We all know that digital music is revolutionizing the world of music.

A new Microsoft/Intel study, though, suggests that buying your music as digital downloads is actually substantially better for the earth than buying physical CDs.

The study, The Energy and Climate Change Impacts of Different Music Delivery Method, looks at six different ways you might purchase music, ranging from traditional retail CD sales to digital downloads played on a computer or digital-media device. The researchers compared the carbon footprint and energy required for each option, taking into account things like the materials that go into CDs, the energy required and transportation costs.

The researchers found that the driving to a store and getting a CD produces 8 times the CO2 produced by getting a CD as a digital download.

Reducing a little CO2 production here and there doesn't seem like a big deal, but multiply that by the billions of tracks that people download each year, and it might just add up to something.

See the link below, if you're interested in the full academic nitty-gritty.

via The Register; image via Breyten Ernsting

Link:

• The Energy and Climate Change Impacts of Different Music Delivery Methods (pdf)

James Lewin
Twitter @podcasting_news

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