How Spotify Release Radar Works (2026): Who Gets Your New Song and When

Last checked: 8 October 2026Sources: 6, dated at the end

Disclosure: MusicPromoLab sells music promotion. Every claim below links to its source at the end.

What is Release Radar, exactly?

Release Radar is one of Spotify’s personalised playlists, built separately for every listener. Spotify’s artist support page describes it in one line: a playlist of new releases that updates every Friday [1]. It is not an editorial playlist with a curator choosing songs. It is assembled per listener, which is why two fans of the same artist can see different tracks in theirs on the same Friday.

For an independent artist it matters because the official rules say plainly how to get in. Editorial playlists come with “no guarantee” language; Release Radar comes with a checklist.

Who gets my new song in their Release Radar?

Your followers are the only group Spotify commits to; everyone else depends on its recommendations. Spotify lists three sources a listener’s Release Radar draws from [1]:

• artists they follow
• artists they listen to
• other artists Spotify thinks they’ll like

The page says your followers get songs from your new release in their Release Radar. For people who stream you but never pressed Follow, and for people who have never heard you, inclusion depends on Spotify’s recommendations, and the page gives no numbers or thresholds for either group. Any article that tells you “Release Radar reaches X% of your monthly listeners” is guessing.

So your follower count is the audience you can count on in week one, and every follow enlarges the guaranteed part of your next Release Radar. Spotify adds two facts that make follows worth asking for: on average, after following an artist, listeners are 3 times more likely to stream that artist’s music in the next 6 months, and followers get new music through personalised playlists like Release Radar and the What’s New feed [6].

Which songs get in, and which are left out?

New releases where you’re a main or featured artist get in; re-releases, some alternative versions and “Various Artists” songs don’t. Spotify’s “Things to keep in mind” list is the part most guides skip, so here it is in full, in plain terms [1]:

Two rows deserve a second look. “One song per artist per week” means a five-track EP does not put five songs in front of your followers; it puts one. And re-uploading an old single under a new release does not count as new music for Release Radar purposes.

When does a new song show up, and for how long?

From a Friday refresh, and for up to 4 weeks for any listener who hasn’t played it yet. To be in Release Radar during your release’s first week, Spotify says the music must be delivered at least 7 days before release [1]. “Delivered” means your distributor has sent the release to Spotify, not that you uploaded it to the distributor. Those are different dates. Ditto Music’s help centre, for example, says Spotify needs at least 5 business days to get a new release live [5], and that clock starts after the distributor has processed your upload. Check your own distributor’s help page for its numbers before you lock a date.

As soon as someone plays the song, it drops out of their Release Radar. The order within the playlist depends on factors like release date and how much Spotify expects that listener to like the song. Spotify adds that its personalisation can shift slightly from day to day, but a listener’s Release Radar order mostly stays similar from one Friday to the next [1].

Because the refresh day is Friday, a Friday release date is the simplest way to line your song up with it. Spotify’s page does not say how a midweek release is handled against the Friday refresh, so this article won’t guess.

Why does pitching 7 days early matter for Release Radar?

Because a pitch sent at least 7 days before release lets you choose the song your followers get. Most artists think of pitching only as a shot at editorial playlists, which Spotify is clear it can’t promise: “Pitching doesn’t guarantee playlist placement” [2]. The Release Radar part is different. The same page says that if you pitch an unreleased song at least 7 days before release, Spotify will add it to your followers’ Release Radar playlists, and eligible artists can also pin it to their This Is playlist.

So the pitch does two jobs. It gives editors a chance to hear the song, and it lets you choose which track your followers get. Without a pitch, Spotify picks the song from your release for you [1]. On a single that hardly matters. On an EP or album, where each follower gets only one song that week, it decides whether they hear your focus track or track four.

