This article explains how timed releases work in the FUGA Platform, which Digital Service Providers (DSPs) support them, and how to manage global releases for DSPs that do not natively support this feature. Following these steps ensures your music goes live at the exact same moment across all territories, maintaining a consistent worldwide marketing strategy for your priority releases.
Understanding Time Zones in the FUGA Platform
All release times configured within the FUGA Platform are set and stored in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Under the Default Dates section on a release, next to the Consumer Release Date, you will find the Consumer Release Time field.
For Digital Service Providers (DSPs) that support timed releases, the selected time is interpreted strictly as UTC, regardless of your local time zone or the territory of the end user. Before setting a timed release, ensure you have converted your desired local street time into UTC using a reliable converter to ensure your release goes live at the intended global moment.
Verifying Digital Service Provider Support
Support for timed releases varies across the industry. You can verify the capabilities of your chosen DSPs directly within the FUGA Platform:
Open your product in the FUGA Platform.
Navigate to Product Delivery Instructions.
Click the pencil icon next to a specific DSP to view its delivery capabilities.
Important notes:
- Spotify supports timed releases
- Apple Music does not support timed releases
- Screenshots shown in the platform or documentation may be for demonstration purposes only
Global Release Workaround for Non-Supported DSPs
For Digital Service Providers (DSPs) that only support "territory-by-territory" midnight releases, you can manually coordinate a global go-live time using the following workaround.
Step 1: Set a Buffer Release Date
When initially setting up the product, set the release date for non-supported DSPs to two days after your intended street date. This buffer is highly recommended to prevent the release from going live automatically at midnight in early territories (such as Australia or New Zealand) before your intended global launch time.
Step 2: Update and Redeliver on Release Day
On the actual consumer release date, approximately 30–60 minutes before your desired global go-live time:
Open the product and navigate to the Product Delivery Instructions.
Click the pencil icon for the DSPs that do not support timed releases.
In the pop-up window, change the release date to the correct consumer release date.
Click the REDELIVER button in the lower right of the window.
Ingestion timing can vary between a few minutes and a few hours depending on delivery queues and the DSP's ingestion speed at that time.
Step 3: Notify FUGA Support
If you have notified support@fuga.com in advance that a timed release is scheduled, our team will be on standby to help prioritize the delivery updates once you have triggered the redelivery. When contacting support, please provide the UPC, release title, artist name, and the intended release date and time (including time zone).
Spotify for Artists: Date Display Behavior
You may notice that Spotify for Artists displays a release date one day earlier than expected. This is normal behavior caused by time zone differences.
If a timed release is set for 03:00 UTC on a Tuesday, the release goes live globally at that exact moment. However, in New York (EST), that time corresponds to 10:00 PM on Monday. Spotify for Artists displays the earliest local date where the release is live, which may show as Monday for some territories. This does not affect the actual release timing on the Spotify consumer platform.
If you have questions or need assistance, contact your FUGA representative or reach out via our support channel.