This whole vinyl record comeback thing is hilarious! Gen Z wants to save the planet yet embraces the comeback of one of the highest carbon admitting music formats there’s ever been! Expressive Audio
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Audio Advent 2021 Day 1: The carbon footprint of vinyl records, CDs and music streaming
Saskia Egeland-JensenDec 01, 2021
Two horizontal black footprint shapes with white musical notes inside them
There’s no denying that being aware of and trying to reduce our impact on the environment is becoming more and more important in all areas of our life, from the food we eat to the cars we drive. But have you thought about the environmental impact of your music listening habits? While it is by no means the biggest issue to tackle in terms of the climate, both in the bigger picture and within the music industry, listening to music on vinyl or CD, or using a streaming platform each have a significant carbon footprint. I’m not suggesting we should all completely stop listening to music or that I have any idea what the solution might be, but I think it’s important to consider the environmental impact of the things we do without thinking, day in day out.
I’ll begin by looking at the environmental impact of vinyl records compared to that of CDs. In 2020, vinyl outsold CDs for the first time in over 30 years, with people’s lockdown buying habits contributing to the revival of records as a “trendy” way of listening to music. Vinyl records are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is one of the world’s most widely produced and used synthetic plastic polymers, and CDs are made of polycarbonate plastic. Research has shown that producing vinyl records uses twice as much plastic as CDs: a vinyl record requires 120g and a CD requires 58g. The carbon footprint of a vinyl record is over 12 times that of a CD, with a single record producing 2.2kg of greenhouse gas emissions, and a CD producing 172g.
Now let’s bring music streaming into the equation. Data shows that 487 million people worldwide were subscribed to music streaming platforms at the start of 2021. On a per-unit basis, the carbon footprint of streaming is much lower than that of any physical format. Estimates suggest that an hour of media streaming produces around 55g of emissions, so compared to that a CD’s emissions are three times that of streaming, and vinyl’s emissions are 40 times bigger. Way to go Gen Z!!!!!!!!