Music Production and the Environment
Today, music is most accessible through online platforms and streaming, where artists can self-release their music on streaming platforms to get their start in the music industry. However, despite its accessibility, streaming is not without its difficulties, mainly the number of streams a song needs for an artist to see a fraction of revenue. More pressing, the industry is reckoning with issues including the impact of global touring, vinyl manufacturing, and the energy used to power streaming. Although seemingly unharmful, streaming (of all types of media) is now responsible for 3-4% of the global carbon footprint. Even more of a rising problem appears to be AI-produced music, and the ethics it presents for smaller artists and music-making on the whole.
Physically, music production could be less consequential on the environment; musical formats that were more prominent in the past, including vinyl records and CDs, come with more obvious environmental consequences because of the toxic, non-recyclable materials that are used to make them. However, the physical production of music hardware is not one of the most pressing threats to the environment; rather, streaming has emerged with its own invisible issues contributing to the climate crisis. As such, listening to music online takes more of a toll on our environment than it does to actually create physical music, whether that be CDs, cassettes or vinyl LPs. For example, an average individual streams approximately five hours of content daily, including non-music streaming platforms. This equates to the carbon emission of one plastic CD case; 17 hours of streaming equalled one vinyl record. Even further, since January 2021, Spotify streams of Olivia Rodrigo’s hit single, ‘Drivers License is greater than flying from London to New York and back 4,000 times, or the annual emissions of 500 people in the U.K. So despite music streaming’s easy access and usage for artists and listeners alike, there leaves little alternative to a more eco friendly means of consuming music beyond the convenience of a cellular device. Sustainable solutions could be a more retro approach, such as buying secondhand or vintage vinyl, as well as CDs and cassette tapes. However, it is unlikely listeners of today’s age are inclined to fully embrace the chunkier alternative to the convenience of a smartphone.
Streaming is material-free, but requires some mindfulness when it comes to how much, how often and which devices you’re using to access streaming services. In this way, a simple solution would be to listen offline by downloading a song or album, whereby there is an 80 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions because it will take less energy to replay. However, when users stream, they require the same amount of energy every time they hit play. In turn, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions across the globe is at a much higher rate due to the digital contributions than that of physical ones. Thus, downloading music over streaming is a start to reducing one’s carbon footprint and unintentional environmental impact, and little by little can reduce the overall footprint of music streaming’s contribution on a global scale.
Streaming and AI’s Impact on Artists and the Industry
Although streaming is an easy and very accessible way to distribute and consume music, streaming services are bragging about record profits while thousands of musicians are seeing virtually nothing coming back to them. The amount of streams required to obtain a fraction of a dollar per stream is substantial, needing millions of streams to earn at least the minimum wage. Even further, third-party streaming platforms and labels profit first and foremost before the artist does. Not paying artists fairly for their recorded work means the industry is not inclusive, and it makes music a club for the privileged. Instead of working together as a whole, the industry remains divided in how it impacts artists and music creators. Rather, there is a battle gripping the music business today around the manipulation of streaming services – and indie artists are the collateral damage.
More pressing to this issue is the rise of generative AI in the industry. From writing lyrics to producing music, AI-generated tracks are becoming a problem in the ethics of music-making. These tracks are cheap, quick and easy to make, but not only add to the climate crisis global emissions contribution but threaten the already suffering careers of artists on streaming platforms. The rising use of generative AI in creative industries has triggered a wave of lawsuits, with artists, authors and rights holders accusing AI firms of using copyrighted material without consent or compensation. While this still leaves much to discuss surrounding the ethics of AI in the music industry, it has sparked controversy and conversations about the future of the music business.
Digital Footprint and Moving Forward
In more ways than one, the digital world and physical world impact one another. Even if a per-stream carbon emission may seem small, the scale of global streaming usage makes the impact significant. Despite the convenience of streaming, it is by no means a more viable green alternative to the ever-dwindling physical music format. Not only the greenhouse gas emissions generated throughout the process of delivering online content from its source to the viewer, but the devices used to stream content also account for these emissions as well. Regardless of the format, each stage in this process consumes energy, contributing to carbon emissions, particularly when powered by fossil-fuel-based electricity grids. Instead, perhaps the larger problem relies not on the services of music streaming and distribution but on the foundation of how the systems run and collect data that could be greener. Further, not all streaming services have the same environmental impact. Differences in platform design, streaming quality, and how content is stored and delivered can lead to varying levels of energy consumption and emissions.
Some solutions include shopping at your local record store and supporting National Record Store Day on April 18, 2026, which encourages listeners and audiophiles alike to buy physical and support local record stores or retailers. In this way, more listeners are exposed to the physical alternative rather than listening exclusively on digital platforms. Since this is not a long term solution, listeners may consider lowering the quality of the stream to help reduce the carbon emissions per stream, use Wifi as opposed to data where possible and trying downloading content that is frequently played instead of streaming it multiple times, which reduces emissions from repeated data transfers. That being said, the streaming user is not to blame, but rather, the way music consumption is transmitted could be analyzed to reduce their environmental impact for both the platforms and the users moving forward.