Skip to content
DropRoute
Start free

Help · Campaigns

Run a pre-release campaign

Set up a page that collects fans before release day and converts itself into a release page at the exact moment, at the same URL.

7 min · matches the current product

A pre-release page exists before the music does. It shows the countdown, collects release-day reminders (and pre-saves where a provider integration is verified), and then converts automatically at the release moment: destinations resolve to live URLs, the countdown becomes buttons, reminder emails go out. The URL never changes, which is the entire point — every poster printed in week one still works in month six.

  1. Create the link as a pre-release

    Choose New link and set the type to Pre-release (pasting a pre-release store URL infers it). Set the release date, the exact time, and — carefully — the timezone. "Midnight" is midnight somewhere specific; a page converting at midnight UTC for a Mexico City audience converts at 6pm local, mid-promotion.

  2. Add what you know, leave what you don’t

    Add destination rows for every service the release will be on. Rows without URLs display as "available on release day" — honest, and better-looking than a broken button. If you have the ISRC or UPC from your distributor, enter it: the release-day catalog scan uses identifiers first and free-text search only as a fallback.

  3. Publish and promote the one URL

    Publish as usual. The page starts collecting reminder signups immediately — each with a consent record. Put this URL in everything: bios, teasers, posters, pinned comments. It is the release page already; it just has not converted yet.

  4. Release day happens on its own

    At the release moment, DropRoute claims the conversion exactly once (a double-firing scheduler cannot convert twice), scans provider catalogs for the now-live URLs, fills what it finds with a confidence score, emails you the result, and sends the reminder emails to fans. Unresolved providers are rescanned on a widening schedule — 5 minutes, 15, 45, up to 12 hours — because services list at different speeds.

  5. The morning after

    Open the link and check the scan report: what resolved, what did not, and why. Fill any stragglers by hand — your edit always wins over a scan, and a scan never overwrites a URL you typed. Then read the live panel: it shows release-day activity in near-real time for the first 72 hours.

When it does not go to plan

A destination still shows "available on release day" after release.
That provider has not listed the release yet, or the scan could not match it confidently. Check the scan history on the link page; paste the URL by hand the moment you have it.
Fans in another country saw the page convert at the wrong time.
The conversion time is single and global, in the timezone you chose. If you need midnight-per-territory, that is a distributor-level rollout; pick the timezone of your primary audience.