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Album PR Timeline: 16 Weeks to Release Day | TAP

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Album PR Timeline: 16 Weeks to Release Day | TAP

Album PR campaign timeline from announcement to release

Updated 9 September 2026

By TAP Editorial Team

Quick answer

Start sixteen weeks out. Monthly magazines need twelve weeks or more, radio wants six to eight, and physical review copies go out at eight. The first single lands around week twelve, a second around week six, and the reviews all lift on the same day in release week. Miss the long-lead window at the start and nothing you do later replaces it.

An album campaign is four months of overlapping deadlines, and most of them are set by other people's schedules rather than yours. Monthlies close months ahead, radio wants weeks, reviewers want a physical copy in their hands, and every one of those clocks starts before you feel ready. What follows is the rhythm from sixteen weeks out to a month after release, written for you running it yourself, with the points marked where a slipped date costs you coverage you cannot get back.

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Weeks 16 to 13: the long-lead window

Pitch the monthlies and the weekend papers now
Critical
Monthly magazines work eight to twelve weeks ahead, so this is the only moment they exist for you. Send a preview track, a short statement in your own words, and the dates you are free to talk. Pitch a specific angle from the record rather than the fact that a record is coming.
Lock the first single and the artwork
Critical
Artwork final and distributed to everyone by thirteen weeks out. A late artwork change breaks embargoes, confuses the people writing about you, and means somebody publishes the wrong image on the day that matters.
Write down three to five separate angles
Critical
The change in sound, a lyric or a story behind one song, how it was recorded, who played on it, the visual or live side. You need distinct hooks because you are going to be asking for attention four or five times, and the album coming out is only a story once.
Build the review list and decide who gets it first
Critical
Sort the outlets by how likely they are to actually cover you and how well you know them. The first group gets a copy earliest, the second follows, and the smaller sites and blogs can run in release week. Put every embargo date in writing at the point you send.
Ask for interviews while the diaries are open
Weekly and online titles plan six to eight weeks ahead. Send a short brief and your availability now, and offer exclusivity where it helps: one outlet gets the print interview, another the first play, another the video.
Plan the content you will need, before you need it
Studio footage, a lyric clip, the making-of material, the countdown posts. Film what you can while the record is still fresh in your head, because week two of release is the worst possible time to be setting up a camera.

Weeks 12 to 9: first single and early momentum

Put the first single out everywhere at once
Critical
Streaming services and your own channels on the same day, with any pre-save closing forty-eight hours ahead. Send the audio and artwork to everyone you pitched in the first block, so the single arrives as the thing you told them about.
Pitch the single to playlists two weeks before it lands
Critical
Your distributor's editorial pitch, then the independent curators you have identified. Follow up once and then leave it. Playlist placement is half timing and half whether somebody already knows your name.
Send the single to radio
Six to eight weeks of lead time is standard, and specialist shows want longer. Send to named producers rather than station inboxes, lead with the one line of the song a presenter could use on air, and accept that plays often arrive with no reply at all.
Have the video finished before you need it
Critical
Locked two weeks before the single for anybody to consider premiering it, and four weeks ahead for a larger channel. A video that is still being edited is a video with no premiere.
Do the interviews now and hold them
Record them while there is time, and agree in the email when each one publishes: single release for some, release week for others. Confirm the date in writing rather than assuming a shared understanding.
Take the single to the online music press
Send the track and a short release to the sites that cover your genre. A first-play window of a day or two, offered to one of them, is often what turns a maybe into a yes.
Watch what people respond to
Pre-saves, early streaming, which post travelled. One of your angles will be doing more work than the others, and everything you write from here should lean on that one.

