Most release problems are timing problems. Here is the plan we use, week by week, from twelve weeks out to the week the song is live.
Finish the music and the artwork twelve weeks out. Deliver to your distributor by eight weeks out. Start press six to eight weeks out. Pitch Spotify's editors well before the seven-day deadline. Lock video and ads by two weeks out. Then plan the four weeks after release as carefully as the weeks before, because that is when most of the work pays off.
Every part of a release has its own lead time. Writers plan features weeks ahead. Distributors need time to deliver to every store. Spotify needs the song in its system before you can pitch it. Video and photo shoots slip. Twelve weeks leaves room for one thing to go wrong without moving the date.
If you have less time, keep the order and compress the gaps. Do not skip the Spotify pitch or the press lead time, because those two cannot be recovered after release day.
Write the one-sentence story for the release now. Every pitch, caption and press line will come from it.
Early delivery is the single biggest fix for most independent releases. Late delivery is what makes the Spotify pitch impossible.
Loop.fans' guide to music PR recommends beginning press outreach six to eight weeks before release. That matches what we see.
Spotify's support page on pitching music to playlist editors says to deliver your music at least 7 days before release so editors have time to listen, and that a song pitched at least 7 days before release is added to your followers' Release Radar. It also says you can pitch only one song at a time.
Seven days is the deadline, not the target. Pitch as soon as the song shows up in Spotify for Artists. Our guide to pitching Spotify editorial playlists covers what to write.
Release day is the start, not the finish. Post the song, the video and the story. Send a short thank-you and link to every writer and curator who helped. Start the ads. Watch where listeners come from in your streaming dashboards.
The strongest release weeks stack events: a piece of coverage, a playlist add, a video and a live date in the same few days, so each one sends people to the others.
For a U.S. campaign with radio and television, the clock starts earlier. Programmers, TV bookers and national editors plan months ahead, and each lane has to land in the same weeks. That is the work LUSIVEX does, in the same house: Top 40 radio, press, television and playlisting and DSP relations.
Twelve weeks is a comfortable plan for an independent single or EP: finished music and art at twelve weeks, delivery to the distributor by eight, press from six to eight, Spotify pitch as early as possible and no later than seven days out.
As soon as it appears in Spotify for Artists. Spotify's support page says to deliver at least 7 days before release, and a song pitched at least 7 days before release goes to your followers' Release Radar. You can pitch one song at a time.
Press six to eight weeks out, fan-facing content and pre-saves three to four weeks out, ads on release day, and follow-up for at least four weeks after.
Labels and management companies planning a U.S. release can start on the U.S. launch page.