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the planner

Planning your standalone single release.

From master to release day

So, you wrote a new song and you want to release it as a standalone single, maybe to come out with a new band, keep interest alive between bigger releases, or to announce a tour. If your past releases went down rather chaotic and without much impact, here’s a good way to plan it: backwards. And once the plan stands, you simply execute it.

1
Pick your release date (a Friday)
Open your planning sheet and pick a Friday. Friday is the global release day: DSPs refresh New Music Friday and Release Radar on Fridays, and the chart week runs Friday to Thursday. Avoid holidays, bridge days, December, and the first half of January, industry folks are most likely not at work, and listeners aren’t on their regular listening schedule.
This date drives every recommended deadline below, no need to enter anything else.
2
Set your Spotify pitching deadline
Spotify’s hard deadline is 7 days before release, past that you risk missing your followers’ Release Radar. Spotify itself recommends at least 2 weeks. But don’t plan around that either: editors build playlists weeks ahead, so pitch as early as you can, ideally the moment your track’s delivered, around 4 weeks out.
Recommended—
3
Count back for your upload date
Count back 6 weeks from your release date for the day you upload to your distributor. Distrokid’s turnaround is only a few days, but count back 9–10 weeks if you work with a bigger distributor, some need 5–6 weeks. Your song has to be delivered (not released) to Spotify for Artists at least 4 weeks before release so you can pitch by that 4-week mark. Check with your distributor for lead times!
Recommended—
4
Set your master asset delivery deadline
Set the deadline for your finished master assets one week before upload, so you can catch problems before they mess up your pretty plan.
Master assets include
  • The streaming master (44.1 kHz)
  • Metadata (songwriter, performer, producer)
  • The audio master for the video (48 kHz)
  • Video (needs 48 kHz audio!)
  • The cover artwork (3000×3000px)
  • Photos
  • Proof-read lyrics
Recommended—
5
Set your vendor master asset delivery deadline
Deadlines get hard to meet the moment more people are involved. Give them a date a week earlier than your real one. So you’re holding 2 dates: the vendor deadline (padded, the one you tell them), and your hard deadline (your real need-by).
Recommended—
6
Plan your content creation & channel update time
Your content is made from your finished master assets, so budget about a week of content creation once everything’s delivered. Some of it should be done before you pitch:
  • Avatar (profile picture)
  • Gallery image(s)
  • Spotify Canvas
  • Countdown videos
  • Banner
  • Bio + links
  • Full-length video
  • Spotify pitch
Ideally, you refresh your whole online presence before you pitch, so it’s current and cohesive when an editor, or anyone you want to impress, looks you up.
Recommended—
Your plan stands.
To-do’s that start today

Now, the follow-through

7
Give collaborators the vendor delivery deadline
Tell your mastering engineer, artwork designer, filmmaker, and photographer when you need everything finished.
8
Book your sessions early
Book the mixing and mastering sessions (if you’re in the room for them), the photo and video shoots, the design calls, anything that needs scheduling. Get it on the books early so the deadlines can be met.
9
Write your pitch
While the track’s being mixed and mastered and the artwork, video, and photos come together, prepare your Spotify pitch: what the track’s about, what’s special about its songwriting, production, or collaboration, any live dates, your marketing plans, and which playlists could be a fit.
10
Update your bio
Since you’re refreshing your channels before the pitch, prep a bio update to go live then too.
One timeline

The whole thing, start to finish

Everything counts back from your release Friday. Set these markers once and, from here, it’s just executing the plan.

Your dates are out of order
    8 weeks before
    Vendor asset deadline
    The padded date you give collaborators, a week before your real need-by.
    Recommended— Your date—
    7 weeks before
    Hard asset deadline
    Your real need-by for all finished master assets, so you can catch problems early.
    Recommended— Your date—
    6 weeks before
    Upload to distributor
    DistroKid turns around in days; allow 9–10 weeks for bigger distributors.
    Recommended— Your date—
    5 weeks before
    Content creation week
    Avatar, banner, gallery, Spotify Canvas, videos, bio, all built from your masters.
    Recommended— Your date—
    4 weeks before
    Deliver & pitch Spotify
    Track delivered to Spotify for Artists; the pitch window opens, pitch as early as you can.
    Recommended— Your date—
    1 week before
    Spotify hard deadline
    7 days out at the latest, or you risk missing your followers’ Release Radar.
    Date—
    Day 0 · Friday
    Release day
    New Music Friday and Release Radar refresh; the chart week begins.
    Your release date—

    Wherever you entered your own date above, it shows here next to the recommended one.

    What this doesn’t cover

    Promotion
    Planning gets your release out the door. Getting it heard is a separate job, the announcement, pre-save, content before, on, and after release day, ads, email sendouts and PR, DSP campaigns, a release show, that’s a whole other guide (I’m on it!), but with your master assets in place, you already have the foundation set.
    Rights management
    Rights management makes sure you own your release and get paid for it, songwriting and publishing splits, master revenue splits, registering the work with your PRO or publisher. It’s its own world, but settle it before you release, not after. Money is much harder to untangle once it’s moving.

    First release ever? Do this now.

    Here’s a catch nobody warns you about: you can’t claim your Spotify for Artists profile or pitch your debut single until you already have music on the platform, because the profile doesn’t exist yet.

    Solution
    1
    Release a 1-minute teaser or intro ASAP, any day, this gets a profile created for you.
    2
    Claim and verify your profiles (Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, etc.).
    3
    Once verified, take the teaser down via your distributor, or just leave it up as an intro.

    Do this early, the teaser still needs distributor and claim time, so your profile is verified before your real single’s pitch window opens at the 4-week mark.

    Let’s talk

    That’s the planning. Want to do it with someone who’s done it a few hundred times?

    I map out your whole release, then stay hands-on with you from announcement to out now.

    Book a Free Intro Call hello@sarahwohlfahrt.com
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