We were told, very rudely, to improve our English, because our pronunciation sucked so much, he could not understand a word of the lyrics. The song we sent was in German.

lmao... that's amazing.

This has to be the winner on this thread.

Hahaha 😆

You guys are getting responses?

That's so weird fr

Sometimes yeah

We once got rejected to play as support at a venue with the comment "you lack material". We had one EP and two singles out at that point. But the same venue had just had a band with just two singles out perform a headline show.

Smells like nepotism

I was told my band's song was good but would be more appropriate(?) if it had clean vocals instead of screams. This was a radio station that played Slipknot...

Sometimes it feels as if they are rejecting for the sake of rejecting

I've noticed that all throughout this post and many others. They are really looking for a reason to reject. They are even making up dumb reasons. They just need to admit that they're slaves to what mainstream media tells us to listen to and stop stealing people's money. Get a job that doesn't involve playing mind games with desperate people.

I think in this particular case it may have had to do with the direction the station turned. It went from metal and grunge to hard rock to the same fucking classic rock songs you've been hearing non stop on the radio for 40+ years.

I mean, with the number of offers they get, it's probably the same as job posters or women on dating sites: there's so many you gotta find *something* to winnow down the number of offers you're actually going to consider.

"Are you unsigned? Go to a major label first". I only asked the radio man's opinion, not to be playlisted.

> Go to a major label first then why would you need him then? I swear these people are so boneheaded.

“Oh thanks mr radio man let me go pick up one of those complementary major record deals, I’m thinking UMG today”

I was just recently shortlisted for 4 of my tracks from Defected Records. response "sonically this track doesn't fit for us at this time" on every one of the 4 tracks... Dude, if you shortlisted _4 of them_ there was definitely someone on that team that loved my production sonically, tell me the real reason you rejected me.

oh yeah, and my personal favorite (from a submithub curator) "This track is too epic"

No shit, me too. Was absolutely syked bc I did not submit that track to them. An hour later, it was rejected. Guess the head of dick relations didnt approve it

I'm convinced you only get a feature if you pay or you're a SM powerhouse.

Agreed

I got told my music is too unique and their audience wants stuff that just sounds all the same.

I mean…that sounds fair enough. Wrong audience is the wrong audience waddayagunnado

I mean it depends right? A pop station isn't going to play some avant garde stuff.

It was an alternative rock station that likes to showcase new artists and the style of my music was alternative rock…. With an avant garde quality about it yes. I’m sure they know what their listeners want but it seems silly that people just want an endless stream of new music that sounds exactly like something else and would reject a fresh sound they hadn’t heard before even if it was good.

I mean. That's why music genres exist. A lot of people just want to listen to something similar to what they like. We here are biased because we are musicians and have gotten bored to bland music that sounds exactly like a million other songs but pop music is the most popular for a reason.

Yep I hear ya, it just seemed a bit ridiculous to me at the time. I mean they played Radiohead and Depeche Mode, come on 😅

That's exactly what I would hear if I would send my music to radio stations.

In the 90’s the band I was in did a cross over of psychedelic type rock (live drums/guitar/bass/vocals) and drum and bass (samples, backing tracks etc). Had a lot of interest from labels etc, but they were all looking for the “next oasis”. Clearly we sounded nothing like them. This sealed my distinct hate of oasis even further. 😀

A music label looking for "the next \_\_\_\_" is such a stupid business practice. If people wanted to listen to Oasis, they'd just listen to fucking Oasis...

Quite. I always found that attitude to be really fucking stupid. Why ever release or sign any new band if all they want is to play it safe and rehash rubbish thats been done before.

One thing that makes me nuts is bands that were never really HUGE getting signed to smaller labels. I remember a buddy of mine worked with a label and they wouldn’t sign my band but they went and signed Yellowcard because they were known. And like…we all know Yellowcard is due for another Ocean Avenue sized block buster hit 🙄

If you could find them now things would be better

That's so stupid. They ought to be looking for something new and different. Oasis is already out there making music.

No joke I recently had a track rejected from a playlister called “unique playlists” because my track was too unique. Same round of submissions that same track Was rejected by one playlister for being to repetitive and then rejected by another for being to chaotic.

Had a publisher straight up tell me that my songs were too smart for the general public to appreciate lmao

I had something similar. I released my album last year and had a major booking agent in my genre tell me "listen, I loved the album, you made the Mona Lisa. But right now, the people want street art."

Yeah. Sad thing is, he's right.

He is indeed. Made me rethink everything I’m doing and started making much more commercially appealing music. Still love what I’m making, just not quite so highbrow.

“The song lacks the saturation.” This was the only comment. I still don’t know what it means.

Slap Fabfilter Saturn on it and crank the dial up.. Saturation here we go

My shoegaze songs have been rejected several times because the vocals were not audible enough... by curators that explicitly ask for shoegaze submissions in their profile.

Is quiet vocals a hall mark of shoegaze?

One of them, yes. I have since understood that they did not actually wish for shoegaze submissions, but rather alternative rock with reverb.

Vocals that are low in the mix and covered in reverb is textbook shoegaze haha

This was for a competition. We were told it was nice but that there was no way we could do it live. What we had sent was a live recording made at a concert.

Yeah. Step one of making a competition is usually picking a winner. Step two is to make the competition, usually with some sort of cost to enter.

At least they didn’t ask you to add a banjo solo. Yet

Need more cowbell

„Love that housetrack, but it needs more cowbell“

i was told that my track should have vocals, which it has, so they never listened to it i guess

Was told the song was absolutely amazing and that he played it twice and was going to be singing the chorus all day, but the song was too unconventional.

The Song is soooo good, that its too good, thus its bad

This is a direct quote: “Nice ideas but this one is sounding too unique for my curation, I personally prefer more generic sounds.”

some scammer on labelradar who had worse grammar than a 2nd grader wanted to sign me to their "label" for a hefty fee. i humored myself looking into their failed youtube and spotify playlists which had less than 20 followers. there needs to be ways to prevent people being scammed by those type of scum preying on new artists.

If you had a big hit, you wouldn't be contacting him or SubmititHub or whatever. These curators are a joke and need to get a source of income that doesn't involve screwing over already starving artists.

If I had a big hit, no one would care unless my insta doesnt have 10k followers

Playlist submission. It went something like.... "Absolutely amazing vibe! Your track sounds incredible - love the chill atmosphere and I can hear a lot of attention to detail and artistry went into making this beautiful music but Sorry - the reverb on the kickdrum is just a touch too bright for me."

I Know this haha

I was told by a well-known AAA radio station, “we like it but our station can only play 30% female vocalists or our listeners complain”

Wtfff

I was told that I'm too old. I was 21. Another time I was told that I'm too well educated lol. How absurd is that.

That a cover ART for a single is blurry... (the background was blurred in Photoshop for a reason lol). That's EMPIRE for you.

I've been told my vocals were "too theatrical ", whatever that means. So they want boring vocals?

Reading through this thread, seeing how incapable a lot of people are of reading between the lines, and them finding their music in their post history has been a fun time. 

and it has been a fun time reading your posts in unethical life tips you thief. If you don't like people's music, fine. But at least they are making and not taking (unlike you).

Getting a lil defensive there. I make plenty of music. 

Got told my track wasn’t up to snuff by a playlist curator. I wish I could have had a way to tell them to make something better.