Interestingly enough, he says the same thing in this article. The article
contradicts him on many points though, when talking to his sales and
marketing people. Here's a couple key passages on this point-
============================================================
It's no accident. Moby is a brand with two carefully crafted elements:
The business ventures and the everyman musician who drives them.
Like any proper hitmaker, Moby has incorporated commerce into his
creative method. He sells his music to commercials and soundtracks;he sells
his likeness - such as it is - to advertisers. Moby's successes on this
score have been, in many ways, unprecedented. The dozen and a half songs on
Play, for instance, have been sold hundreds of times for commercials, movies
and TV shows - a licensing venture so staggeringly lucrative that the album
was a financial success months before it reached its multi-platinum sales
total.
.......Moby offers a soft-focus view of how this all happened. "That was
just, like, taking advantage of an opportunity," he says.
"There was not strategy involved. They called us up and said, 'Can we use
your song in this commercial?'"
Moby's managers, Marci Weber and Barry Taylor, offer a decidedly
different account. Even before the release of Play, with its record-setting
run of commercially licensed songs, Weber says the strategy was core to the
Organization.
..........Hundreds of phone calls and faxes later, all but one of the songs
on Play had been "exploited," as music-publishing vernacular puts it.
"Porcelain tinkled away for Bailey's Irish Cream and Nordstrom;"Find My
Baby" was hooking hipster consumers for American Express.
Wired Magazine 10.05 p90-94 (sorry for any typos)
================================================================
So, in an effort for this magazine to show all the yuppies the incredible
business man that Moby is, they laid down specifically what everyone knew
for a long time- Moby is a no good sellout. Just looking at his musical
history can show this. If you look at all of his music up until Play, its
completely different (also very very bad). Play is an obvious attempt to do
some sort of watered-down FatBoy Slim remake and sell records.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Clow" <greg@stainedproductions.com>
To: "IDM List" <idm@hyperreal.org>
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: [idm] This month in Wired
quoted 2 lines At 12:08 PM 22/04/02, Teknoguy wrote:
> At 12:08 PM 22/04/02, Teknoguy wrote:
> > The Moby article was educational in that they explained exactly how
Moby
quoted 5 lines sold out. It turns out that every single song on that cd was licensed to
> >sold out. It turns out that every single song on that cd was licensed to
> >some sort of advertisement or movie etc. It seems that the album was
> >designed entirely to sell to the masses
>
> I don't think Moby specifically *intended* "Play" to be a crossover
success
quoted 1 line and a licensing bonanza. The album actually had a very long shelf life,
> and a licensing bonanza. The album actually had a very long shelf life,
and
quoted 7 lines took quite some time to build in sales and recognition.
> took quite some time to build in sales and recognition.
>
> I saw an interview with him last year where he said that when he was first
> approached for licensing tracks from the album to commercials and movies,
> he was quite reluctant. But then one of the offers he rejected ended up
> getting some studio musician to record a track that was
> almost-but-not-quite the same as one of his tracks, so he figured "what
the
quoted 1 line hell" and signed some deals, partly to avoid such rip-offs to continue,
> hell" and signed some deals, partly to avoid such rip-offs to continue,
and
quoted 1 line partly because the album was getting little to no support from radio or
> partly because the album was getting little to no support from radio or
MTV
quoted 5 lines (remember, he's on a major label in North America, so sales *matter*
> (remember, he's on a major label in North America, so sales *matter*
> whether anyone likes it or not).
>
> And most of the money that he's been making from those deals has been
> donated to some extremely worthy causes, like environmental & animal
rights
quoted 10 lines groups, so I think that the ends somewhat justify the means.
> groups, so I think that the ends somewhat justify the means.
>
> I know that Moby has a pretty bad rep in the "underground" for being some
> sort of sell out or phony. To me, "selling out" means changing your style
> and recording music that you don't personally enjoy in order to sell lots
> of records, and perhaps I'm naive, and I really don't think that Moby did
> this. He's always jumped from style to style, and seems to dig a lot of
> different types of music - he just happened to get lucky with "Play".
>
> Personally, I don't care for a lot of his music, and I thought he was a
bit
quoted 22 lines of a joke when I saw him on the See The Light tour with Orbital and Aphex
> of a joke when I saw him on the See The Light tour with Orbital and Aphex
> back in the early 90s. But I still think that "Play" is an enjoyable
> downtempo album even despite it's popularity, and I find his new single
> pretty groovy in a electro-glam sorta way.
>
>
> Greg
>
>
>
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Greg Clow ::: greg@stainedproductions.com
> ::::::::: concert & event promotions ::: http://www.stainedproductions.com
> :::::: electronic music radio & reviews ::: http://www.feedbackmonitor.com
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> ::::::::: 158 Close Ave. 2nd Floor ::: Toronto, Ontario M6K 2V5 ::: Canada
>
>
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