SXSW: Moby on free music, sneaking into concerts

Electronic artist Moby said he's had high hopes to expand his Moby Gratis site, which makes largely original music freely available to independent and non-commercial filmmakers, but has had trouble persuading other artists to join in. Moby, speaking at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, said he's uploaded about 70 pieces of music on his site since announcing its launch last year.

The site is pitched to independent and student filmmakers, and should a license bring in revenue, Moby said the money is donated to the Humane Society. Thus far, Moby said the site has directly resulted in 4,000 uses of his music in various film projects. He said he has hopes to further develop the project, but doesn't know which way it will go.

"Maybe at some point, [I'd] get some other musicians to contribute, but it's hard," Moby said. "I'm a little bit surprised by people's unwillingness to give stuff away for free. I have approached some other musicians, and they don't seem as enthusiastic about giving their music away for free."

It was then pointed out to the artist that most musicians are perhaps not in the financial state that Moby is in, and the artist said he has had some regrets about accepting projects just for the money. He cited his past willingness to DJ at corporate events as the most egregious of his capitalistic moves.

No stranger to licensing, Moby's breakthrough album "Play" is notable in part for having each of its 18 tracks used in either a film, television or commercial project. "I've licensed music to my corporations, and my idea behind that, as odd as it may sound, is that it actually seemed funny in a Robin Hood-kind of way to take money from a corporation rather than give money to a corporation," Moby said. "Maybe that's flawed."

More recently, Moby composed the score to Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" follow-up, the poorly received "Southland Tales." Moby said he forced his friends to sit through the original 3.5-hour director's cut of the film.

"My friends were so unhappy with me," Moby said. "But of all things I've worked on, it's the thing I'm most proud of because it's so unique."

The 1 hour and 15 minute conversation with Moby, which was the final panel of SXSW's film events, was moderated by BMI's Doreen Ringer-Ross. The panel strayed heavily from talking about film and licensing, beginning with this Ringer-Ross question: "Does it depress you that you were born on 9/11?"

It set the mood for an opening 30 minutes that tried to delve into Moby's philosophical and political views. When it was suggested the two start discussing the topic at hand, Moby joked, "You don't want to be talking about solving the welfare state?"

Moby hinted that perhaps he's been too open in his beliefs in the past. "I want to take a class from a cool musician on how to be vague and esoteric," Moby said, referencing the mystery that surrounds Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

The panel only briefly touched on his forthcoming album, "Last Night," due April 1, for which Moby will stage a release party on Friday night in Austin. Yet Moby said it was unlikely that the full album would be played.

Moby will also perform with his rock band, the Little Death, on Wednesday night. Asked to describe the band, Moby said, "It's Led Zeppelin meets John Lee Hooker meets Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill."

Some other noteworthy moments of the conversation:

-- Moby on his least successful and most harshly reviewed album, the much-underrated punk-influenced "Animal Rights:" "We went on tour for that, and no one showed up," Moby said. But he noted that at least three people have professed a love of the record to him: Terence Trent D'Arby, Axl Rose and Bono, who Moby said told him he "liked it as much as the Clash's first album."

-- Moby will be DJ-ing at a closing night event for the SXSW's film festivities, and a fan asked how to sneak in. Moby told a story of when he was 15 years old and unable to get into a punk rock show. Moby and his friends then called the club from a nearby pay phone and said there was a bomb inside the venue. When everyone was forced outside, Moby and his peers stood in the crowd and were able to follow the crowd back into the venue.

Photo courtesy Moby.com

Comments

[Burst Labs]

Please!!! Is he serious?

As mentioned above, most artists aren't in Moby's financial position. The possibility of giving their music away for free just doesn't quite have the appeal that it might after having licensed your entire musical soul for a few million dollars.

Just as the NIN experiment isn't some legitimate new paradigm for upcoming indie artists, Moby's licensed music offering is not a realistic path to success for those struggling for promotional opps.

And, oh yeah... the music he's offering just ain't that good, as we first blogged about last July.