Releasing on Metalabel

How to put out work using Metalabel

• June 06, 2025 21:27

  Rayna Holmes

  

  Release lists and pre-orders

  If you’re working on a project with a confirmed release date, there are few ways you can use Metalabel to build momentum ahead of your release.

   

  Release lists

  Anytime an someone collects your work or follows your label, the are automatically added to your release list.

  Think of release lists as a self-sustaining mailing list. Whenever you release something new, anyone on your release list will automatically receive an announcement in their inbox.

  It’s a built-in way to keep close supporters up-to-date on your work and to send messages to your audience. The automated email pull all details and images directly from your release page, and offers an opportunity to add a short note to your audience too.

  

  When planning towards a larger release, we’ve seen creators have success by re-releasing existing work to build up their release list ahead of time. Head to Metalabel Studio to explore more release strategies.

   

  Setting up pre-orders

  You can also use the release tools to create a pre-order. Let’s say you have a book that comes out in 1 month. It’s already printed and you chose the date to align with your birthday. You can create a release now to start collecting pre-orders ahead of your birthday, then update the release description once the book is release.

  To do this, follow the steps in our release builder article. Be sure to include clear information about the launch date in your descriptions and set your estimated shipping date to a time that corresponds with the actual launch date.

  We recommend playing with physical and digital variants of your release. For example, if the physical book wont be ready until your birthday, but the digital version is ready now, you can use the same release page to offer both options at different prices.

  

  To customize different options a part of your release, head to the What's Included tab in the release builder. Read on for a step-by-step guide.

   

   

   

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• April 29, 2025 14:25

  Rayna Holmes

  

  The release builder: building a release

  The Release Builder is an easy to follow step-by-step guide to creating your release. This is your primary workspace for the release.

  It is broken down into 5 mains sections. Changes made are saved throughout your sections. You can click the Preview button in the top right corner of your screen to see how it appears. We recommend going back-and-forth between the Builder and the Preview mode while crafting your release.

   

  Overview

  Remember, all creators must submit their first release for approval from the Metalabel team so that we can make sure it follows our community guidelines. After your first release you will not need to submit any subsequent releases for approval, even if you release under a different label.

  There are many required fields throughout the Release Builder. The builder will alert you in the top right corner if you are missing any required fields. If any required fields do not apply to your release, write to us.

  If you do not see the ability to edit fields in the Release Builder, you likely do not have the right user role. Learn more about user roles and access.

   

  Read on for a detailed look at all elements of the release builder.

   

  Release Details

  All releases belong to a label. Think of a label as your brand, and a release as the creative work you want to put out under that brand.

  You can choose which label this release belongs to if the label has already been created, or quickly create one in the tab of the Builder if you haven't made the right one yet.

   

  

  On Catalog numbers. For each release, you have the option to create a corresponding catalog number. A catalog number helps identify how a release fits within a broader body of work, based on whichever cataloging system you wish (typically a combination of a prefix and numbers).

  Catalog numbers have a limit of 10 characters maximum. Examples of catalog numbers include:

  • R-01
  • FAC 13T
  • 01

  On Custom URLS. Custom URLs will be displayed using the following convention: labelname.metalabel.com/release-title. You have the ability to update the subdirectory of the release-title to be anything you’d like. Any old link will automatically re-route to your new custom url.

   

  Gallery

  Your release isn’t just an item for sale. It is a form of creative expression. This is where you can add images, videos, and blog-like notes to tell the story behind the work.

  You can add as many images, gifs, videos, and notes as you like. People use the gallery section to show details of their work, write rolling updates on the work’s progress, link out to events or other places relevant to the work, etc. If you would like to add a large file, email us at help@metalabel.com.

  Here are some inspirations of what we love from the community.

  Molly Soda's Chick Magnet	Inpatient Press's Newsbox Print Set
  Fort McMurray speaking about his set of print editions released with On The Line	Shantell Martin shares images from their studio during the making of Bad Ideas

   

  Contributors

  A contributor to a release is someone you are co-creating the release with, someone who is helping with the operations and logistics of the release, someone you want to give credit and recognition to the release, or any combination of these.

  Anyone who you want to receive earnings from the release must be added as a contributor. This includes anyone who is handling shipping and needs access to those separate funds.

  Not everyone invited has the same access rights to your release. If you have collaborators who need access to edit the release pre or post-publishing, add them as Release Admins. If you have a collaborator who needs read-only access, add them as a Release Contributor. Dive deeper into user roles.

  To add a contributor, click the Invite button to initiate an email invitation and select what user role you want them to have. The status of your invitations will appear on this screen.

  If you’d like to add people to the release but do not want them to appear publicly on the release page, you can toggle visibility of the contributor to Show/Hide. This is helpful if you are building a release page for someone else.

   

  

   

  What's included

  This is the area where you specify what your collector will receive in exchange for their support. It may be helpful to look at how things work from this diagram first:

  

  A release is a body of work you put out. Within it you can create editions — bundle of things — that the release offers. A simple item, like a zine, can be one single edition. Once it sells out you can spin up a second edition when you are ready.

