A charity founded by musician Brian Eno has launched a scheme where artists can make the environment the beneficiary of their royalties.
The EarthPercent charity was founded by Roxy Music star Eno to help combat the impact the music industry has on the planet.
Today, a new pilot initiative, called The Earth as Your Co-writer, has been announced where artists can set up “The Earth” as a songwriter and legal beneficiary of music royalties - meaning their money goes directly to raising funds for climate justice and environmental organisations.
As part of the scheme, EarthPercent is inviting musicians or bands to donate one per cent of one new composition - or more should they wish. The funding raised will into EarthPercent’s grant giving fund.
It launches this week with 23 artists already signed up to the cause including British three-time Mercury Prize-nominated star Anna Calvi and Norwegian artist Aurora.
Eno, 74, who came up with the concept, and has listed “The Earth” as a song-writer on new track A Thought, said: “The Earth as Your Co-writer is a beautiful idea in which we harness the poetic construct of The Earth as a co-writer of music and direct some of the income from our compositions towards tackling the climate emergency.
“EarthPercent provides an easy way for the music industry to make a difference by asking artists to commit a small percentage of their songwriting revenue. All musicians are inspired by the precious planet we live on, so it’s fitting that we are now able to name The Earth as our co-writer.”
Aurora, who covered Oasis’s Half the World Away for the 2015 John Lewis ad, said of her involvement: “I am currently writing my next album – it’s an album about interconnectedness and the art of coexistence. There is no greater teacher than Mother Earth.
“There is no greater home, or provider. There is no better place than Earth. And that is why I want to co-write this whole album with Mother Earth as a co-writer, because without her there wouldn’t be any such thing as music.”
The initiative has been created over an 18-month period by a cross-industry advisory group working with EarthPercent.
One of the advisors, Grammy Award-winning record producer Kevin Bacon, reached an agreement with Unison, an accredited rights management entity, who will be collecting the income for “The Earth”.
During the pilot phase, the charity will be working with the UK Music Publishing Association on how to build the scheme so it can be rolled out on a bigger scale in the future.
Fore more information visit the EarthPercent website.
