First, the thing nobody tells you
Spotify does not accept music from artists directly. Everything on the platform arrives through an approved distributor, which delivers your audio and metadata to Spotify and every other store, then collects and passes on your royalties. Choosing that distributor is the only real decision in this process — everything after it is process.
What you need before you upload
- A mastered audio file. WAV, 16-bit or 24-bit, 44.1kHz or higher. Not an MP3 you exported from a demo session.
- Cover art. Square, at least 3000×3000 pixels, RGB. No URLs, no social handles, no logos of stores, and nothing you do not have the rights to use.
- Final metadata. Track title, artist name exactly as it should appear forever, featured artists, songwriter and producer credits, language, and genre.
- Rights clearance. If your track contains a sample, you need it cleared before release, not after. If it is a cover, you need the mechanical licence for the territories you are releasing in.
Metadata that passes review
Most rejected releases are rejected for metadata, not music. The rules are boring and strict:
- Do not put "feat. X" in the track title field. Use the featured-artist field.
- Do not write your artist name in all capitals unless it is genuinely stylised that way everywhere.
- Do not put promotional text — "Out Now", "Official Video", "Prod. by" — into the title.
- Use the same artist name, spelled identically, on every release. Two spellings create two artist profiles and split your listeners in half.
- If your track is in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil or any language other than English, set the language field correctly. It affects where you get recommended.
Timing, and why it matters more than you think
Delivery to stores is not instant. Your distributor sends the release, and Spotify processes it on its own schedule. Standard delivery on Revocle's paid plans is 3–7 days, with a 1-day priority lane on Platinum and Legacy.
But delivery speed is not the number that matters for a launch. For editorial playlist consideration, you need the release delivered and pitched at least seven days before release day — and realistically further out, because you are competing for a human's attention. Set your release date at least three to four weeks ahead, not next Friday.
Friday remains the global release convention, and charting weeks are built around it. Release on a Friday unless you have a specific reason not to.
Pitching for editorial playlists
Once your release is delivered but unreleased, you can pitch one unreleased track through Spotify for Artists. You get one pitch per release, so it goes to the strongest track. Be concrete: genre, mood, instrumentation, the story of the record, where you are from, what you have planned around the release. Vague pitches get skipped.
Pitching also matters even if you are not selected — a pitched track is more likely to reach your existing followers' Release Radar.
Claim your artist profile
After your first delivery, claim your profile on Spotify for Artists. It is free, and until you do it you cannot see your listener data, pitch to editorial, customise your profile image, or add a bio. Many artists release two or three times before realising this exists.
After release day
- Check the track actually appears on your artist profile and not on a duplicate one. If it landed wrong, your distributor can request a merge.
- Save and add to your own playlists — early saves matter more than early streams for algorithmic pickup.
- Watch the first 28 days. Spotify's algorithmic systems weight recent activity heavily; a slow start is much harder to reverse later.
- Do not buy streams. Artificial streaming gets releases removed, royalties withheld, and accounts terminated — and detection has improved considerably.
A realistic first-release timeline
- Four weeks out — master finished, artwork finished, metadata final.
- Three weeks out — deliver through your distributor, set the release date.
- Two weeks out — pitch through Spotify for Artists, set up pre-save, plan your announcement.
- Release week — announce, then keep going for the next month rather than the next day.