Katy Perry released both songs through Capitol Records, a label of the Capitol Music Group under the Universal Music Group umbrella. "I Kissed a Girl" was issued first, on April 28, 2008, as the lead single from her second album, "One of the Boys." "Hot n Cold" followed on September 30, 2008, as the album's third single. The credited artist is Katy Perry in both cases; the release decision and marketing push came from Capitol, not from Perry alone.
The release chain behind both singles
A song's "release" is not one event. It is a stack of decisions made by different parties, and understanding who "released" a track means separating those layers.
The first layer is authorship. "I Kissed a Girl" was written by Katy Perry, Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald), Max Martin, Cathy Dennis, and Benny Blanco. "Hot n Cold" was written by Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Benny Blanco. Authorship establishes ownership of the composition, not the commercial release.
The second layer is the recording and production. Both tracks were produced by Dr. Luke with Max Martin, a pairing that defined the late-2000s pop sound: compressed drums, synth hooks, and a vocal mixed forward. Production creates the master recording, which is the asset a label licenses and distributes.
The third layer is the label, and this is the layer that answers "who released" the song in the commercial sense. Capitol Records signed Perry and funded, manufactured, and distributed both singles. The label set the release dates, commissioned the music videos, and pitched the songs to radio and streaming platforms.
The fourth layer is distribution and promotion. In 2008, that meant physical and digital retail plus radio promotion teams working the singles to pop radio formats. The label's promotion staff, not the artist, decided which format got the song first and how hard to push it.
Plain language: the writers made the song, the producers made the recording, and Capitol Records put it out into the world.
Mechanism: how a 2008 pop single actually gets released
To understand why the dates matter, you need the mechanism of a late-2000s single release. It ran on a predictable sequence.
The label first shipped the song to digital retailers and radio on a coordinated date. Radio promotion is the key lever: labels employ promotion reps who pitch programmers at pop stations, and a song's chart trajectory depends heavily on how many stations add it in the first weeks. "I Kissed a Girl" was serviced to radio ahead of its commercial digital release, a common 2008 pattern that let airplay build before sales counted.
The digital release then captured the sales spike from radio exposure. In 2008, iTunes was the dominant paid download store, and a strong radio add could translate into immediate download chart movement. The label monitored both the airplay chart and the download chart and adjusted promotion spend accordingly.
The music video functioned as a second release event. It premiered on television and online outlets and drove another wave of downloads and streams. For "I Kissed a Girl," the video's provocative imagery became a marketing asset the label leaned into.
Finally, the label chose follow-up singles from the album based on which tracks tested well. "Hot n Cold" was the third single, meaning Capitol had already seen the album's reception and selected it as a proven crowd-pleaser rather than a gamble. That sequencing decision is a label function, not an artist function.
The counterintuitive detail: the artist often has little say in release order. Perry co-wrote both songs, but Capitol's commercial team decided that "I Kissed a Girl" went first and "Hot n Cold" came third.
Quantified context: dates, chart positions, and scale
Concrete numbers anchor the release story. "I Kissed a Girl" arrived on April 28, 2008. "Hot n Cold" arrived on September 30, 2008, roughly five months later. The parent album, "One of the Boys," was released on June 17, 2008, between the two singles.
On the charts, "I Kissed a Girl" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and topped charts in multiple countries. "Hot n Cold" peaked at number three on the Hot 100. Both were top-ten hits, which is why they are often discussed together.
The album's release window matters for interpreting the singles. "I Kissed a Girl" was the lead single, released about seven weeks before the album. "Hot n Cold" came about three and a half months after the album, positioning it to extend the album's commercial life into the fall and holiday season.
These are stable historical facts about release dates and chart peaks. They are not current measurements of anything, so treat them as history rather than a live metric.
Timeline of the release sequence
| Date | Event | Layer |
|---|---|---|
| April 28, 2008 | "I Kissed a Girl" released as lead single | Label release |
| June 17, 2008 | Album "One of the Boys" released | Label release |
| Mid-2008 | "I Kissed a Girl" reaches No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 | Chart outcome |
| September 30, 2008 | "Hot n Cold" released as third single | Label release |
| Late 2008 | "Hot n Cold" peaks at No. 3 on Hot 100 | Chart outcome |
| 2008–2009 | Both singles drive album sales and touring cycle | Commercial outcome |
The timeline shows the mechanism in action: lead single first, album second, follow-up singles afterward to sustain momentum. This is standard major-label sequencing, not a coincidence.
Edge cases and misconceptions
The most common misconception is that the artist "released" the song in a legal or commercial sense. Perry is the recording artist and a co-writer, but Capitol Records owns or licenses the master recording and made the release decision. Saying "Katy Perry released it" is shorthand that collapses the label layer.
A second misconception involves the songwriting credits. Fans sometimes assume the artist wrote the songs alone. Both tracks had multiple co-writers, including Max Martin and Dr. Luke, who were among the most commercially successful pop writers of the era. The credited authorship is a matter of public record in publishing databases.
A third edge case is the distinction between single release and album release. A song can be "released" as a single before or after its parent album. "I Kissed a Girl" preceded the album; "Hot n Cold" followed it. Neither timing changes who released it, but it changes how the release functioned commercially.
A fourth edge case is regional release variation. Major-label singles in 2008 sometimes had slightly different dates in different territories, and radio add dates could differ from digital retail dates. The April 28 and September 30 dates are the principal US release dates.
Red-flag warnings for anyone researching this: Do not confuse the song's release date with its chart peak date; they differ by weeks or months. Do not treat a Wikipedia infobox as a primary source for label credit; check the label's own catalog or a rights database. Do not assume the producer is the releaser; production and release are different roles. Do not present 2008 chart figures as current streaming statistics; the metrics are not comparable.
Practical actions for verifying who released a song
If you need to confirm who released any song, follow a concrete sequence rather than trusting a single summary.
First, check the label credit on the official release. Physical CD booklets, digital storefront metadata, and the artist's official channel uploads usually carry the label name and catalog number. For "Hot n Cold" and "I Kissed a Girl," that credit is Capitol Records.
Second, cross-check a rights or metadata database. Mechanical licensing databases and music metadata services list the label and distributor for a given recording, which resolves cases where a reissue or compilation changes the visible branding.
Third, distinguish the original release from reissues. A song can be re-released by a different label years later, so the "releaser" depends on which version you mean. The 2008 originals were Capitol releases.
Fourth, separate the master recording owner from the distributor. A label may own the master while a separate distributor handles delivery to streaming platforms. The releasing label is the one credited on the original release.
Fifth, note the difference between a single and an album track. If a song was only ever an album track, its "release" is the album's release date, not a separate single date.
A practical threshold: if two sources disagree on the label, trust the one that shows a catalog number and a release date together, because that combination is harder to fabricate and easier to verify.
Limitations and what this explainer cannot tell you
This explainer covers the stable facts of authorship, label credit, and release dates for two 2008 singles. It does not cover current streaming performance, because those metrics change continuously and are not comparable to 2008 sales and airplay figures.
It also does not resolve every regional release variation. Major-label releases in the late 2000s could have territory-specific dates, and a complete global release map would require territory-by-territory sourcing that is beyond the scope here.
Finally, chart positions are historical records. They describe what happened in 2008, not what is happening now. Anyone using these figures for present-day analysis should treat them as historical context rather than live data.
If you are researching music rights for a commercial use, this is general educational information, not a legal opinion or a clearance. Consult a qualified music rights professional or attorney in your jurisdiction before licensing or reproducing any recording.