Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell
There was an interesting discussion on the radio (4 or the Wold Service) that said the carbon impact of a CD is about 17 downloads.
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I'd like to see some data on that - do you remember the programme?
Building and running a server, from the mind-boggling array of chips required (and the associated mining, building of fabs, clean rooms, processing and other-side-of-the-world pollution); added to the always-on electricity and data requirements (when I lived in Sweden, I remember Facebook put a server farm in the far north as the cooling requirements made it economically viable); and then the Internet footprint to allow downloads and payments 24/7, all this seems gigantically energy-intensive...
It just seems unlikely to be more 'sustainable' than a person powered by bread putting some vinyl on a lathe. A smaller-scale, of course, but perhaps we should all be buying less, more locally and appreciating more.
I remember I worked with someone (before Spotify) who boasted of his online piracy as it meant whenever someone came round they could listen to what they liked. I didn't get it, as going round to someone's place is a good time to leaf through their records/CDs/books and find something new.
There are some people making new 78s on old lathes, using their own DIY materials, so even muscle-and-clockwork, off-grid acoustic playback of new music isn't out of the question!