Boing Boing features Michael Stipe x Beatie Wolfe's Bioplastic record for EarthPercent

Greener records are here: Michael Stipe and Beatie Wolfe featured on first bioplastic vinyl

RUSTY BLAZENHOFF 4:55 AM FRI SEP 2, 2022

Musicians have a greener way to make their records now that Evolution Music is offering non-PVC, bioplastic pressings. Michael Stipe and Beatie Wolfe are the first two artists to release music on this non-fossil fuel vinyl option. The 12" record features two tracks: Stipe's "Future If Future" (which Brian Eno produced) and Wolfe's (absolutely lovely) "Oh My Heart." Sales are limited to 500 copies and support EarthPercent.

Beatie Wolfe awaits the first pressings / image: Ross Harris

Michael Stipe: "I'm thrilled to be working with EarthPercent and Evolution Music on this release, imagining positive innovation through action.  Simply showing that this type of solution-based project is possible opens pathways to a brighter future."

Beatie Wolfe: "It's been fantastic to join forces with EarthPercent on the environmental front and for this very special release with Michael Stipe. I'm constantly thinking about how we can take the best of the old and best of the new, bridge the tangible and digital, and reclaim as much as we innovate and this new eco vinyl feels like a perfect embodiment of this. I wrote "Oh My Heart" as a cry for the planet and humanity and it was recently encoded in glass and included in the Global Music Vault in Svalbard to be preserved for 10,000 years. So I couldn't think of a better way to have it tangibly out in the world now."

Photos: Beatie Wolfe and Ross Harris (used with permission)

Digital Music News features Michael Stipe x Beatie Wolfe's Bioplastic record

Michael Stipe Releases First Commercially Available ‘BioPlastic Vinyl’

Ashley King

September 5, 2022

Will bioplastic vinyl albums become the future? R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe releases the first commercially available alternative this year.

Traditional vinyl records are pressed on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which is considered one of the most environmentally damaging plastics. It’s a highly versatile and relatively inexpensive material, but the process to create the material uses chlorine. The music industry is seeking alternatives to vinyl for a more sustainable future and bioplastic vinyl may be the answer.

Michael Stipe’s new bioplastic 12″ was part of Bandcamp Friday promotion, limited to 500 copies. The record features two tracks, including “Future if Future” and Beatie Wolfe’s “Oh My Heart” on the flip side. The release was made possible by Evolution Music.

“I’m thrilled to be working with EarthPercent and Evolution Music on this release, imagining positive innovation through action,” says Michael Stipe about the initiative. “Simply showing that this type of solution-based project is possible opens pathways to a brighter future.”

Evolution Music says the bioplastic vinyl is made from a combination of “sugars and starches.” They previously partnered with UK-based environmental group Music Declares Emergency to debut new bioplastic vinyls in that country. That special edition release was only available to people who donated to the crowdfunding campaign, while Stipe’s record was commercially available on Bandcamp Friday.

Curious to know more about Evolution Music and the bioplastic vinyl records they’re creating? NPR’s Rachel Martin spoke with the company to discuss how the company is seeking to change the impact of vinyl now that it’s experiencing a resurgence in popularity. “I want sustainable products in a 21st century environment,” Marc Carey, CEO of Evolution Music says. “So I had to form a new company and do it myself.”

The big question here is how much does bioplastic sound like the vinyl made from PVC? Evolution Music says the sound quality is extremely high. “We believe the quality is extremely high, just about as high as vinyl. Maybe 95%,” Producer Rob Cass told CBS News about the new technology.

Blood Records Founder Craig Evans says he couldn’t believe the sound quality from the bioplastic vinyl. “The first time I heard one of those test pressings, I couldn’t believe what I was listening to was basically made of bioplastic and plant waste.”

Vinyl sales in the United States alone topped $1 billion in 2021. That’s the first time they’ve achieved that number since the 1980s before CDs made vinyl old-fashioned. Evolution Music says once it has its bioplastic production is in full swing, these albums will cost much the same as current PVC vinyl records.

