Focus Presave - How to set up your Spotify pre-registration link

A pre-save allows your fans to save a song or album on their streaming platform before its official release. It’s an essential step to build excitement and generate plays within the first hours of release.

On CtrlReach, pre-saves are currently available only on Spotify and Apple Music. 

How to set up your pre-save link

The pre-save link is slightly more specific to configure, as it depends on your track ID (ISRC) or album ID (UPC).

There are three ways to set it up on CtrlReach:

• Find and enter your ISRC
• Find and enter your UPC
• Or retrieve your Spotify URI, which looks like this: spotify:album:3hk6KO4d1iKlh8YQ8nPcgk

The Spotify pre-save link is specific and requires a particular format.
You need to build your link by adding:
For an album:

• /prerelease/album/ + album ID

For a track:

• /prerelease/track/ + track ID

The ID is the string of characters found in your Spotify link.

Example 1 — Spotify URI format

Example 2 — Spotify URL format (album)

Example 3 — Spotify URL format (track)

The ID is always the last part of the URL, after /album/ or /track/. It remains the same whether you use a URI or a URL.

IMPORTANT
Do not confuse pre-save links with release links — these are not the same as campaign links used after release.

Set up your Smartlink

• Go to the Smartlink tab and click “New Smartlink.”

• Select the artist you want to create the Smartlink for, then choose the objective “Pre-save.”
• Once you’ve added your link (as explained above), you can start configuring your Smartlink.

• Add the release date and time, and make sure to select the correct time zone.
• Double-check that the date and time you enter match exactly the official release on DSPs.

• Then, create your link by adding a domain name — for example, the artist’s name — followed by the project name at the end of the link.
• Then add the artist name and the project title.

Finally, configure your landing page:

• You can add other links if you want (like a merch store or ticket website),
• Add the artwork of the project or a video,
• And, if you wish, a tracking pixel.

• Once everything is configured, click on “Save.”

After the release, the link will automatically update to the public version of the project, as long as the date and time entered in your Smartlink are correct.

My link is not working - why?

Here are the most common issues:

• You used a standard release link instead of a pre-save link → replace /album/ or /track/ with /prerelease/album/ or /prerelease/track/
• You used a campaign link instead of a direct Spotify link → these are different
• The ID is incomplete or incorrect → make sure you copied the full string with no missing characters
• The release is not yet registered as a pre-release on Spotify → the link will only work once Spotify has properly indexed your project as a pre-release

Updated on: 18/06/2026