Earth Day: Blinky Bill joins Sounds Right nature initiative

Launched in the lead-up to Earth Day on April 22 by the Museum for the United Nations – UN Live, the initiative will see nature recognised as an official artist on major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. It hopes to raise $40m in the first four years.

According to the Museum for the United Nations – UN Live, Sounds Right aims to spark a global conversation about the value of nature and support millions of music fans to take meaningful action to protect the planet.

Artists who use natural sounds in their recordings can choose to list ‘Nature’ as a featured artist – and a share of their profits will be distributed to environmental causes, enabling nature to generate conservation funding from her own sounds.

“With timeless classics such as ocean waves, wind, rainstorms and birdsong, nature has a long history of contributing to music,” the museum said. “Now, ‘Nature’ will be recognised as an official artist with her own profile on major streaming platforms. By simply listening to music that features sounds of the natural world, fans will help to fund nature conservation and restoration projects in our most precious and precarious ecosystems.”

The artists featured on the current playlist have either released new tracks featuring nature or remixed hits to feature nature by including sounds from the natural world, with Blinky Bill’s track ‘OH WAH (ft. Nature)’ one of them.

Other global artists in the campaign include Brian Eno featuring David Bowie, Ellie Goulding, Aurora, UMI with V of BTS, MØ, London Grammar, Anuv Jain, Bomba Estéreo, Cosmo Sheldrake, Louis VI, Tom Walker, Aterciopelados, Endah N Rhesa featuring Navicula, and Los Amigos Invisibles.

Commenting on the initiative, Blinky Bill said: “It’s a big honour to be involved with this project. I’ve always been fascinated by the artistry of nature from when I was a kid – I remember being in the village and seeing fireflies and being in awe of them and I don’t see them as much anymore. The full range of nature’s artistry must be protected and this is one of the ways I would like to be involved, plus it was really cool to have the sounds of birds singing and the ocean waves as the instrumentals in my track.”

The Museum for the United Nations – UN Live added: “The initiative comes at a critical time. Wildlife populations have declined by an average 69% in the past 50 years and at least 1.2 million plant and animal species are estimated to be at threat of extinction. Sounds Right looks to flip our extractive relationship with the natural world on its head while recognising nature’s contribution to the creative industries.”

The Museum for the United Nations – UN Live CEO Katja Iversen said: “Popular culture, like music, has the power to engage millions and millions of people, ignite positive global change at scale, and get us all on a more sustainable path. In a world where empathy is declining and many people often feel that their actions hardly matter, Sounds Right and UN Live meet people where they already are – on their screens and in their earbuds – with stories and formats they can relate to, and actions that matter to them. Recognising nature as the valuable artist it truly is will be a game changer.”