What Measuring the Carbon Footprint of a Rock Concert Reveals About Corporate Complicity
Some of music’s most exact measurements have been taken in relation to concerts. Spend any time looking at music from an environmental perspective and you are sure to learn that live music accounts for the majority of the industry’s carbon
Measuring the carbon footprint of a rock concert has revealed that audience travel is the single largest source of emissions, accounting for over 60 percent of live music's footprint in the United States and nearly 80 percent in Britain. This insight is not new, as both Radiohead and the arts-and-climate nonprofit Julie's Bicycle have highlighted the impact of fan travel on the music industry's carbon footprint for at least two decades.
The report aims to nullify the mischaracterization of artists' emissions and hold audiences responsible for developing good habits when attending concerts. However, this focus on audience travel may unintentionally preserve a false dichotomy between artists and audiences, as both groups need jobs to make a living and are compelled to burn carbon as part of their economic arrangements.
This setup can sometimes be used to make cheap shots or low blows about environmentally conscious musicians and fans traveling for concerts. Ultimately, environmental thinking on live music encourages a form of atmospheric accounting, where scrutiny of personal choices is prioritized over examining the systemic issues at hand.
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