The Ecological and Ethical Sustainability of Music

Music is a daily part of my life. When I’m not in class, I listen to Spotify all day long. The form that music has taken in casual American life has changed considerably in the past fifty years, from vinyls, cassettes, and CDs, to iPods, to streaming and subscription-based platforms. This semester, I found out that the music industry has a huge carbon footprint. This doesn’t mean that everyone should stop listening to their music, but we should be conscious of our personal energy usage. I encourage all music listeners to remember that in a capitalist economy, blaming corporations is far more important than blaming individuals. However, there are things that everyone can do to make the world more sustainable.

First of all, why is music so bad for the environment? Basically, all physical forms of music require energy and greenhouse gas usage to be created, and streaming music requires major amounts of energy in order to keep servers running, in order for music to always be available to listeners. A study called “The Cost of Music,”¹ by the University of Oslo and the University of Glasgow, found that streaming is actually worse for the environment than anything before it, including non-biodegradable vinyl records, and people will only pay a fraction of what they used to for music. Dr. Kevin Devine, the University of Oslo professor who led research on the ecological sustainability of music consumption, told Global News, “From a carbon emissions perspective, the transition towards streaming recorded music from internet-connected devices has resulted in significantly higher carbon emissions than at any previous point in the history of music.”² While the physical production of music formats has gone down, the greenhouse gas and overall energy usage has gone up.

As a constant Spotify-user, this is extremely concerning. I know many people use Spotify as much as I do, and there are definitely ways to conserve your energy usage while listening to the music you love. Live music and physical copies of music are both methods to avoid streaming all the time.

These are both better for musicians economically, as well!

Pitchfork’s article³ on the Cost of Music study says it best, “In 1997, consumers were willing to pay roughly 4.83% of an average weekly salary. That percentage decreased to roughly 1.22% of an average weekly salary in 2013. Since the advent of streaming, the research shows that consumers now pay only just over 1% of their weekly salary to listen to a vast library of music.” This means that everyone, from the major pop stars to small DIY bands, are being paid less for their actual recordings.

To make sure your favorite artists are getting the money they deserve, spend your money in other ways: buy merchandise and go to shows. Dell Furano, who has been in the merchandise business for over 40 years, said in an interview with Billboard, “For touring artists, their main revenue still comes from touring. But they make very substantial merchandise money. It’ll range from 10 to 35 percent of their revenue.”⁴ So, musicians make most of their money from touring and selling merchandise, which, while not always ecologically sustainable, is the most economically sustainable way to support your favorite bands.⁵

Bandsintown is a fantastic app for discovering shows for bigger artists that you’re tracking on Spotify, but I would also suggest to support your local scene! Search on Facebook for gigs, and follow the venues closest to you. At MICA, the Windup Space, Metro Gallery, and the Crown are all within walking distance; Ottobar is within the bounds of the shuttle, and Sidebar, Soundstage, and Ram’s Head are all short bus rides away!

On a daily basis, streaming is not ethically wrong, even though there’s more you can do. NPR, when asked if “using Spotify makes you a bad person,”⁶ first replied that it is better than illegally torrenting or downloading music. It’s also a great way to find new music, but if you already love the artist, consider buying their music. Then they wrote, “From there, dig into the tremendous array of ways to sustain the livelihood of musicians whose work sustains you. Contribute to their Kickstarter campaigns if they exist. Go to their concerts and encourage your friends to join you — and, while you’re there, buy a T-shirt or music directly from the band itself. Champion the music you love on social media; that word of mouth means a lot, both financially and for morale.” If you support musicians ethically, by going to shows and buying physical copies, you’ll have less of a carbon footprint than only streaming constantly. Vinyl records, though they are part of petrocapitalism (fossil fuel industries), are actually better for the environment than streaming, according to the Cost of Music study. Cassettes are great too, and are also making a comeback with DIY and smaller bands. Buying physical music is also within easy distance of MICA: True Vine and Baby’s On Fire both sell records and are walkable and within the MICA shuttle boundaries.

In our Sustainable Graphic Design course, we’ve repeatedly discussed that the most ecological way to design is not at all, and that the most ecological way to exist is the same: Everything we do has an impact on the environment. Sometimes we need to zoom out and see the bigger picture: All day long, all we do is consume. Music, resources, food, everything. And capitalism encourages us to consume as much as we can. I currently do listen to music constantly, so I understand if this is hard to imagine, but maybe I can embrace the natural sounds of the world. Maybe, someone like me, who listens almost all the time, can spend a little less time filling my head with noise, or focus more on making my own music!

Ultimately, being conscious of yourself and your energy usage is an important first step to making the world a more sustainable and safe place to be. The more self-aware you are, the less likely you are to be harming the world.

sources: https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_643298_en.pdf https://globalnews.ca/news/5150481/streaming-music-bad-environment/ https://pitchfork.com/news/emissions-from-music-consumption-reach-unprecedented-high-study-shows/ https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/magazine-feature/7800218/dell-furano-concert-tees-40-years https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/just-how-much-do-artists-earn-from-merch-these-days/ https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2013/09/26/226468333/the-good-listener-does-using-spotify-make-you-a-bad-person https://jhenrypenrose.com/the-sustainability-of-music-streaming http://dailytrojan.com/2019/04/21/from-the-soundboard-the-music-industry-must-embrace-ecological-concerns/