Ideas to manage unnecessary production in the music industry for independent artists:
Screen print, heat press, or paint new designs on old merchandise.
Make patches with salvageable material from damaged merchandise.
Is that a broken guitar string or new wire for wraps?
Turn unused handbills into rainbow scratch paper for personalized promotions (handbills, homemade cd covers, invitations) using black paint mixed with a little dish soap.
Give a discount for shows people bring a handbill in for to be reused for the rainbow scratch paper.
Print one batch of posters for each tour with room to write specific details for each venue/date.
If any clout, have poster signing sessions so they are less likely to end up in the trash.
Offer personalized playlists and charge extra to burn CDs.
Donate unused instruments to schools or a kid near you.
Consider what art installations or repurposing could be done with any broken gear or extra office supplies.
Could busted speakers be gutted into themed furniture?
Can a broken guitar case be turned into a guitar stand?
Collect and loop used wristbands for handmade streamers.
Create ticket collages for home craft stage or photobooth backdrops.
Wrap/tie/knot old instrument cables into wall art.
Broken microphones make great balloon/decoration/paper weights for any entertainment themed event.
Drums that are no longer playable could become flower pots, foot stools, or end tables.
Even broken glass can be used for mosaics.
Look at what is lying around unused, find a way to make a new purpose for it.
Links:
Music industry and climate change, Part 2: What can a musician do?
How can music fans be environmentally responsible in 2019?
Massive Attack to help map music industry's carbon footprint
Everything’s Gone Green: What can the Music Industry do to Combat Climate Change?
Updated: Dec 26, 2019
Recommended listening: Dave Brubeck’s Take Five
Green the Scene is a concept that is easier said than done.
As in any other intricate system, the many parts that make it all happen have become standardized over time.
So how to change an issue that exists because that is just the way it is?
Weighing matters reflects priority, responsibility on the majority consequential for the minority.
One of the biggest obstacles of an environmentally friendly music industry is income disparity.
Why are finances able to make such a difference in sustainability, especially for niche business sectors? What can be done to fix this?
Knowing the history behind the way things became the way they are can potentially lead to treating the problem.
Take five aspects of how the music industry impacts the environment into consideration:
1. Barriers to Education
2. Paradox of Tolerance
3. Putting Motivation into Action
4. Analyzing Results
5. Making Changes
People are not just sitting around letting their world go to shit.
When “limited resources” just means society supports a corrupt faction that hoards all of the world’s wealth and destroys humanity for profit, “limiting resources” is the cross that many have to bear to indulge few.
Learn. Discuss. Adjust. Evaluate. Green the Scene.
Barriers to Education:
Education for sustainability: Challenges and opportunities
Children Still Face Barriers In Accessing Music Education
Environmental Education Barriers to Transformative Sustainability Learning and Action
Paradox of Tolerance:
Creative workers’ views on cultural heritage and sustainability
The need to respect nature and its limits challenges society and conservation science
“I’d rather be called a hypocrite than do fuck all”: how music is tackling climate change
Putting Motivation into Action:
8 Ways To Be A More Eco-Friendly Musician!
Tips for sustainable practices in the industry: feat. Tim Hollo
Sustainable Music Industry: An Example of Good Practices
Greener rooms: how is the music industry responding to the environmental impact of touring?
Analyzing Results:
Using the PESTLE analysis model
UK music industry declares climate and ecological emergency
Emissions From Music Consumption Reach Unprecedented High, Study Shows
Making Changes:
Music industry and climate change - it's time to act!
There’s No Easy Way for Musicians to Engage with Climate Change
Digitalisation and Intermediaries in the Music Industry: The Rise of the Entrepreneur?
Illustrations by Maya Jevans
Resources aren’t cheap, especially for eco-friendliness.
The trail of money leads obstacles for progress.
There could always be those that forget humanity’s address.
Green in exchange for green? Trading need for greed?
Motivation either helps others achieve or denies opportunities to succeed.
It is easy to dismiss arts for pleasure, hard to not consume all of a treasure.
Learning environment is stability’s durability.
Earth is not a possession for humanity’s utility.
Treating it as such questions civility’s plausibility.
History says to stand united or fall divided.
But what if the ones who “provided” are misguided?
Put thought into a call to action. Find what’s beyond self satisfaction.
Sharing goes beyond caring.
Doing what’s best can feel daring.
It’s only the future in the face that’s staring.
Does anyone really own what is sewn?
Could life on Earth become unknown?
Who decides what’s worth to teach? Who practices what they preach?
Something is lost.
Following the boss.
There is always a cost.
No matter the price never think twice.
Pulling off a heist means not playing nice.
Nature versus nurture or stature manufacture?
Life is an endeavor.
There’s time forever.
Better late than never.
Making an amend means to comprehend.
A hand to lend is worth more than anyone can spend.
Skills are meant to fulfill, not deals piling up landfills.
A poem about ongoing Green the Scene topics: barriers to education, paradox of tolerance, putting motivation into action, analyzing results, and making changes.