Releasing a Single can help to build momentum and highlight a key track ahead of your final product's (an album, an EP, or a Compilation) release date. To help ensure that your stream counts are linked between the Single and the final product on streaming platforms, your track metadata and audio needs to be an exact match across both releases.
STEP 1: CREATING AN ALBUM/EP/COMPILATION
You'll first need to create your final product, which will typically be released after your Single.
Once you have finalised this release and have checked that all of the individual track credits are correct (learn how to add track-level credits here), you can now create a Single.
STEP 2: CREATING A SINGLE
Using the Bundle Builder is the most efficient method for creating an individual Single. This tool will allow you to pull an existing track's audio and metadata into it own release.
- Go to the Bundle Builder tool (Release Management ➜ Bundle Builder).
- Select the track from your Album/EP/Compilation which you want to turn into a Single.
- Click the 'Create' icon to bring up the Release Details menu.
- Leave the 'New Release?' option ticked and the system will create a new release for you.
- Set the 'Artist' dropdown to the same artist credited on the track you selected.
- Set the 'Catalog' for your Single. For organisational purposes, we recommend setting this to something relevant to the catalog number you assigned to your final product.
Example: if your final product's catalog number is CAT003, append that catalog number with an identifier for each of its singles (e.g. CAT003S1, CAT003S2, CAT003S3, etc.) - Set the 'Release Name' to be an exact match of the track title, then click 'Next' to proceed.
Example: if your track is Get Up (Original Mix), set your Release Name to Get Up. If your track is Get Up (Sam Remix), set your Release Name to Get Up (Sam Remix) - On the Release Credits screen, ensure that this matches up with the credits that you specified for that track on your final product, then click 'Next' to proceed.
- On the Release Description screen, you can now optionally provide a description of your Single, then click 'Finish'.
- The system will ask you if you want to create the release with the track you selected, if this is correct, click 'Yes'.
STEP 3: CHECKING & FINALISING YOUR SINGLE
You should now check that there is an orange tick next to your track within the Single release, this icon indicates that the track and its metadata are being pulled from your final product.
For consistency, all of your release-level metadata credits (Written By, Produced By, Vocalist, Publisher, C Line, P Line) should match up with your track-level credits. You can now set the release date and add artwork to the Single. Once complete, set the Submit Status to Final.
NOTE: Singles should be delivered to Streaming Service DSPs only, as most Download DSPs only want the complete Album on their platform (learn how to set your store deliveries here).