So, you are publishing a new release on Record Union and want to set a future release date. That's awesome!
A release date lets you control when your fans and listeners will get access to your release on the digital services you choose to distribute to.
With a release date set in the future, the music stores will not make your music available right away - they will wait until the release date that you have chosen before making it available for purchase or streaming.
Having a release date can be great for promotional purposes as it makes it easier to coordinate marketing activities and mobilize fans and listeners leading up to a new release.
When to set a release date
Now, there is a rule of thumb for setting a release date. It needs to be set far enough away in time so that the music stores you are distributing can process and make your music available in time for the release date. On the "Release date and delivery" section, choose a specific date from the date picker.
If you are moving your releases from another distributor or simply want to have your music online as soon as possible, you can take advantage of Rapid Delivery. With Rapid Delivery, the earliest release date you can choose from is 5 days from the day you submitted your release. Rapid Delivery is already included in the subscription for customers in the Pro plan. For customers in the Core plan, Rapid Delivery is available as an add on for $6 per release.
ℹ️ New workspace experience
The pricing for Rapid Delivery reflected on this article applies for customers in the new experience we're gradually rolling out. For customers in the old experience, the Rapid Delivery fee is $6 regardless of the package chosen.
As a general rule for new releases, we suggest you publish your music at least 2-3 weeks before the release date you want for pitching purposes. This gives the music stores' editorial team more time to look into your music and increases your chances of getting added to their playlists. Learn more about playlists here.
If you'd like to increase your chances of getting playlisted on different digital services, we encourage you take advantage of the Pitch Priority add on which automatically gets your release to the Record Union's curation team's pitch shortlist. Pitch Priority is available for releases with the standard delivery (at least 14 days from the submit date). For Beatport releases, please choose a release date that's at least 3 weeks ahead of the submit date as their pitch deadline is 2 weeks before the release date.
Pitch Priority is included in the subscription for customers on the Pro plan. For customers on the Core plan, the Pitch Priority is available for $7 per release.
ℹ️ New workspace experience
The pricing for Pitch Priority in this article applies to the new experience we're gradually rolling out. For customers in the old experience, Pitch Priority is available for a $7 fee per release regardless of the package you choose.
Note: The earliest release date available will be based on the day you submitted the release, not on the day you started uploading it.