Weeks 8 to 5: review copies and a second wave

Post physical copies to the outlets that still want them
Critical
Eight weeks before release day for CDs or vinyl going to serious reviewers. Include the press notes, the artwork at high resolution and a short biography, and check the name and address of the person you are actually sending it to.
Set up secure listening links for everybody else
Critical
A private streaming link with the embargo written into the page, and a record of who has access. An embargo you cannot trace is an embargo you cannot enforce.
Fix one lift date for the first wave of reviews
Critical
Same day, same time, for all the main reviews. Agree it with your biggest few outlets first and hold everybody else to it. Reviews trickling out across a fortnight land quieter than the same reviews landing together.
Release the second single
Four to six weeks after the first keeps the conversation going without exhausting it. Give it its own angle. Repeating the album story a second time is how people stop reading.
Put money behind the content that is already working
Boost the clips and posts that travelled on their own rather than the ones you wish had. Six to eight weeks of steady visibility into release day is worth more than one large push on the day itself.
Announce live dates when the campaign needs a lift
Space the announcements out. A show, a support slot or a festival confirmation refreshes the story at exactly the point in the middle of a campaign where interest sags.
Pitch beyond the music pages
The story behind the record, the artwork and visual side, where you live and what you do besides this: culture and lifestyle desks take those and reach people who do not read music sites. It is slower and it is worth more than another genre blog.

Weeks 4 to 2: embargoes and release week readiness

Confirm every embargo in writing, with the time zone
Critical
A final reminder to everybody holding a copy: nothing publishes before the date and hour you have set, stated in a time zone. One early publication releases everybody else from the agreement in practice.
Third single, or go deeper on the album
If there is no third single, switch to track-level features with the specialist and genre press: the song with the story, the guest player, the instrument nobody expected.
Have release day written before release day
Critical
Draft the announcement and leave gaps for review quotes to drop in as they land. Forty-eight hours ahead you want something that needs ten minutes of work rather than an hour you will not have.
Plan the first day's posts
Three to five things for release day: the record is out, where to hear it, thanks to the people who made it, something from behind the scenes, and the reviews as they appear. Write them now and schedule what you can.
Check your release pages are right
Critical
Artwork, credits, description and links live on every service two or three days before release. This is the last point at which a wrong credit or a missing feature is easy to fix.
Send clips to podcasts and video channels
A week out, held for release week so they do not undercut the written pieces. Podcasts plan further ahead than you expect and a late approach usually lands after the moment.
Write to your own mailing list
A day or two before release, with the links and a couple of lines that sound like you rather than like a press release. This is the audience most likely to actually listen on day one.
Watch the lift and deal with anything early quietly
Critical
On the day, check the main outlets. If somebody publishes ahead of time, do not share or amplify it, and mention it to the writer privately. Making it public costs you more than the breach did.

Release week

Write down where you finished day one
Streams, coverage, playlist adds, what your own posts did. It takes fifteen minutes and it is the only version of day one you will still have in six months.
Push the reviews harder than the release
Share the quotes and the links across your channels and tag the writers. Somebody else saying the record is good travels further than you saying it, and it sends traffic back to the people who covered you.
Run anything live on the day or the day after
A stream, an in-store, a listening session: put it where the attention already is, and treat it as a reason to go back to press who did not bite the first time.
Check the streaming numbers daily for the first week
Playlist adds, where the listening is coming from, which track people go to. The first seven days tell you which song the record actually belongs to, which is often not the one you chose.
Handle a broken embargo without making it worse
Critical
Do not amplify it and do not respond publicly. A quiet note to the writer covers it. Most breaks are mistakes, and the ones that are not tell you who to leave off the list next time.
Line up the second week now
Longer pieces, a profile, a producer interview, a track-by-track. Pitch them while the reviews are still fresh, because the week after release is when most campaigns simply stop.

Weeks 2 to 4 after release

Offer the deeper pieces to whoever missed out
The outlets that did not get an interview before release will often take a longer one after it, particularly a track-by-track or a piece about how the record was made. This is the cheapest extension available to you.
Book the podcasts and sessions
Two or three appearances across these weeks keeps the record in conversation. Live sessions and interviews create new material as well as new coverage.
Release the material you held back
Studio footage, demos, the song that did not make it. Weekly, not all at once. It gives people a reason to come back to a record they have already heard.
Go back to playlists with what actually happened
Once the first placements settle, approach the smaller genre and community playlists with real numbers behind you. Long-tail placements are where the listening keeps going after the campaign ends.
Announce the shows you have been holding
Tour dates or festival appearances in the second or third week give the story somewhere to go and give your audience a reason to stay with it.
Write the whole thing up while you remember it
Every review, every play, every placement, what you sent and when, what got answered. That document is the starting point for the next record and it is impossible to reconstruct later.

