A new report crunched the numbers on your Spotify habit and concluded that it’s terrible for energy consumption. Streaming 12 uncompressed tracks 27 times uses the same amount of energy as making a plastic CD. And let’s face it: you have all listened to “Call Me Maybe” about 100 times in the past couple of months.
Streaming music users aren’t necessarily relying on uncompressed files, though; services like Spotify have some local caching built in, which brings down energy consumption a bit. More caching could spare conscientious listeners from having to kick the Spotify habit.
Or, as PaidContent reports, you could go for the greenest music solution available: “a 1 petabyte drive capable of storing all the songs ever recorded.” In theory, that sort of product could cost about $100 in the near future, although considering how the record industry got its panties in a twist about streaming and download, it seems reasonable to assume this idea will make them cry sad tears and then spend all of their money making sure it never, ever happens.
It also doesn’t solve the problem of your Carly Rae Jepsen addiction. But if you want to get that song out of your head, destroying the Earth via resource overconsumption may actually be the quickest way.