Far Out Magazine features Michael Stipe x Beatie Wolfe's Bioplastic record for EarthPercent

Michael Stipe to release new climate-friendly vinyl in aid of EarthPercent

Jordan Potter

WED 31ST AUG 2022 18.23 BST

Former R.E.M. frontman, Michael Stipe, has announced a special collaborative single with Beatie Wolfe in aid of climate protection charity EarthPercent.

Founded by Brian Eno in 2021, EarthPercent aims “to offer simple and innovative ways for businesses and artists to donate to the most impactful organisations addressing the climate emergency”.

Eno’s organisation has already started to gain traction with the backing of countless bigwigs in the music business. Back in April, the organisation celebrated EarthDay by releasing numerous exclusive tracks donated by such artists as Stipe, Coldplay, Eno, Anna Calvi, and Jarvis Cocker‘s JARV IS, via Bandcamp.

Proceeds from all sales of these songs were donated to the EarthPercent fund, which focuses on five core areas of development: “greening music, energy transition, climate justice, legal and policy change, and protecting nature.”

Today, it’s been confirmed that the former R.E.M. frontman will release ‘Future, If Future’, his debut solo single initially released in 2018, on the world’s first commercially available bioplastic 12″ vinyl.

The record also features ‘Oh My Heart’ by Beatie Wolfe and will be available for pre-order here from Friday, September 2nd. The run will be limited to 500 copies.

EarthPercent has teamed up with Evolution Music for the release, marking a “genuinely revolutionary moment for both the music industry and record collectors, offering a non-fossil fuel future for vinyl recordings”.

In a statement, Stipe said: “I’m thrilled to be working with EarthPercent and Evolution Music on this release, imagining positive innovation through action. Simply showing that this type of solution-based project is possible opens pathways to a brighter future.”

Wolfe added: “I’m constantly thinking about how we can take the best of the old and best of the new, bridge the tangible and digital, and reclaim as much as we innovate, and this new eco vinyl feels like a perfect embodiment of this.

“I wrote ‘Oh My Heart’ as a cry for the planet and humanity, and it was recently encoded in glass and included in the Global Music Vault in Svalbard to be preserved for 10,000 years. So I couldn’t think of a better way to have it tangibly out in the world now.”

Eno, who collaborated with Stipe on ‘Future, If Future’, also spoke of the record earlier this year. “I’m very pleased with the way it’s gone. It’s a very good song, a very Stipe song. Beautiful lyrics, extraordinary piece.”

Stereogum features Michael Stipe x Beatie Wolfe's Bioplastic record for EarthPercent

Michael Stipe Releases New Single On First Commercially Available Bioplastic Vinyl

NEWS SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 9:23 AM BY CHRIS DEVILLE11

Way back in 2018, former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe shared a snippet of his first-ever solo song, “Future If Future,” in support of the March For Our Lives. It’s a song about how people have the power to affect positive change on the world, and today it’s being sold on a new eco-friendly form of record designed to counteract the negative environmental impact of vinyl.

As Billboard reports, the skittering, synth-driven “Future If Future” is the first commercially available Bioplastic 12″. It’s a split featuring Beatie Wolfe’s “Oh My Heart” on the B-side. “Future If Future” was produced by Brian Eno, whose environmental charity EarthPercent sold out of a limited run of 500 copies today via Bandcamp.

The British music sustainability organization Evolution Music designed the bioplastic vinyl, which does not include fossil fuels. Specifically, it omits polyvinyl chloride, which Greenpeace calls the “most environmentally damaging” plastic, but can be manufactured on the same presses used for conventional vinyl. “I’m thrilled to be working with EarthPercent and Evolution Music on this release, imagining positive innovation through action,” said Stipe in a statement. “Simply showing that this type of solution-based project is possible opens pathways to a brighter future.”