How to plan a music release in 11 weeks
A release that goes well is rarely a lucky one. It is a plan someone wrote down early, and a team that knew who owned each step.
This is the plan Urganize uses for a single. It runs 11 weeks: 8 weeks before release day and 3 weeks after. It was written with working managers. Change it to fit your song, your budget and your team.
Start when the master is done, or within a week of it being done.
Weeks 8 and 7: decide and brief
8 weeks out
- Lock the master file. That means the final mix and the final master.
- Pick your release date and lock it.
- Choose a distributor and check that your account works.
- Brief your marketing lead on the song: the story, the audience and the mood.
- Set a budget for ads, design, PR and content.
- Pick the 3 playlists or curators you most want to reach.
7 weeks out
- Brief your designer on the cover art: the idea, your references and the sizes.
- Plan the day you will shoot content.
- Write the song details: title, songwriter splits, producer credits and language.
- Draft the split sheet and send it to everyone who worked on the song.
- Decide whether you will run a pre-save campaign.
Making vinyl, CDs or cassettes? Start production now. Making them takes 8 to 12 weeks on its own.
Week 6: make the assets and upload
- Your designer delivers the first draft of the cover art.
- Shoot your content: promo video, photos and short clips.
- Get the split sheet signed by everyone.
- Upload the track and the song details to your distributor.
- Upload the cover art.
- Check that your release date is locked at your distributor.
- Submit your Spotify for Artists pitch, with a private link to the song.
- Set up your pre-save link once your distributor has accepted the song.
- Start reaching out to curators, also with a private link.
Week 5: check the upload, then push
Early in week 5, check that your distributor accepted the song with no errors. If it was turned down, fix it and send it again that day.
- Approve the final cover art.
- Send your editorial playlist pitch with your final files. Four or more weeks before release is the window for this.
- Turn your pre-save campaign on.
- Start cutting your shoot footage into 3 to 5 short promo clips.
Weeks 4 to 2: build the noise
4 weeks out
- Announce the release date on your socials.
- Start teaser posts. One every 2 to 3 days works.
- Tell any PR contacts about the release.
- Follow up with the curators you reached out to.
3 weeks out
- Post teasers more often.
- Schedule your release-day posts.
- Confirm any release-day events, like a listening session or a live stream.
- Send your press release or a short blurb to your contacts.
- Confirm the playlist spots that came back as yes.
2 weeks out
- Plan the listening party or live stream, if you are doing one.
- Post a snippet of the song on TikTok or Reels.
- Queue your release-day stories and posts.
- Get access to Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists, so you can see your numbers on release day.
Release week
- 7 days out: start the countdown posts.
- 3 days out: make the final push, and start ads if your budget allows.
- 1 day out: send a pre-save reminder to your mailing list and fans.
- Release day: post the announcement on every platform.
- Release day: watch your distributor to see the song go live everywhere.
- Release day: post a thank-you and share the early numbers with your team.
After release: follow through
Most plans stop on release day. This one does not. The weeks after are where a release keeps going or goes quiet.
The day after
- Pull your first-week numbers: streams, saves, playlist adds and top markets.
- Sit down with your team. What worked and what did not?
- Find your best-performing content.
- Look into any platform where the song did worse than you hoped.
- Thank the curators, press and collaborators who helped.
- Update your release tracker.
Weeks 1 to 3
- Post follow-up content: a lyric video, behind the scenes, a live or acoustic version, or the story behind the song.
- Pitch more editorial playlists, using your first-week numbers as proof.
- Try mood and genre playlists. They are less competitive than editorial ones.
- Look at where your listeners are coming from. Your strongest market may deserve content made for it.
- Decide when the next release is and what builds on this one.
- Write down what you learned, so the next rollout starts ahead.
Keep it from falling apart
A plan on its own finishes nothing. Every step needs one owner and one date, or it becomes something everyone thought someone else was doing.
Urganize builds this plan for you when you create a rollout: 64 activities for a single, 90 for an EP and 113 for an album. Every activity has an owner and a due date, and you can edit or delete any of them.
Skip the spreadsheet
Let Urganize lay out the plan for you.
Create a rollout and get the whole plan, with an owner and a due date on every activity. Free for 3 days, no card needed.