Why did my podcast get rejected?

When you enter the URL of your media file in a browser it downloads instead of playing within the browser as it should. This means that although it works in the iTunes application, the Store can't play it within its own page.

You need to set each file not to download. eiznem has posted the process:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6523821?answerId=26564459022#26564459022

This issue will get you rejected, though usually with a notice saying 'We had difficulty in downloading episodes from your feed'. If they didn't give any reason there is another possible difficulty in that you've made use of a trademark ('Marvel') in the image. I don't know whether they would consider this a concern but they've been known to reject podcasts for this reason before. You may want to consider changing the image to something which doesn't infringe the trademark.

When you resubmit the feed you may fall over a bug in the system which will tell you it has already been submitted. If this happens you will have to change the title slightly to get round it - you can always change it back afterwards.

I'm having a similar issue. Podcast ejected and we do not know why. Actually, we were even using a different host prior to our current one - decided to jump ship because our show was constantly being rejected and nobody could tell us why. The feed validates, our artwork is within the pixel parameters, etc. One thing that I thought of - but not sure - there is a similarly titled podcast currently in the iTunes directory - not exact, but two out of the three words in our names are the same -- could this be the issue??

rss: http://dyingsceneradio.libsyn.com/rss

Your show is getting rejected or removed for one very simple reason - you have profanity in the text of your RSS feed.

You have the f-bomb in there 3 times.

********

You must remove ALL profanity from your text in your episodes tiles and descriptions and meta data.

Once you have that all removed - then you can get your show back into iTunes.

Reply back here ********** - and I can check to make sure it is all gone.

Rob W

libsyn

<Personal Information Removed by Host>

Report back here when you've cleaned up the feed and either Rob or I can check it from here.

Actually, it's not ALL profanity that you're referencing. The "****" comes from a band's name - the iconic London punk band, **** Sparrer - who are on iTunes (they've been around since 1972)... Othere than that - random band names and songs are vulgar (we interview various bands and play playlists each week) - but all of their supposedly vulgar titled songs are also on iTunes in their own right... My buddy has a show on iTunes that actually has the word "******" in its name. Would it help if we marked each episode as explicit?

Also, forgot to mention that we've been having this issue since about episode 5 or 6 - and all the ***** are in episode 12 - so...

It does not matter what the context of the profanity is - if there is profanity and the Apple bot finds it - you will be booted.

There was a show that covers animal abuse which had an episode title mention the word "C@ckfighting" - and that got the show booted.

You are dealing with a bot - there is no rationalizing it - remove all your profanity if you want to get you show in iTunes.

And also make sure none of the music is RIAA music and you state in the title and description all music is "Podsafe Music"

Rob W

libsyn

Bobby Pickles wrote:

Would it help if we marked each episode as explicit?

Any episode which contains strong or sexual language must be flagged as explicit. And you are not allowed strong or sexual language in episodes titles, subtitles or summaries whatever the 'explicit' tag is set to (because people who my be offended will see them before being warned off).

Ok, I cleaned up the feed and marked everything as explicit.

Still some profanity in the text.

Go here in a browser

http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdyingsceneradio.libsyn.com%2 Frss

And then search for profanity - you see there is still one F-bomb in there. Still one Sh#t

Still a few words with c@ck in them.

At this point the bot would still kick it out.

Sorry - please correct these in the text and check for other profanity - and reply back when removed.

Rob W

I combed through every show -- replaced or corrected any profanity within -- still getting a random error when I go to feed validator -- line 78 - have zero idea of what the issue is -- this is so annoying

There is a problem somwhere within the 'description' tag which is the very long line 78. iTunes does not read this tag as long as you have an 'itunes:subtitle' tag so it's probable that it won't be affected by whatever this is. The tag contains a lot of formatting including justification and 'span' tags - the problem also arises with other similar tags in the other episodes. These tags should be restricted to plain text - all this complicated formatting isn't going to show anywhere.

What may be more problematic is that at a quick look it seems that your podcast may contain commercially issued recordings - if you are including such material without the written permission of the artists and the recording companies this would be a breach of copyright and will get you rejected.

All the music we premier in our show is played with the expressed permission of the copyright holder. The podcast is made by the music news website DyingScene.com. Along with playing the week's new punk music, we also interview bands. There must be a way to get around this - is there an actual person who can bypass the bots? All materials within are legit. Can we get a meeting with someone in legal or something because this is ridiculous? What would be an acceptable work-around?

Probably your best bet is to include a note in the initial description for the podcast explaining that you have permission. You could try also emailing Support at podcasts 'at' apple.com but I don't know what sort of response you are likely to get. A lot of podcasts consist of illicit 'mixes' of commercially issued recordings so the Store staff tend to clamp down on these once they get notices, and obviously if they're not told they have no way of knowing when music has actually been cleared.

Ok, so after correcting everything, what must I do to resubmit to iTunes? Change the rss feed? Can I change it back afterwards?