Release Day Countdown

---
name: release-day-countdown
description: "Plan an independent music release backwards from release day — the 8-week countdown with distributor upload deadlines flagged, playlist pitch windows, the pre-save decision made honestly, content batched before the chaos, and a release week that doesn't depend on luck. Use when a musician says 'I'm releasing a single/EP', 'when should I submit to playlists', 'plan my release', or uploaded to a distributor with no plan. Produces the week-by-week countdown, the asset checklist, and release-week runbook."
---

# Release Day Countdown Skill

Most independent releases happen twice: the day the song goes live to 40
streams, and the month later when the artist learns what they should have
done eight weeks early. The machinery has real deadlines — distributors
need lead time, editorial playlist pitching closes *before* release day,
content is impossible to batch once the week arrives — and none of it is
complicated; it's just sequenced. This skill runs the sequence backwards
from the date (or forwards to pick a date honestly), with every
platform-specific number flagged as check-current, because lead times and
pitch windows change and a plan built on stale specifics is a plan built
on sand.

## What This Skill Produces

- The **8-week countdown**, week by week: distribution upload, metadata
  and credits, pitch windows, content batching, outreach waves — each with
  its why and its check-current flag where platforms set the rule
- An **asset checklist**: audio master, artwork at spec, canvas/visualizer,
  lyric assets, press photo, the bio paragraph — with the "before upload"
  vs "before release" split
- The **pitching plan**: editorial (via the distributor/platform tools,
  submitted early), independent curators (researched, personalized,
  no-pay-for-play flagged as the scam it usually is), and the local/press
  angle from [[press-kit-epk]]
- A **release-week runbook**: day-by-day, including the two moves that
  outperform everything (thanking early sharers personally, and the
  day-3 content drop when the algorithm decides)
- The **honest-expectations line**: what a first release's numbers
  typically look like, so week two isn't despair

## Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):
- The release: single/EP/album, genre, done-ness of the master and
  artwork, the date (or "help me pick one")
- The artist's current reach, honestly: platforms, follower counts, the
  mailing list if any, past release numbers
- Team of one, or help? Budget: zero, small, or real?
- The goal, honestly ranked: streams? local gigs? label attention?
  the mailing list? (The plan weights differently)

## Framework

1. **Pick the date like a logistics decision.** Fridays are conventional
   (chart weeks) but a small artist's Tuesday can dodge the big-release
   flood — decide by goal. Then anchor the two hard deadlines backwards:
   distributor upload (lead times vary — check yours, typically weeks
   not days) and editorial pitch close (before release; check the
   platform's current window). Everything else hangs between.
2. **Weeks 8–6: finish and upload.** Master finalized · artwork at spec ·
   metadata and *credits* complete (wrong credits are forever) · upload
   early — early upload is what makes editorial pitching possible at all.
3. **Weeks 5–3: batch the content while calm.** The pitch text (one
   paragraph: what it is, what it's like, one true story) · 10–15 content
   pieces from the one song (teasers, the story behind it, the lyric
   moment, the bad-first-demo comparison people love) · the pre-save
   decision made honestly: pre-saves help algorithmic day-one but
   annoy small audiences if over-flogged — one ask, two reminders, done.
4. **Weeks 2–1: outreach in person-sized batches.** Independent curators
   researched (right genre, real playlists with real listeners),
   personalized two-line pitches · local press/radio with the EPK · the
   mailing list gets the real story, not the marketing copy — the list is
   the only channel the artist owns, treat it best.
5. **Release week: the runbook, not vibes.** Day 0: everything live,
   links verified, the personal-thanks discipline starts (every share
   answered by name — it's the highest-ROI hour in music marketing).
   Day 3: the held-back content drop. Day 7: numbers reviewed against
   honest expectations, thank-you post, and the next release sketched —
   because catalogs compound and one-offs don't.

## Output Format

```
## The countdown — [release] on [date]
| Week | Must ship | Platform deadlines (check-current) | Content batch |

## Asset checklist
[Before-upload set · before-release set · specs flagged check-current]

## Pitching plan
[Editorial route · curator shortlist criteria + the 2-line pitch ·
press/local via EPK · the no-pay-for-play warning]

## Release week runbook
[Day by day · the personal-thanks discipline · the day-3 drop]

## Honest expectations + next
[What week one typically looks like at your reach · the catalog note]
```

## Quality Checks

- [ ] Every platform-specific number (lead times, pitch windows, artwork
      specs) carries a check-current flag — zero asserted as timeless fact
- [ ] The countdown fits the real date; if the date makes editorial
      pitching impossible, the plan says so and offers the honest choice
      (move the date or skip that channel)
- [ ] Content is batched before week 2 in the plan — nothing creative is
      scheduled for release week itself
- [ ] The pay-for-playlist warning appears in the pitching plan
- [ ] Expectations are calibrated to the artist's actual current reach

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not build the plan around going viral — the plan works at 40
      streams and scales if lightning hits, not the reverse
- [ ] Do not recommend paid playlist placement or stream-farming — flagged
      as harmful (platforms penalize it), not just tacky
- [ ] Do not schedule daily begging posts — the ask-budget is finite;
      story content spends it better than reminders
- [ ] Do not skip credits/metadata rigor — it's the least fun item and
      the most permanent
- [ ] Do not let release day end the plan; the day-7 review and next-
      release sketch are in the runbook

## Related

[[press-kit-epk]] for the outreach attachment; [[band-agreement]] before
the money arrives; [[clip-factory]] turns the one song into the fifteen
pieces; [[content-calendar]] for the ongoing rhythm after.