When "Play" was released on May 17, 1999, it underperformed commercially. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number 33 on the UK Albums Chart, but sales declined in the weeks immediately following its debut and the album spent only five further weeks inside the charts for the remainder of the year. Moby stated, "First show that I did on the tour for "Play" was in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. Literally playing music while people were waiting in line buying CDs. Maybe forty people came." Despite the album's strong critical reviews, "Play"s songs received little airplay from radio stations or television networks such as MTV. While this lack of airplay further damaged the album's commercial prospects, Moby and his record label soon found another approach to increasing public exposure of the album, by way of licensing its songs to films, television shows, and commercials. According to Moby, the goal behind the licensing of "Play" "was simply to get people to hear the music," adding, "Most of the licenses weren't particularly lucrative, but they enabled people to hear the music because otherwise the record wasn't being heard." Eric Härle later clarified that although many people believed the songs were pitched for advertisements as part of the marketing campaign for an album that did not fit with mainstream radio, the licensing actually came as a result of agencies asking for permission to use the music as soundbeds, attributing the music's popularity to its evocative and emotional nature. Despite the heavy licensing, the advertisements selected were nevertheless carefully chosen and more requests were turned down than accepted.