If you have an album or EP coming out, Spotify gives eligible artists a way to start building the release inside Spotify before release day.
Spotify Countdown Pages are pre-release pages where fans can pre-save an upcoming project, preview the tracklist, watch videos, browse merch and watch the clock run down to release.
More importantly, all of that happens inside the same service where those fans will eventually listen to the music.
Used correctly, a Countdown Page can become a useful part of your release campaign.
What is a Spotify Countdown Page?
A Countdown Page is a dedicated Spotify page for an eligible upcoming album or EP.
Fans can use it to:
- pre-save the release
- preview the tracklist
- watch countdown videos
- browse featured merch
- see exactly how long remains until release
A pre-save lets a listener save upcoming music before it is released. When the project goes live, Spotify adds it to that listener’s library and can notify them that it is available.
Countdown Pages can appear in several places across Spotify, including artist profiles, Search, Home, Now Playing and the Upcoming Releases hub.
Who is eligible for a Countdown Page?
Not every artist or release qualifies.
Spotify currently requires an artist to have at least 3,000 monthly active listeners.
Monthly active listeners are people who intentionally streamed your music during the past 28 days from active sources such as your artist profile, album pages or their own libraries and playlists. That is different from the larger monthly listener number shown publicly on an artist profile.
The release itself also has to qualify.
- It must be a new, original album or EP.
- Singles are not eligible.
- Rereleases, deluxe editions, anniversary editions, reissues, remasters and compilations are not eligible.
- Your label or distributor must deliver the finished release to Spotify through the normal delivery process.
If multiple main artists are credited, only the first-named main artist can currently create the Countdown Page. Spotify also still has limitations around some releases with split rights.
Deliver the music before you start promoting it
You cannot build a useful pre-release campaign around music Spotify has not received yet.
Once your distributor delivers the release information, an eligible release can generally appear in the Upcoming section of Spotify for Artists within 72 hours.
That does not mean we recommend sending us an album three days before release.
Far from it.
At Syntax, we recommend giving a release at least eight weeks whenever possible. That gives your distributor, marketing team and the DSPs more time to actually work with the project.
Our guide to the best time to release music explains why that lead time matters.
Spotify has its own useful benchmark too. The company says artists who publish a Countdown Page at least seven days before release average nearly twice as many pre-saves as artists who publish later.
So even though the tool can technically become available much closer to release, waiting until the last minute defeats a lot of the point.
How to create a Spotify Countdown Page
You create the page through Spotify for Artists.
If you do not have access yet, our guide to setting up Spotify for Artists will get you started.
For an eligible release:
- Log in to Spotify for Artists.
- Go to Music.
- Select Upcoming.
- Choose the eligible release.
- Click Get started.
- Add any countdown videos and merch you want to feature.
- Review the page.
- Publish it.
Spotify currently allows Admins and Editors on an artist team to create and edit Countdown Pages.
You can continue updating the page before release day.
Add countdown videos
Short video is still part of Countdown Pages, although Spotify changed the terminology in 2026.
These videos were previously called Clips. When Spotify stopped accepting new standalone Clips in June 2026, the videos attached to Countdown Pages became countdown videos.
Countdown videos are short vertical videos with audio that can help give fans more context around an upcoming project.
You might use one to:
- tease a song
- share something from the studio
- explain the story behind a track
- show something from the making of the project
- give fans a quick personal message about the release
Spotify currently requires countdown videos to be longer than three seconds and shorter than 30 seconds.
Do not just dump a random social video into the page because you happen to have it.
Make it about the release.
Our updated article on what happened to Spotify Clips explains the broader changes Spotify made to artist video in 2026.
Add merch when it makes sense
Countdown Pages can also feature merchandise connected to the upcoming release.
If you have an album-specific shirt, vinyl pressing, CD, bundle or another item already connected to Spotify, this gives fans a chance to see it while they are thinking about the project.
That does not mean every release suddenly needs merchandise.
If you already have something worthwhile, use the space. If you do not, the Countdown Page works perfectly well without inventing a product just to fill a box.
Use the Countdown Page throughout the campaign
Do not publish the page and forget it exists.
Share it while you are promoting the album or EP. Add new countdown videos as the campaign develops. Feature new merch if it becomes available.
You can also set the Countdown Page as your Artist Pick, the featured item that appears near the top of your Spotify artist profile.
The page can change along with the release campaign instead of being a static announcement.
Countdown Pages work with waterfall releases
This is especially useful if you are releasing songs from an album over time.
A waterfall release is a strategy where singles are released progressively before the larger album or EP arrives.
Spotify designed Countdown Pages to support that process. As new singles, videos or merch become part of the campaign, the page can continue developing around the final project.
If you are considering that kind of rollout, our Academy article on how a waterfall release strategy works goes deeper into the concept.
Fans can discover Countdown Pages inside Spotify
Countdown Pages are not limited to people who already have your link.
Spotify has an Upcoming Releases hub inside Search on mobile. It gives listeners personalized recommendations for upcoming releases based on their listening history.
The hub also includes Spotify’s Top 10 Countdowns, a ranking of the most pre-saved Countdown Pages.
That means a good Countdown Page can have visibility inside Spotify beyond the people you personally send there.
Still, do not sit around waiting for Spotify to do all the promotion.
Use the page as one tool inside the larger campaign.
Watch the pre-save data
Spotify for Artists also gives you data about how the Countdown Page performs.
Before release, you can track things such as total pre-saves and unique visitors.
After release, Spotify can show:
- total pre-saves
- Countdown Page impressions
- the percentage of pre-savers who streamed the release during its first seven days
That gives you something more useful than guessing whether your pre-release campaign worked.
Look at what happened and use that information when you plan the next release.
What does a pre-save actually do?
This is worth being precise about.
When somebody pre-saves your release through a Countdown Page, Spotify can notify that listener on release day and automatically add the project to their library.
Spotify says that, on average, more than 60% of listeners who pre-save an album stream it during release week.
That is a strong reason to give interested fans an easy pre-save option.
However, a pre-save is not a magic playlist button.
We would not tell you that collecting a certain number of pre-saves guarantees editorial playlist placement, Release Radar placement or better performance in Spotify’s recommendation system.
The benefit we can actually see is simpler: somebody raised their hand before release and said they want the music when it arrives.
That is useful all by itself.
Make the Countdown Page part of the release plan
A Countdown Page will not create demand for an album nobody is talking about.
It gives existing interest somewhere useful to go.
Deliver the release early. Build the page. Give fans something worth watching. Add merch if you actually have it. Share the page throughout the campaign. Then watch what those fans do when the music arrives.
The countdown clock is fun.
The real value is everything happening around it.
