Music meets environmental activism: UN’s ‘Sounds Right’ campaign

The effort directs NATURE’s streaming royalties to Earth/Percent, a charity founded by Brian Eno that uses music industry funds for climate action.

Photo credit: Sebastian Unrau on Unsplash

The United Nations (UN) has launched a special initiative, introducing ‘NATURE’ as a music artist on Spotify. This novel concept, unveiled on Earth Day, April 22nd, is part of a project called ‘Sounds Right.’

‘Sounds Right’ is an innovative campaign aimed at funding climate action activities. It does this by channeling the streaming royalties earned by NATURE to Earth/Percent, a charity founded in 2021 by music industry veteran Brian Eno.  It is dedicated to directing music industry funds towards tackling the climate crisis.

Artists wanting to support this cause are required to feature NATURE as a credited artist in their tracks. Subsequently, half the royalties from these tracks are donated to Earth/Percent. Moreover, 70 percent of the royalties from tracks added to NATURE’s ‘Ecosystem Sounds’ playlist on Spotify also contribute to the charity.

Notable artists such as London Grammar, Bomba Estéreo, Mø, AURORA, Cosmo Sheldrake, and Anuv Jain have already pledged their support to this campaign.

UN spokesperson Melissa Fleming hailed ‘Sounds Right’ as a breakthrough in music and environmental activism.