How to make a pre-save link for your next release

MusicJet
October 29, 2026

How to make a pre-save link: upload early with a future release date, then use your distributor’s free page or a standalone link service.

Here’s how to make a pre-save link: upload your release to your distributor with a release date in the future, then use either the free pre-save page your distributor builds or a standalone link service. Our music release checklist works back from your release date so the upload, and the pre-save, happen in time. The one thing you can’t do is make a pre-save for music that’s already out.

What a pre-save does

A pre-save link is a page fans visit before release day. They connect their streaming account, and on release day the song lands in their library automatically. Depending on the tool, it can also make them follow you, or ask for their email.

It only works for unreleased music, so the link has to go out in the weeks before release day.

Option 1: your distributor’s own pre-save page

Many distributors build one for you, free. Here’s what the ones we checked offer, from their own help pages:

DistroKid (HyperFollow): free for all DistroKid members. While your release is uploaded but not yet live on Spotify, your HyperFollow page works as a pre-save. Fans can opt in to share their email, but you only see those on the Musician Plus and Ultimate plans.
Ditto (SmartLink): free, and you get one with every release. It goes live 48 hours after your release passes Ditto’s checks and the stores accept it. Before release day fans can pre-save on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer; afterwards it switches to normal listen links.
CD Baby (via Show.co): free for CD Baby accounts. You enter your CD Baby UPC and Show.co finds the release for you. It won’t work for music that’s already out, and CD Baby suggests setting a release date at least a couple of weeks ahead.

If you don’t have your UPC yet, our guide to ISRC and UPC codes explains where it comes from.

Option 2: a standalone link service

These work with any distributor and usually give you more control over design, tracking and fan data:

Feature.fm: has a free plan that includes pre-save links, limited to one streaming service; paid plans add more. On your release date the page turns into a normal smart link, and the music is added to the libraries of everyone who pre-saved. Fans can choose to share their email with you.
Hypeddit: pre-saves on Spotify, Apple Music or Deezer, alongside download gates and smart links. It runs on paid plans.

Use one of these if you want more control over the page and the fan data, or one link that does other jobs too. If you don’t, your distributor’s free page is fine.

How to set it up, step by step

Upload early. Weeks, not days, before release. Leave time for checks and delivery.
Grab the link from your distributor’s dashboard, or create one in your link service.
Test it yourself on a phone, logged in to a streaming account.
Put it everywhere: bio, posts, email, the merch table QR code.
Keep using the same link after release day if your tool turns it into listen links, as Ditto’s and Feature.fm’s do.

Uploading early helps with more than the pre-save. It’s also what gives you time to pitch for playlists before release day; see how to get on Spotify playlists. There’s more in our release planning guides.

Next step

Put your release date into the music release checklist to see when to upload, when your pre-save should go live and what else needs doing. Then read how to upload music to Spotify if this is your first release.