Bands live in a world of instant digital gratification, and that puts the pressure on direct-to-fan companies. A tweet gets an instant response, so why wait weeks to upload music onto iTunes?

Well, there are plenty of reasons, though UK-based Ditto Music now claims to be able to distribute music into iTunes in under a day. “We’ve slashed upload times from 4-5 weeks to just 24 hours,” Ditto Music cofounder Lee Parsons told Digital Music News this morning. “This means that any artist can have a song for sale on iTunes, and be eligible for the charts the very next day.”

That easily beats advertised turnarounds for TuneCore (2-3 weeks), ReverbNation (6-8 weeks estimated for all placements), and CD Baby (5 weeks). Of course, bands can upload songs onto their own sites in one minute, but iTunes offers a nice imprimatur. And, it also means chart eligibility. “To think that through Ditto artists can release a chart eligible single to iTunes in just 24 hours is a staggering testament to the progress of technology,” Parsons enthused.

The secret? Parsons pointed to super-clean data and great turnaround on the iTunes side. Ditto already distributes 12,000 artists, but now the company has to back its claims or face some heat from competitors. Stay tuned.