Spotify wants the pitch seven days early, and only one song at a time

Spotify's own support page for pitching is short and unusually specific, which makes the number of releases that miss it slightly baffling.

The three rules

• Seven days. "Deliver your music at least 7 days before release so our editors have time to listen." That is the deadline for the editorial pitch, and it is measured from the release date you have already set with your distributor.
• One song at a time. "You can only pitch one song at a time. Once your pitched song goes live, you can pitch another." For an album, that means choosing a focus track and living with the choice.
• The consolation prize is the real prize. Spotify states that if you pitch an unreleased song at least seven days before release, it goes into your followers' Release Radar playlists. That happens whether or not any editor adds it to anything.

That third point is why the seven-day deadline matters even for artists with no realistic shot at an editorial playlist. Release Radar is delivered to people who already followed you. Missing the pitch window means the people most likely to listen may simply not be told.

What to do about it

Work backwards from the release date: the audio has to be with your distributor early enough that it reaches Spotify more than seven days out, which for most distributors means delivering two to three weeks ahead. Pick the focus track before you deliver, not after.

Apple and Deezer run their own tools on different deadlines, and Apple's is longer. That is a separate piece.