My distributor released my album early. What now?

Check it’s really early, then usually leave it up and promote it, since Spotify won’t take a pitch for a song that’s already live.

Start with the clock. DistroKid’s page on early-looking dates says Spotify shows the date of the earliest time zone. If you picked one global release time, a release set for midnight in New York goes live at 11 PM the night before in Mexico City. That’s on time.

If it went out days or weeks early, look at your upload form. On DistroKid, a future release date needs Musician Plus or Ultimate, per its help page on future release dates. Without one, the release goes out as soon as it’s processed. Our guide on how long DistroKid takes to upload covers that timing.

If you did set a future date and it still went live early, that’s the distributor’s mistake. Email support with the release link, the date you picked and a screenshot of your release page.

Taking it down rarely helps. Spotify’s pitching page says once a song has gone live, it’s no longer eligible for pitching. We couldn’t find any Spotify or distributor page saying a delete and re-upload makes it eligible again.

So call today release day. Share the link and send your announcement. Then pitch your next unreleased single, and give it a four-week runway using our release checklist.