Glossary · Distribution
Release date
A release date is the day a recording becomes publicly available across streaming services, set in advance when the release is delivered by a distributor. It also anchors copyright registration timing, playlist pitching deadlines and pre-save campaigns.
The release date is the coordination point for everything else in a release, which is why picking it early and working backwards is the whole discipline. Distributors deliver in advance of it, stores schedule against it, Spotify's editorial pitching window closes before it, and pre-save links point at it.
Three deadlines hang off it that independent artists routinely miss.
- Delivery lead time. Your distributor needs the release in hand days to weeks ahead. DistroKid, TuneCore and CD Baby each publish their own recommended lead times, and custom release dates are a paid tier feature on some plans — DistroKid puts custom release dates on Musician Plus at $44.99/yr rather than the $24.99 tier.
- Playlist pitching. Spotify for Artists pitching requires an unreleased, already-delivered track, and the pitch has to be submitted before the release date. Once the song is out, that window is gone permanently for that track.
- Copyright registration. Under 17 U.S.C. 412, statutory damages and attorney's fees are preserved if registration happens before infringement or within three months of publication. Registering an album with the US Copyright Office costs $65 under Group Registration of Works on an Album of Music, per its fee schedule retrieved August 2026, and the three-month clock starts at release.
The registrations that get you paid should also be done before the date, not after. Register the compositions with The MLC and with ASCAP or BMI, and the recordings with SoundExchange, so that day-one usage attaches to something.
The misunderstanding: treating the release date as the finish line. It is the start of the clock on several deadlines that only run once.
This is how I sequence my own releases; adjust to your distributor's stated timings.
Related terms
- Store deliveryStore delivery is the process by which a distributor transmits a finished release — audio, artwork, metadata and rights…
- Pre-saveA pre-save is a link that lets a listener authorise a streaming service in advance to add an upcoming release to their library…
- Statutory damagesStatutory damages are a fixed range of monetary awards a copyright owner can elect instead of proving actual losses.
- Music distributorA music distributor delivers recordings to streaming services and stores on an artist's behalf and collects the recording…
Answers that use this term
Definitions on this site describe the United States system. I am an artist who has been through this, not a lawyer.
Get the paperwork done in one afternoon
The Zero to Beat Society walks through registration, splits and release paperwork step by step — with the templates and checklists already filled in.
See the tiers