Album Release Checklist

An album release checklist is a dated list of everything that has to be true before, during, and after release day — rights and splits settled, masters and artwork delivered to spec, the release uploaded to a distributor early enough to pitch it, pre-saves and press running in the right order, and the thirty days after launch actually planned instead of improvised. The version below is a working timeline, eight weeks out to a month after, with the 2026 distributor and Spotify numbers — and a plain-text template at the end you can copy. (It's the checklist on the album card in SessionFlow, which I make — that's the one plug, and it's at the bottom.)

The Calendar Problem

Every release checklist you'll find is either a list of forty things with no dates, which is a to-do list, or a countdown that was clearly written to sell you a playlist-pitching service — the ones that say you must pitch Spotify "exactly 28 days out" are describing their own product's rule, not Spotify's, whose actual stated minimum is seven days. The truth is boring and sits in between: the pitch form only appears after your distributor has delivered the release, delivery takes days, editors work weeks ahead, so the honest instruction is "upload as early as your distributor allows and pitch the day the button appears." Everything else on the calendar is downstream of that one dependency.

So this list is organized by when, not by category, because the failure mode of an album release is never "we forgot the artwork." It's "we did the artwork in the wrong week and lost the pitch window because of it."

Paperwork

Nobody wants to do this first. Do it first anyway, because every item here gets harder once money exists.

• Split sheets signed for every song. (Free split sheet template — PDF and Word.) Writer percentages agreed and signed by every co-writer, including the friend who "just suggested the bridge." Verbal agreements evaporate the week a song does numbers.
• Samples and interpolations cleared, or removed. Uncleared samples don't get flagged at upload; they get flagged after the song has streams, which is the most expensive time.
• Cover songs licensed. Mechanical licenses for any cover, usually through your distributor's licensing option. This is cheap and non-negotiable.
• Every writer registered with a PRO. ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC in the US, with each song's writer/publisher shares matching the split sheet exactly.
• Publishing administration in place. A publisher, an admin service, or at minimum direct registration with the MLC for US streaming mechanicals. Unregistered mechanicals are real money sitting unclaimed.
• SoundExchange registered. Both the artist and the rights owner, so non-interactive digital performance royalties have somewhere to go.
• Artist name, spelling, and capitalization decided forever. "The" or no "The." This exact string goes on every file, form, and profile from here on.

Assets

Everything the distributor will ask for, finished to spec, before you open the distributor.

• Final masters, 24-bit WAV, 44.1 or 48 kHz, one file per track, named by track number and title. If they aren't through the mastering checklist yet, the album is not six weeks out — it's further (and if some are still loops, start with how to finish songs).
• Track order locked. Written down, with ISRC assigned per track (your distributor will generate them free if you don't own a range).
• Artwork: 3000 × 3000 px minimum, square, RGB, JPG or PNG. No URLs, social handles, prices, or "out now" text — stores reject artwork that looks like a flyer. Single artwork variants prepared now if singles precede the album.
• Metadata sheet built. One spreadsheet: track titles, featured artists (in the featured-artist field, not glued into the title), songwriters and producers per track, explicit flags, genre and subgenre, language, label name, release date, UPC if you own one.
• Lyrics typed out per track, exactly as sung. For lyric delivery through the distributor or Musixmatch. Also the fastest way to catch a wrong take.
• Focus track chosen. Spotify lets you pitch one song per release. Decide which one now, not in the form.
• Physical, if any, already ordered. CDs run a few weeks; vinyl is measured in months and the plant's quote is the only number that matters. If vinyl isn't ordered by now, it ships after the digital release, and that's a decision to make on purpose.

Upload

This is the week the whole calendar hangs on.

• Release uploaded to the distributor with the release date set. Four weeks is the practical floor: two to five business days for distributor review, one to three for store delivery, and any rejection — blurry art, mismatched artist name, a "feat." in the wrong place — restarts that clock without moving your date.
• Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists claimed and verified. A debut needs the distributor to supply the artist URI before this works, so don't leave it for pitch day.
• Editorial pitch submitted the day the release appears under Upcoming. Seven days before release is Spotify's minimum; pitching three to four weeks out is what gets read. Fill every metadata field, write the 500 characters about the song rather than about yourself, and note that a pitched track also guarantees delivery to your followers' Release Radar.
• Pre-save and smart link created. The moment store links resolve — one URL that lives everywhere from now until release day.
• Press kit updated: bio, three photos at web and print resolution, the artwork, a private streaming link to the full album, and a one-paragraph pitch. Longer-lead press (print, larger blogs) gets pitched this week or it doesn't happen.
• Content shot in one batch. The clips, stills, and behind-the-scenes for the whole campaign, done in a day or two while the music is still exciting to you. Editing later is easy; shooting later never happens.

Push

• Pre-save campaign live and posted about, on a schedule, not on inspiration. Write the dates down. A post every two or three days beats a silence and a panic.
• Independent curators and blogs pitched with the private link. Track who you sent to and when, so the follow-up a week later isn't a guess.
• Spotify Canvas and Apple Music Motion assets uploaded for the focus track. Plus Artist Pick text drafted for release day.
• Mailing list drafted: one pre-release email, one release-day email, both written now.
• Bandcamp or direct-to-fan page built. Pre-order live, higher-res files, and any physical bundles. This is the one store where you set the price.
• Store listings checked in the distributor dashboard: right artwork, right titles, right explicit flags, credits appearing. Fix it now while a fix still lands before the date.

