It is upload day, the song is ready, and your distributor rejects the artwork. Your Instagram handle is on the cover, the title is spelt differently from your release information, and the photo came from a friend in Kampala who never agreed how you could use it. By the time it is fixed, you have missed your pitching deadline.
Cover art must be square, and most distributors ask for at least 3000 by 3000 pixels, so check your distributor's exact rules. Leave off social handles, website addresses, prices and platform logos, and make sure any text matches your release information exactly. Get written permission from your photographer and designer, and check the cover at thumbnail size on a phone, because that is where most people will first see it.
Build a release folder two weeks early with everything in one place: the WAV masters, artwork, a metadata sheet with credits, ISRC and UPC, your lyrics, a short paragraph about the song, press photos and vertical clips. Upload day then takes minutes, not a week. From Finished Song to Release walks you through the full release package. Take the course on Crux Global Academy: cruxmusic.global/academycrux.
