Are all "hard rejections" legitimate?

I’m not the type to complain about having music not liked. I’ve been in the production music business for many years and getting things rejected happens all the time. I’ve had three tracks hard rejected so far and two of them I can accept although I disagree. One of those two is currently placed in two television series and has paid me regular performance royalties for several years now. Both are doing well on other licensing sites, but have been around for several years, so maybe reviewers thought they were “dated”. BUT… this last one is questionable.

Please check out this song and tell me if you think this would never sell here. Not everything is for “corporate video” and we’ve got more than corporate video producers coming here. I’m not interested in a subjective review of the song or production advice. I would like to know if you honestly think this song is “too far off the standards” for Audiojungle in terms of production and viability as production music since that was the only reason given.

Perhaps some reviewers are making decisions based on personal likes and dislikes relating to musical taste and not quality. The above song has been licensed multiple times on other sites, but I apparently have no recourse since it’s a “hard rejection”.

If you guys think I’m off the mark here and the song actually does “suck”, OK, I’m wrong and I’ll run away crying with my tail between my legs, and just collect the money I’m making with in on other sites. If you think Envato is wrong, tell me that too. That might be useful.

Are any of you getting rejections on material that you feel may have been questionable? If so, is there a way to refute the claim?

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Wow, I just don’t know. It may be that they want an consistent use of the vocals that come in near the end (I would add vocals to every “chorus” and then a version without vocals). I was a little surprised by the vocals all of a sudden being there. But that doesn’t constitute a HARD rejection. That’s an easy fix and should only get a soft rejection.

It seems reviews lately have been inconsistent. I don’t get it either. I think the song is great.

Good luck!
Phil

Thanks for the feedback.

Envato saw this post and overturned the decision to make it a “soft rejection” with some minor changes suggested.

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Interesting. Can you post the final version once you change it for re-submission?

hehe with the right arrangement this song could be a top seller! I mean the ending is soo 100+ sales.

If I remember, I’ll re-post. Basically, they thought the cymbals were too loud and too bright, and that a version without vocals would be helpful. That’s fine. I can re-mix the drums and do a vocal-less version. I’m glad to see that Envato does listen.

Someone mentioned something about being “dated” (before the comment was withdrawn). Yes, and that was intentional here since it’s to be marketed as an 80’s to 90’s U2 “sound alike”. I suspect my other two rejections were for that reason as well. I explained that one of those other rejections was written in the style of an early 2000’s R&B pop ballad in the upload comments - but maybe some reviewers don’t realize that some customers need older styles of music.

Sure your track and the reasons given are not enough for hard rejection. You had good luck the staff listened to you. Nice work!

IMO, the review process IS fairly subjective, and always will be, as long as it’s handled by humans. My last approved upload here was by-the-book stock music, yet it got rejected on another site where I’ve never had a problem, and it looks like it was because of a new reviewer on that site.

And then you go through and listen to the latest approved tracks and compare it to your music, and sometimes you think “HUH?”

'Tis all part of the game, the maddening maddening game.

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