Release Week

• Pre-save pushed daily. This week is what the algorithm sees on day one.
• Release-day posts written and scheduled. Across every platform, with the smart link, for the hour the album goes live in your main market.
• Follow-ups sent to everyone who didn't answer the first time. Once. Politely.
• Lyrics and credits confirmed live. On a test track if any single is already out; otherwise ready to verify on the day.
• Nothing new added to the release. No last-minute track swap, no "quick" remaster. Changes now are how releases get pulled and re-delivered with a new date.

Release Day

Your job today is traffic, not logistics. The logistics were the last eight weeks.

• Album live on every store, checked by a human, on a phone. Artwork, order, titles, explicit tags, the featured artist's name. Screenshot it.
• Artist Pick set, Canvas confirmed, smart link tested on both iOS and Android.
• Release-day email sent, scheduled posts confirmed posted.
• Reply to everyone. Every comment, every share, all day. Engagement on day one is the cheapest promotion the album will ever get.
• Spotify for Artists checked once for Release Radar delivery, then closed. Refreshing stats is not a release strategy.

After

The part everyone skips, and the part the recommendation systems actually reward. Discover Weekly and Release Radar model listener behaviour over weeks, not hours, so an album that goes silent after release week reads to them like an album nobody cared about.

• Content posted from the batch, on the schedule, for thirty days. Track-by-track stories, live versions, the demo next to the master. The material exists; the discipline is posting it.
• Playlist adds and press mentions logged as they arrive, and each one thanked. Curators remember who says thank you.
• A second focus track chosen at week two. Based on which song listeners actually save, not the one you expected.
• Copyright registered. Sound recordings and compositions, US Copyright Office; the whole album can go in one filing. Not required to exist — required to enforce.
• Royalty sources confirmed at week four. Distributor, PRO, publishing admin or MLC, SoundExchange, Bandcamp. First streaming money lands two to three months after release, so this is where you check that it has somewhere to land.
• Post-mortem written while it's fresh: what shipped late, what got skipped, which pitch worked. The next release's checklist is this one with those notes in it.

Singles First?

Almost always, for an independent release. Two or three singles ahead of the album, each with its own pitch, its own pre-save, and its own four-week runway, gives the recommendation systems repeated signals about who your listeners are, and by the time the album lands it isn't starting from zero. Tell your distributor at upload time that the singles will be folded into the album — most handle it so the streams and saves carry over to the album version instead of splitting across two listings. If you'd rather drop the whole record at once for artistic reasons, that's a legitimate choice; just know you're choosing one pitch instead of four.

Where Releases Die

Uploading two weeks out and discovering the pitch button doesn't exist yet; artwork with the album title in a font the store's reviewer decides is "promotional"; a featured artist typed into the title field, which creates a phantom second artist profile; the split sheet nobody signed; the "quick fix" in release week that pulls the album for re-delivery; and — the biggest one — a campaign that is entirely front-loaded, so the thirty days that decide algorithmic reach get a total of one post that says "thanks for the love." Every one of those is an item above with a week next to it. That's why the weeks are there.

Copy This

The album release checklist template, compressed and dated, to paste into a notes app, a project tool, or — one plug, as promised — the checklist on an album card in SessionFlow, where each track underneath it has its own board stage and its own mastering checklist to close before the album's can.

ALBUM RELEASE CHECKLIST TEMPLATE
Week 8 — Paperwork
[ ] Split sheets signed, every song
[ ] Samples cleared / covers licensed
[ ] Writers registered with PRO, shares match splits
[ ] Publishing admin or MLC registration
[ ] SoundExchange registered
[ ] Artist name string final
Week 6 — Assets
[ ] Masters: 24-bit WAV, numbered + titled
[ ] Track order locked, ISRCs per track
[ ] Artwork 3000x3000 RGB, no promo text
[ ] Metadata sheet (credits, feat., explicit, genre, UPC)
[ ] Lyrics typed per track
[ ] Focus track chosen
[ ] Physical ordered (or consciously not)
Week 4 — Upload
[ ] Uploaded to distributor, date set
[ ] Spotify/Apple for Artists claimed
[ ] Editorial pitch submitted day it appears
[ ] Pre-save + smart link live
[ ] Press kit updated, long-lead press pitched
[ ] Content batch shot
Week 2 — Push
[ ] Pre-save posts on a schedule
[ ] Curators/blogs pitched + logged
[ ] Canvas / Motion uploaded, Artist Pick drafted
[ ] Two emails drafted
[ ] Bandcamp / direct pre-order live
[ ] Store listings checked in dashboard
Week 1 — Release Week
[ ] Pre-save pushed daily
[ ] Release-day posts scheduled
[ ] Follow-ups sent once
[ ] No changes to the release
Day 0
[ ] Live on every store, checked on a phone
[ ] Artist Pick, Canvas, smart link tested
[ ] Email sent, posts confirmed
[ ] Reply to everyone
Days 1-30
[ ] Post from the batch for 30 days
[ ] Log + thank every add and mention
[ ] Second focus track at week 2
[ ] Copyright registered
[ ] Royalty sources confirmed at week 4
[ ] Post-mortem written

Questions

Sources

Distributor and pitch timings cross-checked September 2026 against Spotify for Artists documentation on editorial pitching, current distributor guidance (Eclipse Distro, MelodicMind, Intonality, Chartlex), and store artwork specifications. Rights items reflect US practice (PRO, MLC, SoundExchange, Copyright Office); other territories have equivalents. If a store changes a spec and this page is wrong, tell me — support@session-flow.app.