Creating a release, step by step

A release is built in one place: the wizard at app.run.audio/releases/new. It is a single page in five numbered sections, and it saves as a draft as you work, so you can stop after any section and pick it up later.

Nothing goes to the stores while you are building it. Submitting starts the automated checks, and from that moment the release is locked for editing until it either comes back to you or goes out.

1 · Release

Enter the title first. The cover art box and the “Add track” button stay disabled until the release has one.

More on those last three: rights lines, artwork requirements and AI disclosure. If you want your own store-facing label name, see running your own label.

2 · Artists

This is who the release is credited to, in the order the credit reads. Each artist is credited as a main, featured or remixer.

• At least one main artist is required, and at most 4. Stores read more than that as a compilation.
• The same artist cannot be credited twice on the same release.
• If an artist profile says it already has store pages, at least one page has to be connected before you can submit. That is what stops the release landing on a stranger’s profile. See connecting store pages.
• If the artist is new to streaming, the stores create the pages from this release.

You can create an artist from inside this section. Artist profiles count against your plan allowance: see your roster and artist slots.

3 · Tracks

Add a track, then fill it in. Every track carries its own metadata, its own AI disclosure and its own credits.

• Title, primary genre and lyrics language are required. There is a code for tracks with no words.
• Explicit content: Clean, Explicit or Edited.
• ISRC: your own, or leave it blank and Run assigns one.
• Composition: original composition, cover song or public domain. Commercial samples: none, licensed exclusively, or licensed non-exclusively. A cover, a public-domain work or a licensed sample has to carry its clearance document on the same track before you can submit. See covers, remixes and samples.
• AI involvement: two required answers per track, one for the recording and one for the songwriting.
• Audio master: WAV or FLAC. Large files upload in the background and resume if the connection drops. See audio requirements.
• Track artists and track rights lines override the release ones when a single track differs.
• Credits: every person, with one to three roles each. Across a track the credits have to cover a performing role, a composition and lyrics role, and a production and engineering role, and at least one credited person must not be marked as fully AI. First and last legal names are required, because the stores need both.
• Publishing splits are optional, but if you enter any they have to total exactly 100 with nobody listed twice. See credits and splits.

4 · Select stores

Every store is on by default. Untick any you want to skip, but at least one has to stay selected.

Content ID is separate and off unless you opt in. It claims your music inside other people’s videos, so it is only for recordings you own outright: covers, public-domain works, licensed samples and fully AI-generated audio are not eligible, and the wizard names any track that blocks it. Opting in requires ticking the ownership confirmation. See stores and Content ID.

Run delivers worldwide. There is no territory picker.

5 · Review and submit

This section lists everything still missing, release-level items and per-track items together. It runs the same check the server runs on submit, so an empty list means nothing is blocking submission. It is not the review: that comes after.

Below the list is the rights confirmation: you confirm that you own or control the master recordings and all underlying rights, including consent for any AI elements. Submit stays disabled until the list is empty and that box is ticked.

Dates and how fast delivery is

Once a release is approved, Run delivers it to the stores in under 24 hours. When it appears on a given store after that is the store’s own ingestion, which Run does not control and does not promise.

• The release date is the day you want it out. If that date is still ahead when we deliver, you get an email confirming the release is set to go live on it.
• Leave real room. The checks, the review and the delivery all happen before that date, and the stores need their own time on top.
• A release date more than two years out is flagged for a second look.
• Run’s wizard collects one date. A draft created by the Spotify importer also carries the original release date from the store, which is what tells the stores a re-delivered release is the same release. A release date earlier than that original date fails the checks.

After you submit

The automated checks run first: metadata, audio, artwork and content matching. Anything they stop is sent back to you with the reasons. Everything else goes to a person for review, and an approved release moves into delivery.

You are emailed at each step, and the release page shows where it is. See what review checks and tracking delivery. If something needs fixing, reopen the release and submit again.