It's a bit confusing. Go to "Pricing and Availability", then look at "App Availability". That's where you will see where it is live. Make sure there is at least one country selected. The "Ready for Distribution" will stay just like that.

This was a bit confusing for me as well. If you go to "Pricing and Availability", and look at "App Availability", it will show what countries it is available in. If it shows as available in at least one country, it will be there. I went and confirmed I can see both of my apps using a different account and they are live. I think in the past, you had to push a button to make it live, but only if you set it to manual release.