The rules around the pitch itself, from Spotify’s pitching page [2]:

• You pitch from artists.spotify.com, under Music, then Upcoming. The release has to be delivered before it appears there.
• You can pitch only one song at a time. Once the pitched song is live, you can pitch another.
• Once a song has gone live, it can no longer be pitched.
• You can’t pitch compilations or songs where you are only a featured artist.
• Anyone with Admin or Editor access on the profile can view and edit the pitch, and edits are possible up to release day, though Spotify says there’s no guarantee editors will see the changes.

Spotify’s advice on the form is short: more detail gives your song a better chance. If you find the description field hard to fill, the free Spotify pitch template and writer walks you through genre, mood, instruments and story so nothing is left blank.

What’s the difference between Release Radar and Discover Weekly?

Release Radar brings new music from artists a listener follows or plays; Discover Weekly brings music they haven’t discovered yet. Both are personalised and both refresh weekly, so they get mixed up, but they do different jobs.

Spotify describes Discover Weekly as a playlist that updates every Monday to spark “first listens”, and when it turned ten in June 2025 Spotify said it had driven more than 100 billion tracks streamed, with 77% of the new artist discoveries it sparks coming from emerging artists [3]. Spotify doesn’t publish a way to pitch into it. The honest summary: Release Radar is where your existing audience hears your new song; Discover Weekly is where strangers might, and that depends on how listeners respond to your music over time.

Do pre-saves and Countdown Pages help?

They help in a different way: pre-saves put a release in fans’ libraries and trigger a notification. Countdown Pages are Spotify’s own pre-release pages. Fans can pre-save from them, and on release day Spotify sends a push notification to everyone who pre-saved and adds the release to their library. Spotify says nearly 60% of people who pre-save an album stream it in the first week [4].

The bar to use them is the catch. Per Spotify’s page, you need at least 3,000 monthly active listeners, and only new, original albums and EPs qualify. Singles don’t, and neither do deluxe editions, anniversary editions, reissues, remasters or compilations. The option appears in Spotify for Artists under Music, then Upcoming, within 72 hours of your distributor delivering the release metadata [4].

Spotify’s Release Radar page does not say pre-saves change who gets your song in Release Radar, so treat them as a separate tool: they put the release in fans’ libraries and send a notification, while Release Radar works off follows and listening. If you’re releasing singles or are under 3,000 listeners, the follower count is still your main lever.

How do I know if my song made it into Release Radar?

Open the song’s stats in Spotify for Artists and go to the Playlists tab. If the song is in your listeners’ Release Radar, the stats appear there alongside your other recent and top playlists [1].

A practical Release Radar checklist for release week

Work backwards from the release date. Everything below comes from the official rules above; the timings are minimums, not targets.

1. Pick a release date with room to spare. Add your distributor’s processing time to Spotify’s delivery time, then add the 7-day pitch window on top. The free music release plan template lays the dates out for you.
2. Upload as an original release. Make sure you’re credited as main or featured artist, not only remixer, and that the release isn’t a re-release of a song already on Spotify.
3. Confirm it shows in Spotify for Artists. Look under Music, then Upcoming. If it’s not there, the release hasn’t been delivered yet and you can’t pitch.
4. Pitch your focus track at least 7 days before release day. Fill every field. On an EP or album, pitch the song you most want followers to hear, since each follower gets one song per week. The Is my song ready for Spotify? check runs through the basics first.
5. If you qualify, set up a Countdown Page for an album or EP and share the pre-save link.
6. Ask for follows, not only streams. Followers are the part of Release Radar Spotify commits to. Plan the posts that ask for them with the release-day post planner.
7. Release on a Friday so the release lines up with the Friday refresh.
8. Check the Playlists tab in the song’s stats during release week, and again in the following weeks, since the song can stay in Release Radar for up to 4 weeks for anyone who hasn’t played it.

Keep expectations in proportion. Release Radar mainly reaches people who already know you, and Spotify publishes no figures on how many streams it typically brings an independent release. Its value grows with your follower count, and new listeners have to reach the song some other way.

Keep reading: How to pitch Spotify editorial playlists · How much does Spotify promotion cost? · All guides · Free artist tools