Release Day Checklist: Get Your Music on Spotify and Apple Music in 9 Steps
A release is not finished when the master is. Nine checks sit between the bounce and a listener finding the thing: artwork that survives review, a title shaped like a search, codes that keep the recording attached to you, a date with air in it, and a preview that earns the next thirty seconds.
The short version
Upload eight weeks before the date you want, at 3000x3000 artwork with no text near the edges, using a title that names the work and the artist, with an ISRC and UPC, and with the hook inside the first thirty seconds. Keep the artist name identical to every earlier release, claim the artist pages on Spotify and Apple Music, and check the store links yourself on release day rather than waiting for a distributor email.
Step 1: Master for normalisation, not for loudness
Stores normalise playback. They turn a loud master down to their target and they do not turn a quiet one up, so a master squashed until it sounds loud on a laptop loses detail and gains nothing on a phone or a speaker. Leave headroom, keep the peaks under control, and check the file on bad speakers instead of studio monitors, because that is where most of the listening happens.
Format is the other decision. A 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz WAV is the safe delivery, and the distributor will handle encoding. Do not send an MP3 that has already been through three conversions, and do not "fix" a mix by bouncing it louder after the fact.
Step 2: Make artwork that survives the crop
Upload a square at 3000x3000. That size survives every store crop, every playlist tile and every share card, and anything smaller will be upscaled by someone else's software. Keep the important part of the image in the middle, because the edges are the first thing a store cuts when it turns a sleeve into a thumbnail.
Stores reject covers for the same handful of reasons every week: a logo of a store or a platform, a URL, a price, a social handle, a release date, or a "parental advisory" style badge baked into the image. Keep the sleeve clean and put the marketing copy on your own site, where nothing has to approve it. One artwork crop, used everywhere, keeps a release recognisable across a store page, a social card and a site preview.
Step 3: Shape the title and credits like a search
A title is the field a listener types into, so build it the way they search. For a cover, that means the original work first, the treatment second, and the artist name in the artist field, not crammed into the title. For an original, the title carries the song and the artist field carries you, spelled exactly as it appears on every other release.
Consistency is the whole game. A hyphen where another release had a space, or an accent that matches on some releases and not others, splits a catalogue across two artist pages. Claim the profiles at Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists before the release lands, so the new track appears on a page you control instead of an empty one. RouteNote covers the distributor side of that in the artist page article.
Step 4: Get the codes before the upload, not after
An ISRC identifies the recording and a UPC identifies the release. RouteNote issues both free at upload, and accepts codes you already own, which is what you want if the track has been out before. Reusing the ISRC on a re-release is how a store recognises that the recording is the one already attached to your artist page, and the ISRC article explains what happens without one: royalties can go unclaimed where they were owed.
Write both numbers down outside the dashboard. A spreadsheet with release title, ISRC, UPC, artwork file and master file is the cheapest insurance in this process, and it is the only record you will have when a distributor changes or a release needs to move.
Step 5: Pick a date with eight weeks of air in it
Count backwards from the date, not forwards from the master. RouteNote's current estimate, in an article updated on 26 October 2026, is 21 to 23 working days for moderation, 24 hours to send an approved release to stores, and 7 to 14 days for stores to ingest it. Eight weeks covers all of that with a margin for one rejection.
The sales start date is the lever that makes this safe. A release approved early with a later date waits for its date, so setting the date further out costs nothing except patience. Setting it weeks before the queue can deliver costs the launch: the links arrive after the announcement, and the first listeners find nothing.
Announce the date only when the release is approved. That way the post that says "out now" has somewhere to send people, and the playlist or press conversation starts from a working link. The release timing article is the source for the numbers above and worth a reread before every submission.
Step 6: Treat the 30 second preview as the release
Store previews and most shares run about thirty seconds, which means a large share of the audience never hears the rest of the track. Put the hook inside that window. If the arrangement spends the first forty seconds building, the preview will land on an intro and the listener will move on before the melody arrives.
Test it on the same player a listener uses. Every release page on this site carries a 30 second clip, so the We Are Hunters page is a real preview test: press play and decide whether the first thirty seconds would survive a crowded feed. That test is cheaper than a rejected release.
Step 7: Check the live release yourself
The distributor email says the release is live. The store says whether it is right. Open each store link, play the first ten seconds, confirm the artist name, the artwork and the track order, and check the explicit flag against the actual lyrics. A release that lands with the wrong artist spelling is not broken, but it is invisible to anyone searching for it.
Territories are worth a look as well, especially on a cover. RouteNote's cover rules exclude the United States, Canada, Mexico, India and Pakistan without a mechanical licence, so a cover that seems missing in one of those markets is behaving exactly as configured.
Step 8: Watch the first week for signals, not applause
The numbers that matter in the first week are not the play count. They are the save rate, the skip behaviour on the preview, and whether anyone who hears one track goes on to another. A release with modest plays and a high save rate is doing better than a release with a lot of plays and nobody returning.
Keep a note of what you changed between releases: the title format, the artwork crop, the preview arrangement. After three or four releases the pattern is visible, and it is the only form of marketing research an independent artist can afford.
Step 9: Leave the next release a trail
Link the new release to the last one, in the site footer, in the release page, in the blog post that accompanies it, and in the store profile description. A catalogue that links to itself is easier to browse, and browsing is what turns one play into three. The discography page exists for that reason, and it is the first place I check after a release goes live.
Then write down the date of the next one. A release that ships into an empty calendar gets the same attention as a release that ships as part of a rhythm, and the rhythm is the part you control.
Questions that come up on release day
How far ahead should I upload to hit a date?
Eight weeks. The moderation queue is 21 to 23 working days, the send takes 24 hours, and ingestion runs 7 to 14 days. A later sales start date is respected, so the release waits for the date rather than the date waiting for the release.
Can I fix artwork or metadata after the release is live?
Yes, at a cost in time. Updates to an approved release are reviewed by the end of the next working day and take around 7 to 14 days to show in stores. Editing within 24 hours of approval can temporarily halt distribution, so the cheapest fix is a careful check before submission.
Do I need a distributor to get on Spotify and Apple Music?
Both stores take music through distributors and label partners rather than direct uploads from independent artists. RouteNote is one of those routes and its free plan costs nothing upfront. The full process is in the RouteNote release guide.
Is the 30 second preview really that important?
It is often the only part of a track a new listener hears. The hook, the beat and the first edit all have to land inside that window, which makes it an arrangement decision rather than a marketing one. The music box cover guide handles the same question from the production side.
Why is my release on the wrong artist page?
Usually an artist name that differs from earlier releases, or a new ISRC on a recording that already existed. RouteNote publishes a corrective article and a timeline for corrections, and both are quicker to use before the release ships than after.
