Ask ten distributors how long a release takes and you'll get ten different answers, most of them optimistic. In practice, many services quote 15–20 working days once you account for review queues, metadata checks and platform ingestion delays.
Where the time actually goes
A release moves through three stages: your distributor's internal review, delivery to each platform's ingestion system, and that platform's own processing before the track goes live. Slow distributors add friction at every stage; fast ones streamline all three.
Why Upload Nations is faster
Upload Nations reviews and delivers most singles in 3–4 working days by keeping metadata validation automated and platform delivery direct, without the manual backlog that slows down larger, slower services.
Why speed matters beyond convenience
Editorial pitching windows, pre-save campaign timing and social media promotion all depend on a predictable go-live date. A distributor that can't commit to a timeline makes it impossible to plan a real release campaign around it.
If you're choosing a distributor, ask for their actual average turnaround, not their best-case number, and build your release calendar around it.
