01
Describe the release
Single, EP or album, first release or not, and whether the campaign includes a music video, advertising, playlist pitching, vinyl or press and radio.
Answer three questions and get the checklist for your exact release, phase by phase, with your progress saved as you go.
Pick as many as apply. The checklist adapts.
A named list keeps its ticks separate from your other lists on this device.
Runs in your browser. Your answers and your ticks stay on this device, and nothing is uploaded.
Single, EP or album, first release or not, and whether the campaign includes a music video, advertising, playlist pitching, vinyl or press and radio.
The checklist arrives in five phases, from prepare through to after release. Steps that your answers do not call for are never drawn, so nothing on the list is somebody else's job.
Every step carries one line on why it matters, and the ones our own guidance covers link straight to it. Copy the whole list as text whenever you want it somewhere else.
Most release checklists are the same list for everybody, which means half of it does not apply to you and the half that does is missing the deadlines. A first single and a fourth album need different work, and a campaign with vinyl and a music video in it needs work that a streaming-only single never touches. This builds the list from your answers, so what you get is the shape of your release rather than the shape of an average one.
The deadlines are the part artists lose most often, because they sit further out than they feel. Press outlets plan roughly six weeks ahead and radio about four, so a pitch sent on release week is a pitch sent too late. Vevo processes video uploads weekly, which is why a music video wants delivering two to three weeks early even though it premieres after release. Vinyl needs about six weeks from the moment masters, artwork and payment are all in.
A first release carries two steps nobody warns you about. Claiming your artist profiles on Spotify and Apple Music before delivery is what lets you verify quickly once the release lands, and a first-time YouTube Content ID application goes through a review that needs roughly two weeks before release day.
The rest is the admin that decides where money goes: agreeing the splits in writing before there is anything to split, setting them up so payouts divide automatically, keeping the ISRC and UPC story straight, and registering the works with your PRO or publisher once the codes and the date exist. None of it is urgent until it is, and by then the release is out.
In order: lock the master and the artwork, write clean metadata, agree the splits, upload with three to four weeks of runway, pitch for editorial and pitch again yourself, register the works, run the presave and content campaign, check every store on release day, then read the numbers and plan the next one. This tool builds that list around your answers so the steps you do not need are never shown.
Work back from the longest lead time in your campaign. For a streaming-only single that is the three to four week upload runway. Add press and it becomes six weeks, add vinyl and it becomes about six weeks from finished masters and artwork, on top of everything else.
Press about six weeks before release, radio about four. Press outlets plan further ahead than most artists expect, and six weeks of lead is often the difference between coverage and silence. Radio works in shorter cycles, but four weeks is still the safe runway.
Two to three weeks before release day, then premiere it a week or two after the release. Vevo processes uploads weekly, so delivering early leaves room to fix whatever comes back without moving the premiere.
Allow about six weeks, counted from the day masters, artwork and payment are all in rather than the day you decide to press. Start the order before you lock the release date, not after.
Two. Claiming your artist profiles on Spotify and Apple Music so you can verify quickly once the release is delivered, and a first-time YouTube Content ID application, which goes through a review that needs about two weeks before release day.
Yes, in this browser on this device. Naming a list keeps its ticks separate from your other lists, so you can run one release without disturbing another. Nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data clears the ticks with it.
Yes. Free to use, no account, no caps. It is one of a set of browser tools we build for artists and labels getting releases out.
Unchained delivers your music to Spotify and 150+ platforms, with royalty splits, playlist pitching and real support when a release needs fixing.