The first record I released on my own, I uploaded the masters to my distributor nine days before street date. Nine days. The music went live on time, technically. But the editorial pitch window had closed, the pre-save link went out four days before release instead of four weeks, and the one blog that wanted a premiere needed three weeks of lead time I didn’t have. First-week streams: 1,900. The next record, I ran a real timeline. First-week streams: 26,000. Same size fanbase, same genre, roughly the same songs, honestly.
The difference wasn’t marketing genius. It was that a release is a chain of deadlines set by other people, and if you miss the early ones, the later ones quietly evaporate. Here’s the timeline I’ve used for the last three releases, working backwards from street date.
Week 12: masters and metadata locked
Everything downstream depends on finished masters, so this is the real deadline, not the release date. Locked means: final masters delivered as 24-bit WAVs, sequenced, with ISRCs assigned per track and a UPC for the release. Your distributor will generate ISRCs for you if you don’t have your own registrant code, but decide now, because changing them later breaks your streaming history.
This is also when split sheets get signed. Every co-writer, every producer with points, on paper, before there’s any money to argue about. And register the works with your PRO and make sure you’re set up with the MLC for mechanicals. None of that is glamorous, and all of it is money you simply don’t collect if you skip it.
One more thing at week 12: decide on vinyl now, or accept that it ships after release. Pressing plant turnaround has been running 4 to 6 months for small runs. If vinyl on street date matters to you, this whole timeline actually starts at week 24, with test pressings approved around week 10.
Week 10: artwork and assets
Cover art at 3000 x 3000 minimum, because that’s what the DSPs want and because it’ll get blown up on a Canvas loop or a playlist header eventually. But the cover is maybe a third of the asset list. You also need: single artwork for each focus track, 9:16 crops for Stories and Reels, a bio refresh, press photos, and lyric documents for the DSPs that display them. I keep a running list of creative tools for this stage; the roundups at dreamworks-plus.com have surfaced a few of the ones I now use for motion assets and mockups.
Batch all of it now. Asking your designer for “one more crop” during release week is how friendships end.
Week 8: first single to the distributor
Here’s the lead-time math that nobody tells you the first time. Spotify’s editorial pitch form technically needs 7 days before release. In practice, playlist editors are working 3 to 4 weeks out, and your distributor needs the track before you can even pitch. So: single delivered at week 8, live at week 6, which gives the algorithm a month and a half of data on the track before the album drops. Two singles is the floor, three is better, spaced about three weeks apart.
Every single delivery includes the pitch itself: genre, mood, instrumentation, the story in two sentences. Write these in advance. The pitch you write at 1 a.m. on the deadline reads like it.
Week 6 to 4: PR and radio
Blogs and online outlets want 4 to 8 weeks of lead time for a premiere or feature. Print, if you’re aiming that high, wants 3 to 4 months, which means print coverage for street date was pitched back before your masters were done. Non-commercial and college radio campaigns typically start mailing 4 to 6 weeks out.
If you’re hiring a publicist, they need to be onboarded at week 8 at the latest, with the full asset folder from week 10. If you’re DIY, build a target list of 40 to 60 outlets, personalize the top 15, and send everything from one spreadsheet-tracked push so you know who opened, who passed, and who to follow up with once, politely.
Week 4: pre-save and content calendar
Pre-save campaign goes live a month out. This is also when the content calendar starts executing: two to three posts a week, escalating toward release. The trick that saved me: script and shoot all of it in one two-day block around week 5. Thirty pieces of content from two days of shooting beats improvising every morning for a month.
Release week
Deliver the full album to the distributor no later than 2 weeks out (some distributors want 4). Release day itself is a checklist, not a party: verify the album is live in every territory, links work, credits display correctly, the vinyl or merch store flips from pre-order to in-stock, and thank-you assets go out to every playlist and outlet that supported. Then the part everyone forgets: weeks one through four after release are when you pitch the deep cuts, push the algorithmic momentum with a remix or acoustic version, and settle the campaign budget against actuals.
How I actually keep track of all this
Three releases ago this lived in seven spreadsheets, two Google Docs, and a group chat. The problem wasn’t any single document; it was that the mastering engineer’s deadline, the publicist’s asset list, and the pressing plant’s test-approval date all lived in different places, and nobody saw the chain.
Now the whole campaign lives in Wisegrid, and I start every release by duplicating their free project charter template and renaming it for the record. It works like the spreadsheets I was already using, same grid, same muscle memory, so the band actually opens it. The part that matters for a music budget: viewers are free, so my publicist, the label partner, and both bandmates watch the timeline without me paying for seats. I pay for one editor seat ($19 a month) and cancel between campaigns if I want. Every deadline above is a row, every row has an owner, and when the vinyl test pressing slips a week, everyone sees what it pushes.
The one-page version
- Week 12: masters, ISRCs, UPC, splits, PRO and MLC registration. Vinyl decision.
- Week 10: all artwork and content assets, batched.
- Week 8: single one delivered, pitch written.
- Week 6: single one live, PR push starts, radio mail date set.
- Week 4: pre-save live, content calendar executing, album delivered soon after.
- Week 0: verify everything, thank everyone.
- Weeks 1 to 4 after: deep-cut pitches, follow-ups, settle the budget.
A release plan is not a creative document. It’s a promise ledger between you and a dozen gatekeepers whose calendars don’t care about your street date. Work backwards from theirs, and yours takes care of itself.