Pandora has closed her box.
November 21st, 2009 by Jim Clark
UPDATE 12/14/2010: Today Pandora accepted my third submission, this time for my new album. I guess they didn’t like the first two? Regardless, music from my new Flea Circus album is now available on Pandora. Also, Pandora now offers better explanations as to why they reject music. So while I’m no longer upset with Pandora and I understand more about how they operate, I’ll let this blog post stand for the other artists out there who are having trouble getting their music accepted. All I can say is, keep making good music and keep trying.
Do you listen to Pandora Radio? They’re a very popular streaming music site, and I would love to have my music included in their library. It would help my exposure tremendously. But alas, it looks like it ain’t gonna happen.
I’ve tried submitting my two albums to them, and they rejected them both times. I am not allowed to resubmit my music for inclusion on their service… apparently they consider stuff one time and then it’s rejected forever.
They gave no explanation why they rejected my music. It’s professionally produced, it spans several genres, there’s comparable music out there, so what’s the problem? Is it just not good enough? I have no idea. I can assume based on what I’m seeing elsewhere online that Pandora simply doesn’t accept independent artist submissions. If you’re indie, if you’re unsigned to a major label, you’re unwelcome.
The only other way (based on what I see in the FAQ) to get my music included in their private club is to have fans write in and request my music :
“How do I suggest music if it’s not already on Pandora?
When you try to add a song or artist to one of your stations, or try to create a station from a song or artist, and Pandora doesn’t recognize it, please let us know!
Send your music suggestions to:
suggest-music@pandora.com”So then I reached out to my fans for help, asking them to send an email requesting that my music be added to their catalog, just as the FAQ says. But even after several hundred such requests from fans, friends and followers, Pandora came back and said “no” yet again.
They’re response was actually, “We appreciate your fans writing into request your music, but we cannot re-review your music at this time.” Still no answer as to why. In fact, I was told, “As a policy, we choose not to discuss these matters on why we pass on certain albums.”
In other words: we don’t support independent artists.
If Pandora rejected your music, post a comment and let me know. I’m curious as to how many others have had this happen to them.
4 Responses to “Pandora has closed her box.”
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After 2 months of ‘pending’, I just logged in to find the ‘rejected’ message myself. Incredibly frustrating for all the reasons you have already stated.
It really makes no sense. I just heard the founder of Pandora on “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” the other day, and he was touting that Pandora was about pushing the independent musician.
This does not appear to be the case.
I just had the same experience. Sure took them long enough to reject me! I sent an email as you suggested. I can only imagine Pandora doesn’t want to give listeners too many options. I posted my rejection notice to my blog…
http://cobzilla.com
Same deal — waited months and finally got rejected yesterday — no explanation. The thing that kills me is that some other band’s CD that I play piano on got approved, and is part of the library — but frankly, they are a) not an active band, b) the recording was more amateur, and c) they have no fan base… I just don’t understand.
Needless to say I am disappointed — sorry you guys had the same crappy experience with them.
Boo pandora.
Benjamin
Okay, I’m sure every artist believes his or her music is good enough for Pandora. But based on experience, no matter how high the production values or quality of the music, indie artists should be prepared to be rejected by Pandora, without explanation nor the ability to follow up and ask, why? Their business model has morphed into commercial radio’s business model, which means they rarely accept music from those not on a label. So, even though they say they go by this complex “Music Genome Project,” where “trained” musician sit for hours and put your tracks into a super computer to ascertain its worthiness for Pandora, don’t be surprised by rejection. You’re better off attracting fans by internet radio outlets that truly let both the music and the fans speak for themselves, like last.fm and jango.