Hi!
Hopefully this won’t sound bitter or ignorant, haha.
I’m a new, non-exclusive author. I’ve submitted about 20 tracks to AJ and most of them got rejected. 2 or my tracks were accepted (one of them is actually pretty bad, so that’s confusing). I submitted these 2 back when the review time was about 7 days, so a lot less crowded than what we’re seeing now.
Is it reasonable to assume that since there’s so much stuff being submitted right now exclusive authors might have an edge?
From what I can tell by looking at the new tracks on the site, the vast, vast majority of them are coming from exclusive authors.
Now, I’m perfectly willing to accept that my tracks are just not good enough. The thing is though, being a non-exclusive author, I’ve submitted these same tracks to a bunch of other sites. All of my tracks got accepted. Literally no rejections.
I realize AJ is a lot more popular and in a position to just accept the very best stuff, so is what I’m experiencing normal? Is the quality of tracks on AJ so much higher?
Other theories I’m working on:
- not American. maybe AJ makes less money off of non-American authors because of taxes or something and it would make sense to prioritize Americans and just accept the very best from everyone else;
- maybe reviewers aren’t paying that much attention to new authors;
- I’ve got 2 tracks on the site and only 1 sale. Maybe authors with a better number of tracks to number of sales ratio get prioritized.
Let me also mention that while I’m coming up with these theories I am also working on new music and improving my skills and all that, haha. I 100% understand that this is the most important factor determining my success on AJ.
So, let’s just discuss. Is your experience on AJ similar to mine?
Could I create an exclusive account and resubmit my some of my tracks (and delete them of off other sites)?
Thanks a lot!
I cannot confirm there is a difference between exclusive and non-exclusive accounts with regards the submission process. Envato gets bigger share from selling those non-exclusive tracks, so what’s the point? I have two types of accounts and I haven’t noticed any special attitude.
Thanks for the reply!
Hmm, so we’re talking about your Office Corporate Background track? That seems to be your only non exclusive track this year. I’d say it qualifies under “the very best stuff”, haha. I don’t think anyone could reasonably reject it.
Oh you mean it can be time-related? Not sure, honestly, I still think it’s unlikely. But thank you for the compliment, I appreciate it!
Oh and regarding the reasons behind why Envato might do this, I don’t know. When you sign up they’re really pushing that exclusive account option. It kinda seemed to me that exclusive authors offer more value somehow.
I think it’s reasonable to expect that a potential client would do a google search for a track they like from an AJ author. Maybe they’d find it on a different site. Maybe it’s cheaper, maybe it’s free on soundcloud on something.
Yeah, timing I think it a big part of it. It just seems like there’s so much stuff being submitted right now.
And I had a couple of tracks accepted when things we’re a little bit more calm. I’d say these tracks are worse than what I’ve submitted since.
Let me also add some numbers to my theory.
I’ve quickly survey 100 of the most recent tracks accepted on AJ. Only 5 of them were non-exclusive (3 of them from the same author).
There could be a ton of explanations for this, maybe exclusive authors are just way better.
I’d just experiment with it myself, but it would take at least 3 weeks to find out if I’m right haha. Also, I don’t want AJ to ban me or something if I resubmit the same tracks.
What’s the genre of tracks that you’re submitting? I think it’s important to remember that quality isn’t the only indicator of what gets approved. Commercial viability is an important factor as well.
I’ve submitted everything from Trap to cinematic pirate music. I’ve made sales on other sites, nothing crazy but that’s evidence of some commercial viability. Only been doing this for a little over a month.
please indicate other sites in private message.
Exclusive makes the author more money so that’s the incentive for them to sign up. It’d make sense that the best sellers are exclusive because you’d be stupid not to with a popular track. For Envato it means that their authors are just uploading to their site and nowhere else. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy, just their weird algorithms.
I was saying that 95 out of the 100 newest tracks are exclusive. If you’re a best seller on AJ it makes sense to be an exclusive author, sure.
Beyond that, there’s a ton of information available online proving that it is in fact better to be a non-exclusive author on more sites. I just read all of that info myself not long ago when I was deciding between exclusive and non-exclusive.
The fact that I only received $2.28 out of $19 for my only sale here kinda confirms that it wouldn’t make sense for me to be exclusive on AJ.
By the way, if my theory were correct I wouldn’t have any problem with that. I would just want to know so I could rethink my approach to AJ.
I’m thinking it’s kinda like surge pricing on Uber. When there’s a lot submissions, exclusive tracks are more readily accepted. For obvious reasons.
The crappy rate is pretty much why I moved to exclusive. $19 for a track is pretty rock bottom but only taking a third of that (or less after tax) is ridiculous. I hope they sort this out, I seemed to have joined the party too late for the good days!