Changing a Release

Uploaded the wrong file? Found a click at 0:28? Want new artwork? This page covers every way to change music you have already put into ONCE, from a draft you are still building to a single that has been live on Spotify for a year.

What you can change depends on where the release is. Open the release from your Releases page and read the colored Status & Action Bar at the top.

Edits never cost credits. You are charged once per release, when it is first submitted. Replacing audio, swapping artwork, fixing a title, and redistributing are all free, however many times you do them.

How do I change a song I’ve uploaded?

If the release is still a Draft, nothing has been sent anywhere and everything is editable.

1. Open the release and click Continue Chat in the status bar, or go straight to beta.once.app and pick up the conversation.
2. In the metadata sidebar, expand the track you want to change.
3. Click Replace audio and pick the new file. The chat upload card stays in sync, so the new file shows up in both places.
4. For artwork, ask the agent to show the cover art card and upload or generate a new image.
5. For anything else (title, genre, release date, credits, lyrics), just tell the agent in plain English.

Replace audio only appears while the draft is editable. Once the release is submitted, use Edit & Redistribute instead.

The release is submitted but not live yet

A submitted release is queued at stores but has not been accepted. You do not have to wait for it to go live, and you do not need to open a support ticket.

Click Edit & Redistribute in the status bar and make your change. Because stores have not accepted the release yet, an audio, UPC, or ISRC change here is simply saved and goes out with the delivery. The editor confirms this at the bottom: “Audio, UPC, or ISRC changes saved; takedown required after distribution.” No takedown, no delay.

If the release happens to be locked while distribution is processing, your edit is queued rather than rejected. The release page shows a Changes queued banner listing the fields waiting to apply, with a Cancel option, and the change applies automatically the moment the release unlocks. You get an email when it goes through.

How do I put a different audio file up on a song I’ve already released?

Once a release is live, stores will not accept a new master on top of the old one. The release has to come off stores first. ONCE runs that entire sequence for you: you confirm once and do not need to come back.

1. Open the release and click Edit & Redistribute in the status bar.
2. Open the manual editor (or tell the Edit Agent something like “replace the audio on track 2” and it will open the upload for you).
3. Scroll to Track Audio Replacement and upload the new file on the track you want to change.
4. Make any other changes in the same edit while you are here: artwork, titles, credits, genre. They all ride along.
5. Click save. ONCE shows you exactly which of your changes force the takedown and what happens at each step.
6. Confirm once.

What happens after you confirm

1. Takedown sent to stores. Starts immediately.
2. Stores remove the release. Usually a few days. Your music is off stores while this runs.
3. Your changes apply automatically. Everything else in the same edit goes out with the new audio.
4. The release goes back up. Same release, same UPC, same store links, same ISRCs. We email you when it is live.

The release page tracks this live, so you can always see where it stands:

While the sequence is still queued you can Cancel it from the release page, and nothing is redistributed. If the new master cannot be verified as attached, the banner flags the release and the ONCE team is alerted automatically. You do not need to report it.

Note: if the track was mastered with Peak, replacing the file disables the previous mastered result for that release. The editor warns you before you save.

How do I change the artwork on a song I’ve already released?

Artwork does not need a takedown. Your music stays live the whole time.

1. Open the release and click Edit & Redistribute.
2. The Album Art section sits at the top of the editor and is always visible, so you never have to open the full field editor for an artwork swap.
3. Upload the new image, or tell the Edit Agent “replace the cover art” and it will open it for you.
4. Save. The update goes to stores with your next delivery.

Your new art must still pass store rules: square, high resolution, JPG or PNG, no streaming platform logos, no URLs, not blurry. Stores refresh artwork on their own schedule, so allow a few days for it to change everywhere, and expect cached images (playlists, social previews) to lag behind.

How do I fix a title, artist name, genre, credits, or lyrics on a live release?

Same place, no takedown, music stays up. Edit & Redistribute gives you two ways to work:

• Edit Agent: describe the change in plain English, for example “set the language of track 2 to Portuguese” or “fix the spelling of the featured artist”, then confirm what it proposes.
• Manual editor: every field, edited by hand.

For quick metadata tweaks you can also ask ONCE Support from anywhere in the app: “change the genre on my latest release.” ONCE Support pulls up the release and lets you confirm the edit. ONCE Support cannot replace files or run takedowns.

A few things worth knowing:

• Missing songwriter credits do not block edits to a release that is already distributed. Fix the genre or artwork now, add writer credits later through Publishing.
• On singles, the release title and track title must match. ONCE keeps them aligned for you.
• Changing a UPC or an ISRC goes through the same takedown sequence as audio.

