releaseDate

A release date is the date on which a new product, work, or publication is made available to the public. It marks the formal launch and can influence publicity, sales, and distribution.

The concept applies across domains: software, films and television, video games, music, books, and other media. In software, the release date guides versioning, updates, and support windows. In film and TV, it governs theatrical windows and streaming availability. In publishing, it signals when copies go on sale.

Dates are commonly represented in ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) but may vary by locale (DD/MM/YYYY, Month Day, Year). Time zones matter for global rollouts. Metadata often uses fields such as releaseDate or datePublished, and the term releasedate may appear as a data key in some schemas. Embargo dates may set when information or access becomes public.

Planning and operations: release dates can be exact or approximate (TBD). Staged releases or soft launches distribute availability by region or channel. Delays push the date and require communication and version control. Before the official date, pre-release versions, beta periods, or early access may precede the release.

Challenges include calendar anomalies, leap years, and multi-calendar contexts; uncertain or legacy dates; and licensing, rights clearance, or regional restrictions. Clear documentation of the release date and associated metadata helps consumers, distributors, and archivists track availability. In data schemas, releasedate or releaseDate is a common field name used to store this information.