Release date, original release date, and the P-line date

43 · 2026-09-11 · 17 min read · Español

The release date is the day the release goes on sale, the original release date is the day the record first came out on any format, and the P-line year is the year the recording was first published. On a new record all three point at the same month. On anything older they do not, and the form cannot tell the difference: today fits in all three fields and is right in one.

• Apple’s specification and Spotify’s style guide each carry two date fields: a sales start date, which is the day the release becomes available in a territory, and an original release date, which is the earliest date the record was first released on any format, under any label.
• A first release is its own original release: the same day goes in both fields, and the current year goes on the P-line.
• A reissue, a remaster or an anniversary edition keeps the original’s release date at album level, and the remastering year goes in the version field, not in a date field. A compilation, a live album, a remix and a re-recording take their own dates, because each is a new product or a new recording.
• The P-line is a year and a name. Under the US statute that defines the notice, the year is the year of first publication of the sound recording, and the store adds the ℗ symbol itself.
• The two digits after an ISRC’s prefix are the year the code was assigned, not a release date. Both dates and both lines can be updated by redelivery; the UPC and the ISRC cannot.

What is the difference between the release date and the original release date?

The release date is the day the release goes on sale; the original release date is the day the record first came out anywhere.

Apple’s specification has a name for each, and neither of them is “release date.” The first is the sales start date, and the specification defines it in one breath: “The date that this album is made available for sale to customers in the specified territory only. This is also known as the ‘street date’ of the album.” The second is the original release date, and its definition is the one to read twice: “The original date of the first consumer-available physical album release (LP, cassette, 8-track, CD, or other physical media). This is not the digital release date, unless this album has not previously been released on any format.” Then the sentence almost no form passes on: “This field does not impact the ‘available date’ or ‘street date’ on Apple Music.”

Spotify draws the same line in its metadata style guide, at 20.1: “The original release date can differ from the sales start date. The sales start date is the date when content becomes available for streaming in a given territory on Spotify.” And 20.2 says whose date the original one is — nobody’s: “the earliest date that the original product was first released regardless of the releasing label, or format type (for example, LP, CD, or digital-only release).” Different label, different format, different decade: the earliest date wins. On its artist-facing pages Spotify calls the first of the two the live date, and the name is the definition.

Your distributor’s form shows you one or both of these under its own labels, in its own order, and the field map already made the point that the form is a translation of the specification and not a replacement for it. Whatever the box is called, what you type lands in one of these two fields. Which one, and with what, is the rest of this page.

Which dates go on a brand-new release?

The same day in both date fields and the current year on the P-line, because a first release is its own original release.

Apple’s definition carries the case inside it: the original release date is not the digital date “unless this album has not previously been released on any format.” A record that has never been out anywhere has one date, and it goes in both boxes. The style guide’s table says the same of previously unreleased material — “the date of when the content has first become available.” So the single going out on the twelfth: sales start date, the twelfth; original release date, the twelfth; P-line, this year and your name. Three fields, one answer, and this is the only case where that is true.

The sales start date is the one that acts. Leave it out of an Apple delivery and the specification says the album goes on sale “immediately after normal quality assurance processing” — whenever that is, in every territory it was cleared for. The field is per territory on Apple, which the field map covers; the point here is only that this date is a switch and the other one is a label.

Apple compares the two dates once, at the door: a package whose original release date “is more than 90 days later than the earliest <sales_start_date>” is rejected. A record that was first released three months after it went on sale is ass-backwards, and the door is the only reader that will ever say so. It is the one date check the specification describes, so a pair that clears it ships as typed.

Which dates go on a reissue, a remaster or a compilation?

The original release date stays the first release’s, the sales start date is the new day, and a remaster year goes in the version field.

This is the case the forms get wrong, and both documents are unusually direct about it. Apple: “For albums that are re-releases (for example, re-mastered, or releases on new media types such as CD, digital, and so on), do not use the date of re-release.” Spotify, 20.2: “The original release date for remasters must be the first date the original recording was available, and not the release date of the remastered recording.” The remastering year has its own home, and it is not a date field. Spotify’s 20.3 puts it “in the product version field, followed by the word ‘Remaster’” — 7.7 and 8.6 fix the shape as Year Remaster, last in the version — and Apple’s style guide, at 3.11, wants “the year of remastering” in the title version “to properly indicate the version of the master. For example, 2017 Remastered Version.” The date says when the record was born. The version says when it was cleaned. The Tower of Pisa was straightened a little in the nineties, and the guidebooks still say 1173.

Whether a remaster is the same recording for its code is a decided question — a straight remaster keeps its ISRC — and the dates run on the same logic. Same recording, same first date.

