Why did my Podcast get rejected? How can I resubmit a Podcast after my initial rejection?

You have two issues. Firstly, your episodes are set to force a download - this means the Store cannot stream them, although they will work when subscribing. This would normally get your podcast rejected when submitting with the complaint that they had 'difficulty playing your episode'. You need to set each file not to download. eiznem has posted the process:

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

Since it wasn't rejected initially this probably isn't the issue, though. Your latest episode appears to contain music from commercially issued recordings - it is flagged in the title as a 'Mix'. This is a breach of copyright and is not allowed.

I don't know about your earlier episodes. If you can avoid using copyright recordings, or if you can prove you have written permission to use them, you can resubmit in the usual way. You will probably have to change the title slightly to get round a bug which will tell you the feed has already been submitted.

As long as you have uncleared copyright recordings in your episodes you won't be accepted.

I'm having the EXACT same problem. But I've called two Apple Support numbers, sent dozens of emails, filled out their online support form...no human response. Just the same canned: Unfortunately, the podcast has been rejected for one or more of the following reasons...

This has been going on for almost a month now. Horrible, horrible podcast customer service. The absolute definition of run-around.

Apple will not diagnose or help with problems which are at your end, only when there is a problem actually within the Store. If you've been rejected it's likely for one of the reasons listed above. If you can't relate anything there to your podcast, post the feed URL and I'll see if anything suggests itself (no promises).

Feed is here: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:152328799/sounds.rss

But Apple will not even let me re-submit. I'm willing to correct any issues and resubmit but i cant because of some stupid bug on their end and SoundCloud will not give me a modified RSS feed URL to bypass the bug.

So now what? Apple Support form? Doesn't work...tried that almost a dozen times. No human response.

Firstly your media files (at least the latest one, I didn't check the others) are set to force a download - though as this probably applies to all the others it may not be an issue. Usually this gets a feed rejected on submission: please see my first answer above.

More to the point, your latest episode appears to include music from commercial recordings - again, see my post. If these are uncleared copyright recordings you are not going to be allowed to post them in the Store.

Understood about the music rights issue. But we have the rights to play these recordings (we're a giant media company working with commercial artists - http://www.newbaymedia.com/). I have no problem clearing this with Apple to prove this but how on earth can I do that without being able to contact a human being on their end? I cant even get someone to confirm that the commercial recordings are indeed the issue.

You can assume that they will assume that the music is uncleared unless they hear otherwise. (Usually music in podcasts hasn't been cleared.) You could include a note in the main description for the podcast to explain that the music is cleared.

You could also try the Support route. Go to https://itunespodcasts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new and in the 'Choose a topic' menu choose 'Submission query'. Explain the situation in the field provided.

"You could also try the Support route. Go to https://itunespodcasts.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new and in the 'Choose a topic' menu choose 'Submission query'. Explain the situation in the field provided."

Did that. About 12 times. Same response:

You could try 'Other' instead of 'Submission query' though I don't know whether this is at all likely to provoke a helpful response. Otherwise there is the idea of noting in the description - the 'itunes:summary' tag in the top section of the feed - that the music is cleared, then resubmitting.

The problem with resubmissions is that there is a bug in the automated part of the submissions process which will tell you that your podcast has already been submitted, even when it's been rejected or removed. This has been going on for years, and I wish they'd fix it - it causes a lot of problems and is plain stupid.

Changing the title of the podcast is intended to make it look like a different one. You can change it back later, provided that doing so doesn't then change the feed filename as it does in some cases. You could try without changing the title and see if you get away with it, then if you get that error try changing the title. If you can change the 'link' tag that might help, again you can easily change that back once accepted.

In the meantime I checked your top episode and it's still forcing a download.

The link tag appears in iTunes as a link to your web page. I can't advise on Soundcloud: I can only suggest you look at their documentation or approach their Support (if any). It may be that this is generated automatically and you can't change it.

Chris,

To prove you have copywrite clearance, maybe you can tell people in the episode notes you are authorized to play the songs. Your feed says "we play new tunes by Slayer, The Devil Wears Prada, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and more."

Those are pretty big bands. Maybe if they are cleared you should tell people (and Apple) that you are cleared to play them- in the show notes?

That's what I suggested, except that I think it should be in the initial 'itunes"summary' tag (which populates the 'Description' tag on the Store page) rather in the summary for individual episode which I suspect the Store staff won't read (other than presumably automated checking for 'four-letter words').