
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


What if we told you that the biggest electronic album of all time started as a complete flop?
In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake tell the unbelievable story of how Moby’s Play went from career-killing failure to a global phenomenon thanks to the most shamelessly brilliant licensing plan ever executed.
After alienating his fans with a hardcore punk passion project and getting dropped by his U.S. label, Moby was broke, discouraged, and convinced his next record would be his last.
When Play arrived to almost no sales he figured he'd been right... until his team hatched a wild idea: say yes to EVERY licensing request. Coffee commercials?
Yes. Car ads? Hell yeah. Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Where do we sign? Soon every track—every *single* track—from the album appeared somewhere, creating a slow-burn cultural takeover and eventually pushing Play to 12 million sales worldwide.
It’s a one of a kind tale of artistic desperation, shrewd copyright strategy, and the moment Moby became the accidental king of commercial syncs.
By Blake Wyland & Scott Marquart4.8
2525 ratings
What if we told you that the biggest electronic album of all time started as a complete flop?
In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake tell the unbelievable story of how Moby’s Play went from career-killing failure to a global phenomenon thanks to the most shamelessly brilliant licensing plan ever executed.
After alienating his fans with a hardcore punk passion project and getting dropped by his U.S. label, Moby was broke, discouraged, and convinced his next record would be his last.
When Play arrived to almost no sales he figured he'd been right... until his team hatched a wild idea: say yes to EVERY licensing request. Coffee commercials?
Yes. Car ads? Hell yeah. Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Where do we sign? Soon every track—every *single* track—from the album appeared somewhere, creating a slow-burn cultural takeover and eventually pushing Play to 12 million sales worldwide.
It’s a one of a kind tale of artistic desperation, shrewd copyright strategy, and the moment Moby became the accidental king of commercial syncs.

153 Listeners

208 Listeners

485 Listeners

245 Listeners

351 Listeners

782 Listeners

311 Listeners

24,485 Listeners

2,070 Listeners

4,112 Listeners

489 Listeners

862 Listeners

226 Listeners

220 Listeners

1,074 Listeners