For: Releasing artists (RA) and label managers (LM) tracking a release through review and delivery You'll need: A release you've created (any stage) Time: 3 minutes to read
Every release has a status badge that tells you where it is in the journey from idea to live on streaming services. Here's what each one means and what you can do at that point.
Quick answer
Draft, needs action, and denied are yours to freely edit. Everything else — submitted, approved, processing, pending release date, approved (live), pending redelivery, taken down — means the release has left your hands and any change you make has to be re-reviewed and re-delivered.
The statuses
Draft — You're still building it. Edits autosave as you type. No one else sees it yet.
Submitted — You hit Submit and our review team is checking it. You can still open the release and propose edits, but saving them will resubmit it for review.
Approved — Review passed. The release is queued to go to streaming services.
Processing — We've sent it to our distribution partner and they're forwarding to streaming services. Typically a few hours to a day.
Pending release date — Delivered to streaming services, waiting for your chosen release date to go public.
Approved (green, after delivery) — Live on streaming services. You can still edit, but saving triggers a redelivery, which can delay updates by up to 24 hours.
Pending redelivery — You saved edits to a live release; the updated version is being pushed to streaming services.
Needs action — Our team flagged something for you to fix. Look at the notes on the release, fix the issue, and hit Save to resubmit.
Denied — Review rejected the release. The notes explain why. Fix the issues and resubmit. See article 2.5.
Taken down — Removed from streaming services (by you, by a takedown request, or by a streaming service). You can still view and edit the release.
Why it works this way
Once a release leaves draft, it joins a delivery pipeline shared with hundreds of streaming services. Changes mid-flight need to be re-validated and re-sent, which is why the editing experience changes after submit — your edits stack up until you explicitly Save, and Save triggers a fresh delivery.
Common problems
Status hasn't changed in days — see article 12.1.
You see "Needs action" but no notes — refresh the page; the review notes load with the release details.
You expected "approved" but got "denied" — open the release; the denial reasons are listed on the page and emailed to you.