Bob Moses song streams surge after placement in Grand Theft Auto VI trailer

VANCOUVER · Bob Moses, the Vancouver-based electronic duo, says their song has gained more than 50 million streams since being featured in a trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. The track, a 2021 collaboration with British musician Elderbrook called Inner Light, was used in an extended trailer for the game released in late August. The game itself launches on Thursday after more than a decade of anticipation. The duo's phones lit up with messages after the trailer dropped, as fans clipped and reshared the part of the trailer featuring their music.

"It became the part that everyone clipped and re-shared and kind of made the song go viral," said Jimmy Vallance of Bob Moses. Spotify reported the track saw a 500 per cent surge in streams since the trailer was released. Daily additions of the song to listeners' playlists increased by more than 3,000 per cent. The unexpected success comes as musicians face pressure to create viral moments in a crowded streaming landscape.

Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance, who formed the Grammy-nominated duo in 2012, said their manager emailed them earlier this year with a request from Rockstar Games to use their song. "We were like, sweet, GTA is a big game. And then we sort of forgot about it," recalled Howie. Months later, they discovered Inner Light had landed a prime spot during the trailer's climax, its synth-driven melodies underscoring an emotional speech about living in one's "glory days."

READ MORE: International visitors drove 12% spending surge at TIFF 2026, Visa data shows

READ MORE: Film Club Kid subverts familiar sad-man-finds-a-kid genre at TIFF

Vallance said the experience reinforced that there is no reliable formula for a hit in an industry reshaped by TikTok and social media. "Someone somewhere liked a song that we wrote one day and put it in the trailer, and then that connected with millions of people," he said. The duo said they were paid a relatively modest licensing fee for the placement. "I forget how much money it was, but it's not enough to remember," said Howie. "The opportunity is definitely in the potential for the reach, not in the paycheque."

Toronto music supervisor Heather Gardner, president of the Guild of Music Supervisors Canada, said that is not unusual. She said a placement in a gaming behemoth like GTA can be valuable even when the licensing payment itself is not especially lucrative. "It's such a cultural icon," she said of the franchise. "No one can pay their bills in exposure, but it really is in an industry that is so saturated musically right now. Everybody is looking for a way to break through and to get eyes and ears on them and a sync, beyond the payment, is absolutely that."

Music has long been integral to the GTA experience, with the franchise's fictional radio stations introducing players to an eclectic mix of genres. For GTA VI, Grammy-winning French electronic duo Justice composed the score. Rockstar Games plans to release an album of original songs on Thursday featuring SZA, Tame Impala and Keith Richards. Musical celebrations will continue into the weekend with a GTA-themed concert in Miami featuring Travis Scott and Cardi B.

Gardner said video games offer a powerful form of music discovery because players are active participants. Vallance is a longtime fan of the GTA series, recalling playing the original game in the 1990s. He said the 1980s-inspired soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City left a deep musical impression, introducing him to acts like A Flock of Seagulls. Vallance said it is a "huge honour" his own music has become part of the franchise's cultural orbit. "Every once in a while something happens and you're like, 'Oh, we're a real band,'" he said.

GTA VI is estimated to bring in $3.25 billion to $5.2 billion in first-week sales, according to market research firm Newzoo. Howie believes the game serves as a tastemaker at a time when audiences are fragmented across countless entertainment platforms. "There's not many things that tons of people do all together anymore," he said. "GTA is one of the very few things that a lot of people still come around to; that's a unifying thing on a scale that doesn't really exist in today's age."

With files from The Canadian Press and CBC News