Apple’s style guide states the rule once, at 5.1 — “Albums, tracks, and music videos must be delivered with the release date of their original issue, digitally or physically, regardless of version or country or region of origin” — and then a table does the deciding, case by case. The rows that matter to a catalogue, in the guide’s words:

The pattern under the table is three rules. A new recording takes its own date — live, remix, re-recording, instrumental. A new product made of old recordings takes its own date at album level and the old dates at track level — a compilation, a deluxe edition. A cleaned-up copy of an old recording takes the old date everywhere — a remaster, a reissue, a mono mix reissued in stereo. Spotify’s version of all three is one sentence: the earliest date, whoever released it, whatever the format.

What does each date change once the release is live?

The sales start date decides when and where a release is available; the original release date is shown to the listener and affects availability nowhere.

Apple says both halves in its own annotations. The original release date “is the field presented to the user in the Apple Music interface,” and it “does not impact the ‘available date’ or ‘street date.’” The sales start date is availability, territory by territory. Spotify’s 20.1 is the same split — the sales start date is when content “becomes available for streaming in a given territory” — and the field map’s finding about the whole form holds for these two fields exactly: two readers, and neither reads the other’s date. One is read by the system that switches the record on. The other is read by the person looking at the page.

The pitch clock runs on the first one. Spotify’s rule for pitching to its editors is “Deliver your music at least 7 days before release so our editors have time to listen,” and “Once a song has gone live, it’s no longer eligible for pitching.” Release, in that sentence, is the day the song goes live. The original release date has nothing to do with it.

What the original release date does beyond the screen — whether an old date keeps a reissue off a new-release shelf, or out of a playlist, or anything else — is not published by either store, and this page asserts nothing about it. What is published is enough to act on. One date is a switch. The other is a caption.

What year goes on the P-line?

The year the sound recording was first published, under the US statute that defines the ℗ notice, followed by the name of the owner.

The format on every form comes from one place. Section 402 of the US Copyright Act says a notice “may be placed on publicly distributed phonorecords of the sound recording” — may, so it is permitted rather than required — and then says what one is:

If a notice appears on the phonorecords, it shall consist of the following three elements: (1) the symbol ℗ (the letter P in a circle); and (2) the year of first publication of the sound recording; and (3) the name of the owner of copyright in the sound recording, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner.

Apple’s specification asks for exactly that, minus the symbol: the line “Must follow the format YYYY copyright info,” and “Do not add the ℗ symbol or ‘p’; it will be added automatically.” A track can carry its own line, and “if not specified, the copyright line from the album is used.” The C-line is the same format with the © added for you.

So the year is not the year you uploaded, not the year of the remaster, and not the year of the deal that moved the catalogue. First publication happened once. Reissue the record, sell the masters, license it to a film, and the year on the line is the same year, because the recording was first published when it was first published. A ℗ year is a birth year, and nobody gets a new one at forty.

One question this page names and does not answer: whether a remaster is a new sound recording for the statute’s purposes. The ISRC Handbook decides that a straight remaster is the same recording for its code, and that is a rule about codes, not about copyright. Whether a remaster’s own year may stand on a ℗ line is a question for counsel, and no store’s document answers it.

The C-line’s year follows the same statute one section earlier: the year of first publication of the work, and “in the case of compilations or derivative works incorporating previously published material, the year date of first publication of the compilation or derivative work is sufficient.” Whose name goes on either line — who the owner of copyright in the sound recording is when a producer, a label and a self-releasing artist were all in the room — is its own question, and this page does not answer it. What it does say is what the field map found: nothing after the door reads either line. A year and a name, published as typed, and wrong for as long as the record is up if they were wrong on the form.

Is the year in an ISRC a release date?

No. The two digits after the prefix are the year the code was assigned, which the ISRC Handbook says can differ from the release year.

The standard’s own handbook forecloses the reading in one paragraph. Clause 3.3.1: “the year of reference cannot be assumed to be a year of recording. It represents the year in which the ISRC was assigned, which may or may not be the year the recording was released.” And 3.3.3: “The year in which the ISRC is assigned may be a different year from the year of recording. The year of recording is important information, but it should be entered into and obtained from the metadata associated with the recording and not from the Year of Reference element of the ISRC.” The code’s anatomy is its own page; the one thing to take from it here is that the year in the middle is the year somebody generated the code. It is the date on the receipt, not the date on the record.

Can a wrong date be fixed after release?

Yes. Apple marks both dates and both lines as fields a redelivery can update, and Spotify lists the release date among what a distributor fixes.

Apple’s specification annotates every field with what can happen to it afterwards, and the sales start date, the original release date, the P-line and the C-line all read “can be updated” — against the UPC and the ISRC, which “cannot be updated.” The field map has the whole table. Spotify’s page on fixing problems with music lists “Live date and release date” among the things to reach out to your label or distributor to fix, and gives the mechanism in two sentences: “Your label or distributor needs to send a metadata update to us with the right info,” and “We can’t change this manually on our end because we show music according to the metadata sent to us.” Neither store publishes how long that takes.

