I do agree that hopefully once the war is over that most, if not all, would likely become worldwide.
Thatâs kinda what I mean. âWorldwide - as far as that shop allowsâ. Or âThe Spotify view of the Worldâ
It took until 2019 for a major market like India to be covered by Spotify, but you still see a 2012 release mark it as âworldwideâ. Ditto other stores.
A table like this one need to exist on a Spotify page to explain how the âworldâ changes size according to the reach of the shops .
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Well, I see what you are saying, just never thought that is what worldwide meant. I just donât want it to be where if itâs available everywhere, but the US or UK that people mark them worldwide. Maybe itâs my OCD kicking in on this, but it bothers me.
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Iâve been taking [worldwide] to mean similar, as in at least mostly worldwide. if we took it to mean literally every country, we would prolly have 100 [worldwide] releases or fewer, lol
edit: if a market region is excluded, I would be less likely to mark it as [worldwide], like if itâs everywhere but US/Canada/Mexico or so
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Agree that this is not worldwide. If a significant set of countries is missing where there would be a significant number of sales, then it should not be worldwide. Leave it blank, and the annotation should note that.
At the same time, if the only country blocked is âCaribbeanâ then I think that should still be marked worldwide, but a note in the annotation to mention this. This thought is based on size of excluded market only being a few hundred sales.
I saw one like this the other week. âCaribbeanâ marked as blocked, yet many Caribbean countries like Jamaica on the list anyway⌠Assumed that was just a computer being dumb
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How many countries before leaving countries release events blank? I usually lists all countries when itâs less than around 30, but was wondering if we should have a set amount? Or are most editors just leaving them blank even when low numbers like 10 or so?
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I generally check if there are âproperâ markets missing from the list (e.g. Japan, NZ + Australia, etc) rather than weird territories with no people or that are in conflict, rather than looking at the amount of countries. But any guideline would be nice.
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I always list all of the countries as release events if there are 10 of them or less. Sometimes I allow myself to exceed that limit of thereâs at least some geographic consistency among the listed countries (Latin America or Middle East + North Africa). On some rare occasions if almost all of the countries listed are European (especially if thereâs too many of them and they donât fit together into any of the commonly known subregions such as Nordics, CIS or German-speaking countries) I group them all into a single release event in Europe and use the annotation to list the specifics.
Otherwise, I leave it blank if there are at least some significant markets excluded (what @aerozol already said above me) and annotate the release with either the availability or the exclusions.
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I do basically the same what aerozol and DenizC said, but with my own twist, since I usually add digital releases using a-tisket or Harmony:
- leaving [Worldwide] if release is indeed available worldwide or itâs available in most of important territories (US, EU, CIS and etc);
- putting every country where itâs available if it misses above mentioned territories;
- putting the country which the release is supposedly made for if itâs actually unavailable (i.e. being âWithdrawnâ).
As being from the country âthat is in conflict,â like aerozol said, I do find my own country as quite important. And actually the mess with various labels/distributors/DistroKid-like services making their releases (un)available on various platforms here made me quite interested in how the distribution works, and now I can easily say what labels distribute where (as in both platforms and territories).
I know yâall wonât care, but you can read the current situation, as for November 2025 here.
Iâm from Russia, and obviously my country is the one who started the current âconflictâ with one of our neighboring countries back in 2022. The situation with digital releases here goes as follows:
- About 90-95% of releases that were, well, released before March 2022 is still available everywhere.
- No new UMG, WMG, SME releases are being available, neither on local platforms (such as Yandex Music, VK Music and etc) or local storefronts of international services (i.e. Apple Music and YouTube Music, as the only ones who stayed and still available here officially, through one way or other).
- BMG Rights Management still makes their releases available on Apple/YouTube, but not on Yandex/VK, though older releases are still available.
- No SME releases whatsoever are available on Yandex/VK, due to Sony leaving the country completely in September 2022, but they (or, some of them) are still available on other CIS storefronts of Yandex, and also still can be added to the playlist using the Shazam-ish feature the app and companyâs smart speakers have. Apple/YouTube storefronts still have SME releases as long as theyâre available worldwide.
- DistroKid and SoundCloudâs distribution feature have stopped distribution to Yandex/VK (possibly due to sanctions), but any older releases are still available there, with new ones being available only on Apple/YouTube, as long as artist will choose these services.
- WMG and BMG still distribute their music to CIS (excl. Belarus) storefronts of Yandex/VK.
- Since around late 2023 or early 2024 UMG have started working with Yandex again, but only in Israel and other Middle East countries through their international Yango brand, and expanded availability to other CIS countries (still excl. Belarus) in August-September 2025.
All above is about releases that are legally available on streamings. Obviously, services would try best to expand their backcatalogues with more international releases (even if it will got to do with literal pirating), but after all everything is up to the labels.
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