The Earth To Get Its First Ever Song Credit

Earth Percent, the UK and US-based environmental charity co-founded by world-renowned music artist Brian Eno, have announced the pilot of a ground breaking initiative to adopt the construct of the Earth as a songwriter and legal beneficiary of music royalties. This marks an unprecedented step by the music industry to support songwriters who wish to identify our planet as a co-writer and EarthPercent is inviting musicians or bands to donate 1% (or the % of their choice) of one new composition, and contribute to raising funds for climate justice and environmental organisations.

Brian Eno, who appeared alongside Jacob Collier in a keynote conversation at the Green Events and Innovations conference, 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. Earth Percent provides an easy way for the music industry to make a difference by asking artists to commit a small percentage of their song writing revenue. All musicians are inspired by the precious planet we live on, so if it's fitting that we are now able to name The Earth as our co-writer".

The revolutionary scheme has been co-designed 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 for all performing and mechanical rights' income.

The initiative will launch with 23 songwriters on board. The full list of participating artists include: "Andre Corea; Anna Calvi; AURORA; Brian Eno; Cosmo Sheldrake; Donna Grantis; Erland Cooper; fer; FUTURE UTOPIA (Fraser T Smith); Helen Ganya; Housewife; Ichiko Aoba; Jacob Collier; Laura Misch; Love Ssega; Monte; Mount Kimbie; Rostam Batmanglij; Sam Lee; Seb Pringle (Crystal Fighters); Sophia La Mer; Turtle; Westerman.

Earth Percent said: "Through this pilot we hope to establish this innovative means of long-term giving for the planet as a movement that any songwriter can be a part of and inspired by, ensuring that the funds raised can be collected efficiently, and directed seamlessly to Earth Percent's grant partners, who are creating necessary change on climate.