. The next seven are for using it.

• The next wave. When one format starts repeating on the sound page, we brief more creators to copy and remix it. Before that there's nothing to copy, which is why the second wave waits for the first.
• Shorts. Vertical cut-downs of the video, each pointing at the full video. YouTube Studio lets you add a related video to a Short, which shows as a link under your channel handle; YouTube makes this available to channels with advanced feature access.
• Curators. Spotify's editorial pitch closes when the song goes live. Independent curators don't, and now you can follow up with the first week's numbers.
• [Release Radar](/glossary#release-radar) and This Is. A song can stay in a follower's Release Radar for up to four weeks if they haven't played it. If you're eligible, you can also pin the pitched song to your This Is playlist; it stays pinned for up to 28 days after release.
• Release engagement. Spotify for Artists shows how many of your monthly active listeners streamed the new music each day for its first 28 days. That's the number I check at week four: did the people who already like this artist come back for this song?

At week eight we write the report: what moved, with a dated screenshot behind every figure, and what we'd change next time. The next release is planned from that report. How we work covers what happens in the months after.

The checklist