Moshi Moshi and The Wave Pictures make Eco-EP

Source: UnLimited/CMU, Wednesday August 20

The next release from Moshi Moshi will be a new EP from The Wave Pictures, but this will be an EP with a difference, as it will be recorded and released in a way that produces as little carbon as possible. An eco-EP if you like. The band and their engineer will walk to the solar-powered studio, they will upload the finished tracks to their digital distributor for release via download stores only, and PR info and music will be sent via email only.

Moshi Moshi co-founder Michael McClatchey told CMU: “We thought it would be a useful experiment to see what we could do to reduce the carbon emissions associated with releasing a record. The initial aim was to make it carbon-neutral but it soon became apparent this would be impossible given the power needed to run the servers for delivering the tracks ito iTunes. Nevertheless I believe this should still be the ‘greenest’ record release yet. When I mentioned the idea to The Wave Pictures they asked if they could be the ones to do it, and suggested they could walk to the studio from their house”.
To organise the process, Moshi Moshi consulted environment charity Julie’s Bicycle, which aims to identify and champion new ways to make the music industry more environmentally friendly.

Alison Tickell, Director of Julie’s Bicycle said: “We are really pleased that Moshi Moshi is taking these positive steps towards reducing the carbon impact of their latest release. Their studio of choice is solar-powered, they are reducing the impact of their travel and have taken account of the recommendations of our First Step report into the UK Music Industry Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, 2008). It’s this kind of intelligent response to the issue that is going to ultimately catalyze the changes to a low carbon music business that we all need so badly”.