  Other usage of editions can include:

  • The same item with international shipping.
  • Multiple version of the item, such as a physical zine edition and a digital zine edition.
  • Variant of what you offer, such as Spanish edition, French edition, etc.
  • Different items  — such as an LP vinyl edition, a tote bag edition, and an MP3 zip file edition — that are still a part of the same release / project.
  • Digital files. If your file is larger than 1GB, send us your file and we will upload it for you. Once uploaded you will be able to edit the title and description as usual.

  Some things you can do when editing editions:

  • add up to 7 editions on a single release
  • Modify or delete editions at any time before the release has been published. You can only delete an edition after publishing if it has no collectors
  • Edit editions after a release is published
  • Toggle your editions using the show/hide options to make them available (or not) as you see fit

   

  On quantity. Releases generate the most excitement when limited quantities are available. It helps to set a specific number here. You can always offer the next edition when items sell out.

   

  On price.

  • Set price. Specify what you want to charge for the item and flat rate shipping.

  • Free. Simply set price to $0. A lot of great creative work is offered to collectors at no cost. Free items can be digital (instantly delivered) or physical (requires shipping). You can set a flat rate shipping cost even if an item is free.

  • Pay What You Want. You can set a minimum price and a recommended price here. When a collector supports you, they can enter the price they want as long as it is equal to or greater than the minimum price. Here is how your price will display: if minimum = $4 and recommended = $10; the price of $4+ will appear on your release page, and the editable price field will show $10 in grey. Your order emails and the Orders tab in the main navigation show what each collector chose to pay.

   

  On shipping. If you toggle on the This edition requires shipping field, you will see additional fields related to shipping costs and locations.

  When offering physical goods in your release, you can set shipping cost associated to it. Currently we offer only flat rate shipping. Here are some tips to estimate your shipping rate before publishing your release. The max quantity per order field should be the total number of items you can ship with the flat shipping rate you set.

  Our Terms and Conditions advise that customs and taxes are the responsibility of collectors. In the near future we will offer a more robust shipping estimation calculator. Learn more about Shipping.

   

  Estimated ship date. It is helpful to offer your collector an Estimated ship date. This is the date your release will be ready to be shipped. It gives a ballpark estimate for collectors to look forward to receiving your work. If you set an estimated ship date, we will send you a reminder email reminder to make sure you ready to fulfill your orders on that date. You can change your estimated ship date at any time, but collectors are not alerted automatically. You will need to manually contact your collectors of any ship date changes or delays.

   

  Earnings

  Specify who will receive money from the sale of your release here. You can select yourself if you are a solo creator, or split earnings with contributors. Te total % distribution must add up to 100%. You can only split earnings with contributors who have accepted your invitation to join the release. This means you have sent an invitation email via the Collaborators tab, they have accepted the invitation, and they have created an account. Learn more about splits and earnings.

   

  Publishing and editing

  Once you're done building your release, you may see the options to Submit for approval (if it's your first release) or Publish (if you've released before) in the top right corner of the Release Builder depending on your user role.

  Label and release admins can publish releases and edit releases even after they go live. Only label admins can submit a release for approval. Learn more about user roles and access.

  After submitting for approval, the Metalabel team will review to make sure your release fits into our goal of 100% creative work. This usually takes less than 24 hours except on weekends. Once approved, you will see a blue notice in the Release Builder prompting you to Publish.

  It is completely up to you when you want to make your release live to the public.

   

  See more

  

• May 23, 2025 14:53

  Rayna Holmes

  

  Help! I need to delete something

  Currently, the ability to delete different kinds of user elements on Metalabel varies. We are working to fine tune this in the near future. Until then, here’s an overview of what you can and cannot delete.

   

  Deleting my user profile
  At this time you cannot delete your user profile once it has been created. Every email account has a unique user profile attached and you cannot delete or merge various accounts.

   

  Deleting a contributor
  Yes, you can remove a contributor from a release. To do so, head to the Release Builder and go to the Contributors tab. To remove a contributor, click on the three dots next to the contributor you would like to remove. Once complete, you will no longer be able to include them in your earnings split.

  

   

  Deleting a label

  To delete your label, head to the label’s Settings page using the left-side menu.

  

  In this area you can change your label name, URL, image, description, and delete the entire label. To delete the label, scroll down to the Danger Zone and select the button to Delete entire label. This will create a module asking you to confirm.

  

  If your label has published releases, you must first unpublish or transfer those releases to a different label before deleting the label in question. See the section below titled Deleting a published release.

   

  Deleting a release
  You can now remove drafted and some published releases very easily. To do this, head to your Releases tab and find the three dots next to the release you would like to remove. This will be the best way to delete draft releases and published releases with no collectors.

  

  To delete the release, click "Archive release". You will see a module confirming you want to do so. This cannot be undone. You will only see this option if you are a label admin.

   

  

   

   

  If you have a release that has sold at least one unit, you cannot delete the release even if you change the label. You can only turn off sales.

  To do this, head to the What’s Included tab in the Release Builder and change the quantity available to the same number sold. This will make your release appear Sold out.

  In this example, my release has sold 5 units, so I have changed the number of available units to 5 so that it is no longer available for purchase.

  

   

  Still need help or running into trouble? Email us at help@metalabel.com and we can walk you through it.

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