Vancouver duo Bob Moses says its 2021 song “Inner Light” has gained more than 50 million additional streams since it was used in a late-August extended Grand Theft Auto VI trailer.
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Vancouver electronic music duo Bob Moses says its 2021 collaboration “Inner Light,” with British musician Elderbrook, has racked up more than 50 million additional streams since the track was featured in an extended Grand Theft Auto VI trailer in late August.
The duo—Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance—said their manager emailed them earlier this year with a request from Rockstar Games to use their song, with few details about how it would appear.
Howie recalled that they “were like, sweet, GTA is a big game. And then we sort of forgot about it,” but later messages brought renewed attention to the project.
Vallance said “Inner Light” landed during the trailer’s climax, with its synth-driven melodies accompanying an emotional speech about living in one’s “glory days.”
He said the moment became “the part that everyone clipped and re-shared and kind of made the song go viral.”
Spotify reported a 500 per cent surge in streams since the trailer dropped, with daily additions to listeners’ playlists increasing by more than 3,000 per cent.
The duo said they received a licensing fee described by Howie as “relatively modest,” adding, “I forget how much money it was, but it's not enough to remember,” and that the opportunity was in the potential for reach rather than the paycheque.
Vancouver music supervisor Heather Gardner said placements in major franchises can still be valuable even when licensing payments are limited, noting, “It's such a cultural icon” and that music industry breakthroughs often come through getting “eyes and ears on them and a sync, beyond the payment.”
For Grand Theft Auto VI, Gardner said the game’s scale can make music discovery more interactive, because players are “an active participant in the media in a way that no other form can do.”
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