Sixteen weeks is enough time if the early deadlines are respected, and nowhere near enough if they are not. The dates that cost you most are the quiet ones at the start: the magazine pitch that went out too late, the artwork that changed in week ten, the review copy posted a fortnight after the reviewer had filled their page. Get those right and the rest of the campaign has room to breathe.

Pro tips

1. Embargo discipline is the only currency you have with reviewers. Set one lift date, put it in writing with a time zone, and hold everybody to it. If somebody publishes early, deal with it privately and quietly reconsider giving them an early copy next time.

2. Long-lead pitching at week sixteen is the only lever that puts coverage in release week itself. Online press will write about you three weeks out and move on; monthlies are the only outlets whose timetable lands on top of your release date, and their door shuts early.

3. Build four separate moments into the campaign: the announcement, the first single, a second single in the middle, and release day. Without that spacing you are pitching the same story four times, and by week six people stop opening the email.

4. Lift every review on the same day. A staggered rollout creates complaints from the outlets who went second and spreads the coverage so thin that no single day feels like anything happened.

5. Track the review copies you send. Outlet, person, date sent, date confirmed, embargo date, whether a review appeared. It sounds trivial until you are trying to remember who has your vinyl. Chase two days after the lift date, because plenty of reviews are written and simply never scheduled.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start promoting my album?

Sixteen weeks before release. Monthly magazines need eight to twelve weeks and are the only outlets whose coverage lands in release week itself, so their deadline is the one that sets everything else. Radio wants six to eight weeks, physical review copies go out at eight, and the first single usually lands around week twelve.

Should I send physical copies or streaming links?

Physical copies to the handful of outlets most likely to give you a proper review, and secure streaming links to everybody else. A record arriving in the post still signals that you mean it, and serious reviewers still prefer it. Eight weeks before release is the posting deadline, which usually means ordering them a fortnight before that.

How do I handle a broken embargo?

Privately and within a day. Message the writer, note what happened, and leave it there. Most early publications are mistakes rather than decisions, and making one public costs you far more than the piece did. If the same outlet does it twice, give them the record later next time and say nothing about why.

How far apart should the singles be?

Four to six weeks. That gives three clear moments across the campaign, the first single around week twelve, the second around week six and the album itself, without any of them competing. Closer together and they split attention. Further apart and the gap between them goes quiet.

How many outlets should I approach for reviews?

Between twenty-five and forty, sorted into three groups: the few most likely to cover you properly, a middle group who get a streaming link, and the smaller sites who can run in release week. Twenty pitches written for specific people beat a hundred sent to a list, and the difference shows up in the reply rate immediately.

From the field

Proof points

Optimal pitch lead time for an album: 10 to 12 weeks before release for long-lead press, 6 to 8 for radio (Liberty campaign cadence)
Named contact reply rate vs generic inbox: 5x higher (Liberty internal data)
Best UK send window: Tuesday and Wednesday 09:00 to 10:00 UK (Across 60+ campaigns)
Album of the Day windows: Long lead (4 to 6 weeks) for BBC 6 Music style features, plays often happen with no reply (WARM monitoring)

What actually happened

Brii Elliss, WFUV: Pre-release album push, 1,790 sends, WFUV reply within 30 minutes, 39 plays before street date (2025)

Album campaigns split into two jobs. The first is finding the playable line, the one moment a producer can use on air without a setup. The second is the longer feature angle for press. I keep these on separate pitches. Mixing them turns the email into a press kit dump, which is the fastest way to be ignored by both audiences.

Chris Schofield, Radio plugger, Liberty Music PR

Related resources

Album announcement and cover reveal strategy: A Practical Guide

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