What’s going on my fellow rock n’ rollers.
Don’t forget to hit the bell notification
icon to be notified every time I put out a
new video on my channel. Prior to the Millenium
musician Moby was down on himself. He thought
of himself as a failure and It maybe hard
for some to believe, but he was on a commercial
and critical losing streak for half a decade
starting in 1996, but by 2001 he was back
on top.
Moby’s fourth album 1996’s Animal Rights
was a commercial and critical flop. Up until
this point in moby’s career he had built
his reputation on electronic music. Animal
rights found him diving into punk rock and
more guitar driven songs and some called Moby
a sell out while others saw this move as a
way for Moby to pay homage to his 80’s punk
rock roots.
In 1999 his follow up record Play would be
released and it would be a colossal flop initially.
It would only initially peak at number 33
on the charts and sold a measly 6,000 copies
in the first week in the UK. But by 2001 the
album was now moving 150,000 copies a week
and that was just in the UK and go on to sell
12 million copies worldwide making it the
largest selling electronica album of all time.
Play would go on to be hailed as one of the
greatest albums of decade with Rolling Stone
magazine going as so far as placing the album
on it’s list of 500 greatest albums of all
time. So what changed. How did this happen?
Stay tuned to find out.
Moby became a techno wunderkind with his 1995
third record, Everything Is Wrong. People
eagerly awaited his follow up album 1996’s
Animal RIghts which was a gut punch to his
fans. Moby grew tired of electronic music
and was disappointed with critics not taking
his music more seriously and the end result
was Animal Rights. Moby’s manager would
remember how the public seemed to write off
Moby as a one hit wonder remembering: "We
found ourselves struggling for even the slightest
bit of recognition. He became a has-been in
the eyes of a lot of people in the industry".Despite
the poor sales and critical reaction, Moby
promoted Animal Rightswith a European tour
opening for both the Red Hot Chili Peppers
and Soundgarden. Moby at one point considered
quitting the music industry all together and
becoming an architect but it would be his
peers in the music industry who convinced
him to carry on as he would tell an interviewer:
"I was opening for Soundgarden and getting
shit thrown at me every night onstage. I did
my own tour and was playing to roughly fifty
people a night.", " I got a phone call from
Axl Rose saying he was listening to Animal
Rights on repeat. Bono told me he loved Animal
Rights. So if you're gonna have pieces of
fan mail, that's the fan mail to get."[5]
How did you feel about getting propos from
Axl Rose on Animal Rights. IT was really odd.
So I Got Axl Rose told me he really loved
that album and Joe Strummer told me that he
loved it. And I got. And this is the funniest
thing .I Got a piece of fan mail I remember
once piece of fan mail that I got for Animal
Rights and it was from Terence Trent D'Arby.
Wow and it was a hand written letter from
Terrance Trent D’Arby official stationery
which is vaguely purple and just saying how
much he appreciated that had made this record
and I never met Terrance Trent D'Arby but
so even though the record sold terribly and
critically maligned. Oh Bono really liked
it. So Bono, Joe Strummer Axl Rose and Terence
Trent D’Arby all seemed to like that record.
So I don’t know what’s more random the
fact that you got a handwritten note from
Terence or that you know Axl Rose.
Following Animal Rights Moby would release
his follow up record 1999’s Play, which
harkened back to his earlier sound.
Play was the first in history to have every
song licensed to advertisers, TV shows, and
movies. Thankfully for Moby his electronic
music with ambient soundscapes and minimalistic
or vague lyrics could take on a variety of
meanings,,which meant it was the perfect fit
for both advertisers and Hollywood. Moby and
his management team were able to successfully
license and re-license the same tracks over
and over again to a variety of buyers including
low to high end car makers, home appliance
makers and even, coffin polishers and electric
dog grooming equipment rental companies. At
the end of the day this resulted in several
good things for Moby including large sums
of money coming Moby’s way, him getting
more exposure and his album Play moving up
the charts.
The brains behind the whole operation was
Moby’s management team who was made up of
a pair of people named Marci Weber and Barry
Taylor. The groundwork was laid long before
Play came out when one of his song’s named
God Moving Over The face of The Waters’
was licensed for the 1995 film Heat where
it was used in the climax of the movie. The
song resonated well with hollywood’s music
departments so his management team already
had connections with the movie industry.
Up until this point in time Radio was largely
ignoring Moby as he had alienated a lot of
his longtime fans with animal rights so his
management team needed to come up an idea
that bypassed FM radio. The pair kicked things
off by throwing a free listening party at
the Slamdance Film Festival and Moby’s management
team soon started taking meetings with indie
film studios and other businesses that record
labels and publishers had previously glossed
over or ignored. Their strategy soon started
to pay off as companies one by one started
lining up to license music from Play with
clothing store Nordstrom Bailey's Irish Cream
as well as Volkswagon licensing the track
"Porcelain"., while American Express licensed
"Find My Baby". And The list would go on and
on as Moby was soon showing artists how to
make money in a future where record sales
were dwindling.. The strategy lied in owning
your own songs and publishing and licensing
out your music.
Within a year of Play coming out all 18 of
the album’s tracks were licensed in some
official way with the final unlicensed track
titled “7” finding a buyer in a British
indie production company. Following the massive
success of Play record labels and their marketing
people would start listening closer to their
artists albums and determining which songs
could be licensed to Hollywood or advertisers.
No longer did record labels and their artists
have to worry about just the chart position
of their albums, as now there was another
route to recoup their costs and make money.
.
It isn't long before a declining industry
started to develop a saviour complex about
music licensing.
Moby for his part was quickly branded a sell
out by some for licensing his music to every
type of medium but he would respond to Americansongwriter.com
saying “It’s a misleading truth,” “Yes,
every song was licensed, but some of the songs
were licensed to tiny independent film productions
that never were seen by anyone. One of the
songs was licensed for an Australian student
film by some guy in college in Sydney.”
And Moby would contend that he had almost
no input on how his music was used in ads
, but he did have some moral compass claiming
he would never allow tobacco companies or
fast food chains like McDonalds or burger
king to use his music possibly him being a
vegan had something to do with that. .
Regarding the sellout accusation he would
claim there’s no such thing as selling out
as he points to jaded schoolboys, hipster
douches and holier than though punks saying
in the same interview “In the early ‘80s,
I played in a hardcore punk band, and the
term ‘sellout’ was tossed around quite
a lot,” he notes. “There were some really
hardcore anarchist punks who believed that
if you charged money for a show, you were
a sellout. And there were people who believed
that if you made a seven-inch record, you
were a sellout. Basically, every musician
who is involved in the commercial exploitation
of music is ostensibly a sellout. I eventually
realized how absurd that was.” he’d say
Looking back Moby claims he would license
his music from Play all over again, claiming
money was never the motivating factor, but
rather how he would get his music to the masses.
So let me know your thoughts in the comments
section below. Personally I forgot as a kid
just how many videos games and movies i came
across in my you that had moby’s music including
fifa 2001, gone in 60 seconds and test drive
which come to mind. That does it for today’s
video thanks for watching be sure t hit the
like button and subscribe and put your suggestions
for future videos in the comments section
below. Take care
