April Tree Planting

Last Monday was Earth Day, and out of all the different projects, stories and successes I’ve seen there is one in particular the really ‘sings’ (sorry) to me…. which is nature is now able to be credited as an artist on recordings.

As much as nature’s music has been sampled and added to songs over the history of modern music, think birdsong, crashing waves, howling winds…its symphony of sounds have never been credited or given royalties.

Sounds Right is a new Museum for the United Nations – UN Live initiative that will allow artists who use sounds from the natural environment in their recordings to credit “NATURE” as a featured artist on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music and give a portion of the royalties to conservation.

An international mix of artists have already joined Sounds Right and released or mixed tracks that include Earth sounds to Spotify’s “Feat.

NATURE” playlist, including Brian Eno, Ellie Goulding, AURORA, MØ, Anuv Jain and Bomba Estéreo.

It has been projected that the Sounds Right project will engage more than 600 million individual listeners and generate over $40 million in the first four years.  These donations and royalties  will be collected by Brian Eno’s nonprofit EarthPercent in the United States and United Kingdom and directed toward restoration and biodiversity conservation projects in threatened ecosystems globally. An independent Expert Advisory Panel of mostly Global South conservationists — including Indigenous representatives, environmental activists, biologists and conservation funding experts — will guide distribution of the funds.

That really is music to my ears (really very sorry!)