A 2014 EP redelivered through a new distributor with today’s date in all three fields now says, on every store page, that it came out last month, and the P-line repeats it. The store does not correct that, because it shows what it was sent, and nothing after the door reads the lines again. The ninety-day check is the only date error caught on the way in. Every other one ships, and is repeated by every system downstream, as typed, until the redelivery that fixes it.

What to do before the next delivery

Give the sales start date the day you mean, the original release date the day it first came out, and the P-line that first year.

• Sales start date: the day you mean, in every territory. It is the switch, and the pitch clock counts to it.
• Original release date: the day the record first came out, on any format, under any label. On a first release, the same day as above. On a reissue, the old day, however new the distributor.
• Remaster year: the version field, as Year Remaster, never a date field. The date says when it was born; the version says when it was cleaned.
• P-line: the year of first publication of the recording, then the name, no symbol typed. The same year on a reissue as on the original.
• Read nothing into the year inside the ISRC. It is the year the code was assigned, and no form wants it as a date.

That covers the next delivery. For the catalogue behind it, the audit checklist’s metadata layer asks whether the P-lines and C-lines carry the right names and years, and this page is the answer for the years.

FAQ

Should the P-line year match the release date?

On a first release, yes: both are the year the record comes out. On a reissue, no, and the difference is the point. The sales start date is the new day, and the P-line keeps the year the recording was first published, which is what the statute that defines the notice asks for. A reissue whose P-line year matches its new release date is claiming the recording was first published this year.

Can the original release date be later than the release date?

No. The original release date is by definition the earliest date the record was released, so it can be the same day as the sales start date or earlier, never later. Apple’s specification rejects a package whose original release date is more than ninety days after its earliest sales start date; a smaller gap in that direction is not rejected, and is still wrong.

What does Spotify mean by the “live date”?

The day the release becomes available for streaming in a territory — what Apple calls the sales start date or street date. Spotify’s support page lists “live date and release date” separately among the things a distributor’s update can fix, and its style guide defines the sales start date as the date when content becomes available for streaming in a given territory.

I only know the year an old record came out. What do I enter?

Apple’s style guide asks for day, month and year on anything released after 2000, and for older catalogue “to the extent it is known whether it be to the day, month, or year.” Spotify’s guide states no rule for a partial date, and this page does not invent one; ask your distributor how its form takes a year alone before you type a January the first that never happened.

Sources

• Apple, Apple Music Specification — the sales start date as the street date, per territory, and the consequence of omitting it; the original release date as the first consumer-available physical release, “not the digital release date, unless this album has not previously been released on any format,” the field presented to the user, its “does not impact the ‘available date’” note, the re-release clause and the ninety-day rejection; the P-line and C-line format with the symbols added automatically and the track line falling back to the album’s; and the “can be updated” annotation on all four fields against “cannot be updated” on the UPC and ISRC.
• Apple, Apple Music Style Guide — 5.1 on delivering the release date of the original issue, the day-month-year rule after 2000 and the to-the-extent-known rule before it, and the release-type table quoted above; 3.11 on the year of remastering in the title version.
• Spotify, Music Metadata Style Guide, v2.3 — 20.1 on the two dates differing and the sales start date as availability in a territory; 20.2 on the earliest date regardless of label or format, and the remaster rule; 20.3, 7.7 and 8.6 on the remastering year in the version field as Year Remaster.
• Spotify for Artists, Fixing problems with music — “Live date and release date” among the issues a label or distributor fixes, the metadata update as the mechanism, and “we show music according to the metadata sent to us.”
• Spotify for Artists, Pitching music to playlist editors — deliver at least seven days before release; a song that has gone live is no longer eligible.
• United States Code, Title 17, Chapter 4 — §402(a) on the notice that may be placed on phonorecords, §402(b) on its three elements including the year of first publication of the sound recording, and §401(b)(2) on the year for a compilation or derivative work.
• IFPI, ISRC Handbook, fourth edition, 2021 — clause 3.3.1 on the year of reference not being a year of recording or necessarily of release, and 3.3.3 on the year of recording belonging in the metadata and not in the code. Each clause above links to its page of the PDF.

Every page cited here was read on the date at the top of this piece; store specifications change without notice, and the links are to the live documents. Section 402 is United States law, cited because it is where the ℗ format every store asks for comes from; nothing on this page is legal advice. Your distributor’s form presents these fields under its own names and may ask for fewer of them — the fields still exist and still have a reader.

Keeping the register

The day you redeliver a ten-year-old record is a bad day to be remembering when it came out. CatalogTracker keeps a release’s release date and original release date as two fields, beside the UPC, the territories and the P-line and C-line, gives each track its own P-line, and reports with a completeness meter how many of a release’s fields are actually filled in rather than assumed. It delivers nothing to anybody. It means the old date is where the new form can read it. In development for iPhone.