It's release day, and a friend messages you: "Can't find it on Apple Music." Before you panic, go through a few checks in order. Most "missing" releases are either still being processed or already live somewhere you haven't looked yet.
Start with the status in your portal
Your distributor's portal is the first place to look, not the search bar of a streaming app. In the CULT portal you'll see the status of the release on each platform separately, which tells you straight away whether the problem is "not delivered yet" or "delivered, but I can't find it".
If a platform isn't showing the release as live, there is nothing to search for yet. If every platform shows it as live, skip ahead to the checks further down.
Review and requested changes
Every release is checked before it's sent anywhere, and if something needs fixing, it waits until you fix it. CULT's team shows any requested changes in the portal, and they're easy to miss if you only check your email once a day.
The usual reasons are small:
- text on the artwork that doesn't match the title or artist name
- extra words in the title field, like "official" or "new single"
- a featured artist written in the wrong field
- artwork that isn't exactly 3000 × 3000 pixels
- audio with a long silence at the start or a cut-off ending
Also make sure the release was actually submitted. A release that is still half filled in, or waiting for a missing file, hasn't entered review at all.
Fix exactly what was asked and resubmit. Each round of changes adds time, so it pays to get things right the first time, especially when the planned release date is close.
Every platform moves at its own pace
After delivery, each platform processes the release on its own schedule. One may show it within hours, another a few days later. Short-video platforms and their sound libraries sometimes take longer than the main streaming services. That's normal and not a sign that something went wrong.
Also check the release date you chose. If it's set for the future, the song won't appear before that day, even when delivery is complete. Many platforms release at midnight local time in each country, so a friend in another time zone may see it earlier or later than you.
This is also why it's safer to announce "out on Friday" than to promise an exact hour on every platform. Then a service that's a few hours behind doesn't turn into a public problem.
It may be live, just not where you're looking
Search is often the last thing to catch up. A new release can already sit on your artist page while the search box still shows nothing. Open your artist profile directly and look under the latest releases.
Then check the profile itself. Say Sam Rowe releases "Low tide", and another artist somewhere also performs as Sam Rowe. The song may land on the other artist's page, or a new empty profile may be created. This happens most often with short, common names. Search for the song title together with your name and open every profile that comes up.
On YouTube, a new release usually shows up on an automatically created artist channel (the one marked "Topic") and in YouTube Music, not among the videos on your own channel. If you're looking at your own uploads, you won't find it there.
Finally, rule out the device. Update the app, try the web version or another phone. Apps sometimes keep old results for a while.
Regional availability
Not every service operates in every country. If a platform isn't available where you live, you won't see your release there, even though it's live in other markets. A friend abroad may find it while you can't.
Some releases also have territory limits, for example because a licence for a sample or a cover only covers certain countries. In that case the song won't show up anywhere else, and that's correct behaviour, not an error.
When it's time to ask for help
If the portal shows the release as live, the usual processing time has passed, and none of the checks above explain the gap, write to support. Include:
- the release title and artist name exactly as submitted
- the platform and the country where you're looking
- a screenshot of what you see
- any codes you have for the release, such as the UPC
Keep the message short and specific: what you expected to see, what you actually see, and where. A clear message gets a clear answer much faster than "my song is gone".
One thing not to do: don't upload the same release again as a new one. Duplicates confuse platforms, can split your streams across two versions and usually take longer to clean up than the original problem.