How to Release Music in 2026: The Complete Checklist

Everything downstream, artwork, pitching, press, pre-saves, assumes the audio is final. Not 'almost final'. Final. The moment you deliver to a distributor, changing the audio means a takedown and redelivery on most platforms, and your release date moves with it.

Before you call it done: bounce the master, listen on headphones and a phone speaker, and check the loudness. Streaming platforms normalise playback volume, so an over-limited master does not sound louder on Spotify, it just sounds flatter. Measure the integrated LUFS and true peak so you know exactly what each platform will do to it.

A distributor delivers your music to Spotify, Apple Music, Beatport and the rest. The main differences are pricing model (per-release vs subscription), which stores they reach, payout speed and how much control you keep over metadata.

For electronic music specifically, check Beatport and Juno Download support before you commit, not every distributor delivers there, and for club music those stores matter. Read the royalty split terms twice. If a distributor takes a percentage, that percentage follows the release forever.

Release on a Friday. The global tracking week starts on Friday, playlist editors plan around it, and your first-week numbers compare cleanly against everyone else's.

Four weeks is the minimum comfortable window. Here is the countdown we use:

Metadata is how stores, playlists and royalty systems identify your music. Errors here are the most common and most expensive mistakes we see, a wrong artist name splits your catalogue across two profiles, and a mistyped code can split your royalties.

The two codes that matter: the ISRC identifies one recording and follows it forever across every store and royalty statement. The UPC identifies the release (single, EP, album) as a product. Your distributor usually assigns both for free. If you bring your own: never reuse an ISRC for a different recording, and never let one recording end up with two ISRCs.

Also check: exact artist name spelling (including featuring artists), title capitalisation per store style guides, genre tags, and explicit-content flags.

Every major store requires exactly square artwork. Spotify's minimum is 1400×1400 pixels; Apple Music wants 3000×3000 and reviews covers manually, blurry or upscaled art gets rejected and your release date moves.

The text rules trip people up most: no URLs, no social handles, no pricing, no store logos, and the artist name on the cover must match the metadata exactly. Check your artwork against the requirements before you upload it to the distributor, not after the rejection email.

Spotify editorial pitching happens in Spotify for Artists and requires the release to be delivered at least 7 days before release day: but pitch at 3–4 weeks out, because editors work through submissions in order. You get one pitch per artist profile per release, so write it carefully: mood, genre, story, and any traction you already have.

A pre-save page lets fans save the release before it is out, which converts day-one streams and signals demand to the algorithm. Get it live three weeks out and put it in every bio link.

Press works on the same lead times. Blogs and playlist curators need the music, the artwork and the story at least two weeks before release day: a press release sent on release day is a press release nobody reads.

On release day: post the smart link everywhere, reply to every comment, and update your artist profiles (Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists) with the new release pinned. The first 48 hours of engagement shape how the algorithmic playlists treat the track.

The week after is where most independent releases die, not from lack of quality but from silence. Keep posting: behind-the-scenes clips, the Canvas loop, fan reactions, the story of how the track was made. A release is a campaign, not an upload.