One of DistroKid’s biggest selling points is speed.

Its marketing says tracks can reach services such as Spotify in around two to three days.

But artists shouldn’t interpret that as meaning they should upload their new single two days before they want to release it.

Distribution speed isn’t the same as release planning

A distributor delivers your music to Spotify.

Spotify then needs to process it.

Your release may also need to map correctly to your artist profile.

And if you’re planning to pitch the track to Spotify’s editorial team, you want plenty of time before release.

A professional release strategy therefore needs a buffer.

How early should you upload?

For an important release, uploading several weeks early is usually much safer than relying on minimum delivery times.

That gives you time to:

• correct metadata
• fix artist mapping
• claim the upcoming release in Spotify for Artists
• pitch the song
• prepare pre-save campaigns
• organise social content
• solve unexpected problems

DistroKid’s cheapest plan has a catch

The basic Musician plan doesn’t include the same customised release-date controls as Musician Plus.

Customisable release dates are currently included with Musician Plus and Ultimate.

That’s worth knowing before selecting the cheapest plan.

Should speed decide your distributor?

Probably not.

Most established distributors can deliver releases with enough lead time.

Unless you’re constantly releasing music at the last minute, reliability, support, cost and catalogue management are more important than whether one service is theoretically a day faster.

The answer

DistroKid can deliver to Spotify quickly.

But serious artists should stop thinking:

How late can I upload this?

And start thinking:

How early can I deliver it so nothing goes wrong?

That’s the better release strategy.