Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Mother Nature Becomes A Verified Spotify Artist
Take your headphones off for a minute. If you listen, you’ll hear Mother Nature’s music everywhere. Nature has inspired artists for centuries, and we are starting to give her the credit she deserves. As of April 18th, NATURE was introduced as a verified artist on Spotify and other major streaming platforms by Sounds Right, a new global music initiative that focuses on spreading conservation awareness and activism across the globe.
By crediting Nature in their work, artists are now able to raise funds for conservation efforts, and fans can simultaneously support their favorite artists and take climate action every time they listen to a track that features NATURE (feat. NATURE).
According to NATURE’s Spotify profile, “At least 50% of recording royalties from the Sounds Right feat. NATURE playlist and 70% of recording royalties on ‘Ecosystem Tracks’ are directed to EarthPercent.” EarthPercent is an environmental charity founded by Brian Eno, which will dedicate the funds raised by NATURE toward environmental projects that prioritize biodiversity conservation and endangered ecosystems.
To kick off the project, Brian Eno released a remix of his and David Bowie’s 1995 single, “Get Real,” which is now overlaid with animal calls, insect buzzing, bird cawing, and other nature sounds. Numerous other artists across different genres around the world, including English popstar Ellie Goulding, producer and rapper Louis VI, and Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora, are already crediting NATURE in both new music and remixes of their older music.
Not even a month after its initial launch, NATURE has reached just under 3M monthly listeners on Spotify. And it’s looking good for the future of this initiative as well. According to Billboard, the project is “projected to raise more than $40 million for conservation efforts from more than 600 million individual listeners in its first four years”.
Acknowledging Nature as the musician she is encourages a widespread shift in consciousness toward rethinking and healing our relationship with the world we live in. It lets us give back, not only from the moral standpoint of a reciprocal relationship with Nature, but also by enacting physical change through worldwide conservation and restoration.
Now is the time for us to take a small step towards repaying Nature for all she has given us, from the art we create to the world we live in. Headphones on or off, take time to listen to Mother Nature. The ability to help is in your hands, or rather, your ears. Sounds Right and Lous VI’s Instagram post stated it well: “If we’re not careful, if we don’t start listening, we might have a deathly silence”.
With a diverse array of genres everywhere from indie-pop to death rock, people interested in finding new local music need not go further than their nearest venue to discover their new favorite band. There are countless talented artists in the Seattle area, all of which deserve to be listened to and talked about. While this article can’t list them all, it will give you a head start on highlighting a few to get your feet on the ground.