What is a waterfall release strategy?
It’s a rollout where each new single comes out on a release that also carries the earlier singles, so the third drop holds songs one, two and three. The last drop is the finished EP or album.
Each new release gets its own UPC, but the older songs keep their original ISRCs. CD Baby’s guide to waterfall releases says the ISRCs and metadata have to match the originals so streaming data carries over. That’s what lets a song’s plays and playlist adds follow it from release to release. Whether Spotify actually groups them is its call, which our FAQ on singles merging with the EP version explains.
DistroKid can’t do the strict version, where one album page fills in track by track. Its waterfall help page offers two workarounds:
- Upload the full album first with a future date, then upload each single using the ISRCs the album generated.
- Upload the singles first, then reuse their ISRCs on the album upload.
Either way, you enter codes with “Already got an ISRC code?”, which needs Musician Plus or Ultimate. You can keep the old singles live or take them down.
Watch the track count. DistroKid’s format page says most stores call 1 to 3 tracks a single and 4 to 6 an EP. And don’t sneak a new master onto a later drop. A remaster can split the play count.