Hey, have you noticed that it’s been a bit hot here in Europe recently? That, as exasperated climate scientists wearily remind us, is because of the climate emergency. As ever the general advice is: get everyone to make small positive changes, and progress will (slowly) happen. Music climate platform The Music Climate Pact (MCP), which was initiated by the UK label associations AIM and the BPI, has teamed up with Deezer to publish a “best practise guide on how all of us as music fans can reduce the impact our streaming has on the environment.”
They provide ten Top Tips developed by the MCP’s Digital Working Group and based on scientific research. You can read them all here, and they’re a mix of good general high-impact advice (hold on to your devices for longer, purchase refurbished tech, switch to a renewable energy provider) and tips that have energy reduction impacts directly on streaming (download music instead of streaming repeatedly, opt for audio-only streaming).
MCP Digital Working Group Co-Chairs, Caroline Hansen (Head of Operations, Warp Records), Lewis Jamieson (CEO, Music Declares Emergency) and Helen Smith (Executive Chair, IMPALA), said: “With the busy lives we all lead it’s useful to have a few simple tips in one place. To collaborate with Deezer on this is a privilege as we all look for ways to work together to contribute to a more sustainable future.”
As we mentioned yesterday, when presented with advice like this – which, judged on an individual basis, result in very small energy savings – it’s easy to roll our eyes, in a world of giant industrial polluters, private jets, etc. But the overwhelming scale makes it hard to picture aggregated impact. There are billions of people streaming music every day and putting these energy reduction steps into action would make a tangible difference at that scale.
