In my previous post, I discussed how live concerts may contribute to pollution by emitting C02 emissions. I also posit that online concerts held during Covid times are much less pollutive than live ones. Online concerts refer to concerts being held without an audience, in which fans would livestream them instead of being physically there. Electronic devices would be used by the fans to attend online performances that last approximately 2-3 hours, consuming a lot of power (Fan et al., 2021).
According to a study by Fan et al. (2021), it was found that online music event produces up to 93902.4 kg of C02, which is more than the 12407.7 kg of carbon produced by a live music event. This finding is tempered by the fact that web music events attract many more viewers than live music events. The study also divides the participants based on the overall carbon footprint of web and live music events for a more accurate comparison of the data. Lastly, it was found that online music events emit 0.206 kg of CO2 per attendee, which is less than the 0.994 kg of CO2 emitted by a live music event. However, the point still stands that online concerts may not seem to be less pollutive than live ones. It has to be acknowledged that online concerts have higher audience traffic than live ones as it decreases the barriers for these fans to attend them. Nonetheless, it was also noted that Guerreschi (2021), also concluded that while online concerts do not seem as sustainable and less pollutive, it is still fundamental to encourage such music events because overall, it can provide a shift to using the online platform as a potential for such events. This would thus render the construction and maintenance of music venus to be redundant, and can hence decrease overall emissions generated from the concert industry.
References:
Fan, Y., Ouyang, S., Zhang, B. and Wang, W. (2021). The Sustainability of Online Concert and Live Concerts. E3S Web of Conferences 308, 01017. doi: https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202130801017
Guerreschi, A. (2021). Green Music: the music industry towards a sustainable world. Musica Stampata. Retrieved from: https://www.musica-stampata.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Asia-Guerreschi_Green-Music_English.pdf (Accessed: 25 March 2023)