Coldplay are aiming to make the most ecologically sustainable vinyl record yet, for their newly announced album Moon Music.
Each 140g vinyl copy of Moon Music, released 4 October, will be manufactured from nine plastic bottles recovered from consumer waste. For a special “notebook edition”, 70% of the plastic has been intercepted by the environmental nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup from Rio Las Vacas, Guatemala, preventing it from entering the Gulf of Honduras and the Atlantic Ocean.
The band say they will reduce carbon emissions compared with regular 140g vinyl production by 85%, and prevent the manufacture of 25 tonnes of virgin plastic. CD copies will be made from 90% recycled plastic, with a 78% reduction in emissions compared with traditional CD manufacture.
The initiative comes alongside Coldplay’s attempt to reduce the environmental impact of touring, as the band continue their epic Music of the Spheres world tour which is now the third-highest grossing tour of all time.
Earlier this month the band said they had reduced their carbon footprint by 59% compared with their previous world tour. As well as trying to avoid plane travel where possible, creative technological solutions were deployed, such as “kinetic dancefloors” that harnessed energy from the movement of the crowd.
Moon Music will be Coldplay’s 10th album, in a discography that stretches back to their 2000 debut Parachutes. They have re-teamed with Max Martin, the producer for their previous album Music of the Spheres and one of the greatest pop producers of all time, who has had a hand in 27 US No 1 hits.
The first single from Moon Music, feelslikeimfallinginlove, will be released on Friday 21 June. It will likely feature in their headline Glastonbury festival set on 29 June.
Other artists are attempting to reduce the environmental impact of vinyl production, such as Billie Eilish, who used recycled vinyl – made from offcuts of traditional vinyl production – for the release of her recent album Hit Me Hard and Soft.
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In a March interview with Billboard, Eilish lamented how “some of the biggest artists in the world [are] making fucking 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more. It’s so wasteful.”. She later added on Instagram: “I wasn’t singling anyone out, these are industry-wide systemic issues.”