Make sure your release is uploaded in time this festive season to make it onto Apple Music and iTunes with their release schedule.

It’s that time of year again! With festivities approaching, it’s time to mark the calendar for another reason. If you’re uploading music over the next couple of months you need to know the Christmas music upload schedule.

Below is a calendar of Apple Music and iTunes delivery deadlines for certain release dates:

Delivery DateRelease Date
November 17thNovember 24th
November 24thDecember 1st
December 1stDecember 8th
December 8thDecember 15th
December 15thDecember 22nd
December 22ndDecember 29th
December 29thJanuary 5th – 2024

If you’re uploading your music with RouteNote you need to take into consideration the upload times and moderation wait times. It can take a week for moderation to approve your release and up to another week to send to your chosen stores.

For this reason, it is crucial you upload your music as soon as possible. Whilst we regularly achieve much quicker store delivery times than 2 weeks, you should prepare in advance just in case. There is also a possibility that your release will need updating before it can be approved, therefore increasing the time until delivery.

Use these dates to inform your uploads, but if you have releases to upload between now and the new year, it is recommended you upload as far in advance as possible. You can set the exact release date you want, allowing you to upload in advance and still hit a specific release day once it’s ready to go live on stores.#

Apple add regarding release updates: “Due to the high volume of deliveries and updates we receive during this time of year, we do not recommend making changes between December 18 and December 26, 2023. Make sure to submit any important content, pricing changes, or clearance changes by the respective deadlines.”