See Things to Know for how edits interact with your release date. Stream counts and playlist placements are not affected.

What if the release is locked while I’m editing?

Releases are locked while distribution is processing or a takedown is running. Your edits are not rejected during a lock. They are saved, queued, and applied automatically the moment the release unlocks, and you get an email when they go through.

• The release page shows a Changes queued banner listing the fields waiting to apply, with a Cancel option if you change your mind.
• Small, safe edits such as genre or label may go through immediately even while the release is locked.
• If the distributor starts processing between ONCE’s check and the update itself, the update shows as Deferred rather than failed. Nothing is lost and nothing is required from you: ONCE keeps the same queued edit and retries it automatically with increasing delays until processing clears.

Can I add or remove a track on a release that is already out?

No. Adding or removing tracks requires a new release, and tracks cannot be reordered in the edit modal. Everything else about the existing tracks is editable.

Should I replace the audio, or put the new version out as a new release?

The answer depends on whether the new file is the same recording, fixed or a different recording.

Replace the audio on the existing release when:

• It is the same performance with a technical problem corrected: a low-frequency artifact, a click or pop, clipping, a bad export, silence at the top, the wrong master of the same mix.
• You want to keep the release’s UPC, ISRCs, store links, stream counts, and playlist placements.

Release it as a new release when:

• It is a genuinely different recording: an acoustic version, a remix, a live take, a radio edit, a re-record, a different vocal take.
• Listeners would reasonably search for it as its own thing.

The reason is ISRCs. An ISRC identifies one specific recording, and replacing audio keeps the existing ISRC. Putting an acoustic version out under the ISRC of the studio version misidentifies it everywhere downstream, from royalty matching to store catalogs. An acoustic version deserves its own release, its own ISRC, and its own artwork.

What if you want the original gone and the alternate version in its place? Those are two separate actions: take the original down, and submit the alternate version as a new release. Do not use audio replacement to swap one version for another.

How do I take my release down?

You can do this yourself, per store or everywhere at once.

1. Open the release and click View details next to the status to open the Distributions panel.
2. To remove it from one store, click the takedown icon next to that store and confirm.
3. To remove it from every store, use Take Down From ALL Stores under the store list. Because this one is not easily reversible, you have to type TAKE IT ALL DOWN to confirm.

Takedowns take several days to process at stores, the same as any delivery. Your release stays in ONCE afterwards, so you can put it back on stores later with Distribute to N Stores in the same panel, though store links and playlist placements are not guaranteed to survive the gap.

You do not need to take a release down to change artwork or metadata, and you do not need to run a takedown yourself to replace audio: that sequence is handled for you when you confirm the edit.

My music landed on the wrong artist profile

If a live release shows up on a duplicate or someone else’s Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, or Facebook artist profile, give ONCE Support the link to the correct profile. ONCE Support validates the link, files a tracked remap request, and points you at its status on your artist profile page. The ONCE team performs the move at the store, since profile merges happen store-side and not through a redistribution.

To stop it happening on future releases, save the correct profile link on your artist store links page.

My release is held for a recognizable-artist review

If ONCE flags a release because it maps to an existing well-known artist profile, the release page states the reason directly. Ask ONCE Support to send your ownership context to the ONCE team.

Retrying does not bypass this check. Distribution resumes only once the team verifies the release is yours.

My release is live on Spotify and YouTube, but ONCE shows no track or no cover art

Your music is fine. This is ONCE’s copy of the release being out of step with the distributor, and it shows up most often after a duplicate release was deleted, where the deletion removed more than it should have, or after a catalog migration.

What to do:

1. Open ONCE Support in the app and give it the release name, the release date, and a link to the live store page (Spotify, YouTube Music, or Apple Music).
2. Say what the release page is missing: the track, the cover art, or both.
3. ONCE Support opens a tracked thread. If it cannot fix it directly, it passes the thread to the ONCE team with the details already recorded, and you can follow it under History in the ONCE Support panel.

What not to do: do not resubmit the release and do not create a new release for music that is already live. Both risk a duplicate delivery to stores, which is much slower to unwind than the display problem you started with.

While it is being fixed, your music stays live and keeps earning. Royalties are tracked against your ISRCs at the store, not against what the ONCE release page is currently rendering.

How long do changes take?

Every store processes deliveries on its own schedule, and each store has final say over how your release appears on its service. See DSPs and release metadata.

Still stuck?

• ONCE Support in the app handles release lookups, metadata edits, and anything that needs the ONCE team. You can paste screenshots straight into the message box.
• Email hey@once.app if you would rather write to the team.
• ONCE Discord for faster answers from the community.