Which date to enter for your music, and why it matters
Every recording you deliver needs an original release date: the day it first came out, anywhere in the world. It sounds like a detail, but stores use it to put your discography in the right order, to decide what counts as new music and for features such as Spotify Wrapped. A wrong date can make an old song look brand new, or bury a new one in your back catalogue.
In short Enter the date the recording, album or video was first made available to the public, digitally or physically, in any country. Not the day you deliver it to us, and not the day this edition goes live. Only something new (a new recording, a remix or a re-recording) gets a new date. |
Three dates that are easy to mix up
When you set up a release, you deal with three different dates. For a brand-new release they are usually the same. For older music, compilations and reissues they often are not, and that is fine.
Figure 1. The three dates on a remastered reissue.
- Original release date: when the recording first came out.
- Release date: when this edition goes live in the stores.
- ℗ and © lines: the rights notices. The ℗ line names the year of first publication and the owner of the recording, for example a company that bought the catalogue later. The © line is about the product itself, such as the artwork, and has nothing to do with the original release date. You fill in both separately.
How exact does the date need to be?
Enter the date as YYYY-MM-DD, and be as exact as you can back it up. For anything released in 2000 or later, we expect the full date. For older catalogue, only enter what you can document. Never make up a day just to fill the field.
Date accuracy
Under Date accuracy you tell us how exact your date is. There is no default, so you always have to choose.
Figure 2. Choose the accuracy that matches what you really know.
- Accurate: you know the exact day. Required for everything released from 1 January 2020.
- YearMonth: you know the month and year, but not the day. Common for vinyl and cassette releases from the 1970s and 1980s.
- Year: you only know the year. Normal for older catalogue.
- Unknown: no date can be found at all. This is rare; most releases have a date documented somewhere, and we will ask you about it before delivery.
Why this matters: 1974-01-01 could mean New Year's Day 1974, or just "some time in 1974". Stores treat those differently. Choosing Year when that is all you know is always better than choosing Accurate for a guess.
Dates that cannot exist (such as 2020-02-30) and dates later than the release date of the product itself are not accepted.
Special cases
Remasters, compilations, remixes and other versions follow a few simple rules:
Type of release | Which date to use |
Compilation or soundtrack | The album gets the compilation's release date. Each track keeps the date it first came out, so mixed dates are normal. |
Deluxe or extended edition | The album gets the deluxe edition's release date. Tracks from the original album keep their original dates. |
Re-release or anniversary edition | The album keeps its original date. Newly added tracks get their own, later date. |
Remaster | The original release date. Put the remaster year in the version title, for example "2026 Remaster". |
Stereo and mono versions | One date for both: the original release date. |
Remix | The date the remix first came out, even if the original recording is decades older. |
Re-recording | The date the new recording first came out. Mention it in the version title. |
Instrumental version | The date the instrumental first came out, not the date of the vocal version. |
Karaoke, cover or tribute | The date this version first came out. The date of the original song does not count. |
Live recording | The date the live recording was first released, not the date of the concert. |
Medley or continuous mix | The date the mix itself first came out. |
Unreleased or archive recording | The day it is first made public. Never the day it was recorded. |
How we check your dates
Figure 3. From your delivery to the stores.
We automatically check that:
- there is a date, in a format we support;
- it is not later than the release date of the product;
- the accuracy fits (anything from 2020 onwards must be Accurate);
- the ℗ and © years fit the dates. A gap of more than one calendar year is flagged.
A flag is not a rejection. It just means we want to double-check before your release goes to the stores. We will ask you for a short explanation or proof, such as the original catalogue number or the papers showing that you acquired the catalogue. If the date turns out to be wrong, we correct it together before release.
Your release waits with us until you reply, so a flag can delay delivery. You can avoid that:
- Fill in the dates and the ℗ and © lines correctly from the start.
- If there is a gap on purpose (for example on a reissue), let us know when you deliver.
- Deliver well before the release date.
Get it right the first time Fixing a date after your release is live means redelivering it to every store, and each store handles that on its own schedule. A correct date from the start saves you a lot of time. |