Can streamed music ever be beautiful?

Images are of Robert Rich's double CD Numena + Geometry. CD aesthetics will be too arcane for many. But the ugly environmental impact of streaming in particular and cloud computing in general should concern everyone. 

Digital technologies currently use 10% of the world's electricity and produce almost 4% of global emissions. Streamed content accounts for 60% of digital data flows. Netflix alone accounts for 15% of global internet traffic, and 30% of Netflix's energy needs are met by coal. If 70 million streaming subscribers were to lower the quality of their video and audio streams there would be a monthly reduction of 3.5 million tons of CO2e, equivalent to approximately 6% of the total monthly coal consumption in the US. 

These are just some of the startling facts in Guillaume Pitron's book The Dark Cloud, which is an essential read. 

Comments

Chris Isbell said…
With CDs there is the environmental damage caused by producing plastic products using hydrocarbons, shipping them around the world and disposing of these "forever chemicals" afterwards. Also, a small amount of energy is needed every time a CD is played to spin it and decode the data.

I have not looked at the figures, but it would not surprise me if CDs were more environmentally harmful than streaming.
6:55 pm
Pliable said…
Fair comment Chris. But at least CD manufacturers have made an attempt to tackle the problem by switching to card for packaging. Virtually all single and double CDs come in card digipaks rather than jewel boxes.

By contrast the demand for energy from streaming services grows at an alarming rate. If you have not done so I do recommend reading Dark Cloud. This describes the huge environmental damage - electricity and water consumption - caused by the massive server farms needed to support digital services. The book makes the important point that the term 'cloud' is a misnomer. Virtually all internet activity happens on the ground with huge hidden environmental impacts.
7:11 pm
MarkAMeldon said…
It's also worth remembering that there are millions of used CDs in the world. I rarely purchase new CDs but regularly buy 'pre-loved' discs, often for a tiny amount compared to their 'new' price in the 1980s/1990s before recordings were compressed to deal with on-line stuff. And, of course, most CD booklets are a mine of information.
12:26 pm
Pliable said…
Thank you for that Mark, and I totally agree. I regularly buy not-new CDs. This week a double CD of Bartok's Microcosmos arrived with discs in pristine condition for less than £3 including postage.

Many of the not-new CDs are reviews copies, some of which I suspect have not been played before the review was written. (The quality of many recent reviews seems to confirm this.) Other discs are stock from shops that have closed.

Quite quickly I have learnt which resellers are reliable. Over the years I have bought many CDs this way with few disappointments. In fact not-new books are more likely to fall short of expectations because of the relative fragility of paper. But I also buy many not-new books, particularly since publishers hiked Kindle prices to, sometimes, higher than new physical copies.
7:58 am
MarkAMeldon said…
Last year, I managed to find and purchase on ebay a complete set of Gardiner's Bach Cantatas and a complete set of Koopman's Bach Cantatas at a cost of just £100 for the lot! All in excellent condition. Lucky me!

In my experience most 'classical' collectors look after their purchases, so, as you say, its rare to buy a dud, but I also find that sellers like MusicMagpie and Momox (German) on Amazon will readily offer prompt refunds for faulty products.

As a tip, I really rather like the replacement sleeves offered by "Slim Disc". You can pop one, two, or, at a pinch, three CDs, the card inlays and booklets into these sleeves using paper CD envelopes into much smaller shelf space than the dreaded jewel box. They look rather like small LPs.
10:04 am
Pliable said…
MusicMagpie and Momox are also my first ports of call. Recently I bought the hard to find Ocora 4 CD box 'An Anthology of South Indian Classical Music' compiled by L. Subramaniam from Momox, all in good condition including the excellent booklet. Momox have another copy in stock, but for £10 more than I paid!
11:10 am
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