Had to happen

[manicm]

This is just nonsense, and the argument is that of an 8th grader, I'm sorry to say. Play vinyl as much as you stream and the environmental cost will be just as deleterious. I questioned the relevance of observing an Environmental Week here on WHF but accepted it as worthwhile. But this piece just takes the cake.

Good news! Vinyl is more environmentally friendly than music streaming, provided you do it right...

Another benefit to vinyl.

www.whathifi.com

 

[Angle Poise-Lamp]

This is just nonsense, and the argument is that of an 8th grader, I'm sorry to say. Play vinyl as much as you stream and the environmental cost will be just as deleterious. I questioned the relevance of observing an Environmental Week here on WHF but accepted it as worthwhile. But this piece just takes the cake.

Good news! Vinyl is more environmentally friendly than music streaming, provided you do it right...

Another benefit to vinyl.

www.whathifi.com

They seem to be taking an overly simplistic view of the situation, not considering the individual cost per stream and, completely ignoring the environmental cost of the hardware used to listen to vinyl. Even my minimal setup, has a far greater cost than a pair of wireless IEMs, added to a phone the owner would still have bought if they weren't streaming. I think it is fair for me to assume the majority of streaming, is done via mobile devices.

 

[Dave_]

"We've looked at the numbers"

Really? Please do share them, because that article is clearly utter nonsense.

Why would anyone read WHF reviews when they're publishing such low quality articles as this?

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I have to say that's completely wrong the processing to make vinyl involves lots of different processes .
chemical , PVC , Lacquer Paper labels , electric the moulds shipping and properly other stuff i have missed .

Running a streamer still costs electric but as there no physic media it wins unless you buy second-hand vinyl then you are being greener but still costs using a TT and amplifier with Phono electric .

And considering the uk is one of the lowest admissions around the world i will not lose no sleep over it .

 

[Steve983]

It's not even worth talking about. Enough said.

 

[Jasonovich]

Silly anecdotal, whimiscal nonsense from the author with absolutely no evidence to support his claim. This garbage piece is releasing harmful methane into the atmosphere!

 

[abacus]

Data centres take huge amounts of energy to run, and more and more are being built daily, so yes it will dwarf vinyl, however, only a part of the data is for music & film streaming and it is also spread out over multiple data centres, so getting an actual figure is almost impossible, therefore the claim cannot be proven one way or the other.

Bill

 

[Revolutions]

Data centres take huge amounts of energy to run, and more and more are being built daily, so yes it will dwarf vinyl, however, only a part of the data is for music & film streaming and it is also spread out over multiple data centres, so getting an actual figure is almost impossible, therefore the claim cannot be proven one way or the other.

Bill

I agree with this. I would add that the data centres must exist for streaming to work, so there's no way around avoiding their impact no matter how small the % server space is actually taken up by music master files.

There are some great advances happening in sustainable power & cooling for data centres, but they really are a hidden scourge of the modern environmental world & yet, like flying, seem to get a somewhat free pass.

Quantum computing is the future. Millions of times more powerful than traditional computers & less power use, although they still need to in cold environments. As far as my understanding goes, we're a long way off that technology being available in any commercial sense.

 

[Angle Poise-Lamp]

Data centres take huge amounts of energy to run, and more and more are being built daily, so yes it will dwarf vinyl, however, only a part of the data is for music & film streaming and it is also spread out over multiple data centres, so getting an actual figure is almost impossible, therefore the claim cannot be proven one way or the other.

Bill

A data centre dedicated to streaming, is likely to use a great deal less power than the monstrous data centres dedicated to AI and it's massive processing loads.

 

[Angle Poise-Lamp]

Quantum computing is the future. Millions of times more powerful than traditional computers & less power use, although they still need to in cold environments. As far as my understanding goes, we're a long way off that technology being available in any commercial sense.

Possibly not as far away as you might think, IBM believe they'll be there in 4 years. https://postquantum.com/industry-news/ibm-quantum-roadmap-2029/

 

[Jasonovich]

Possibly not as far away as you might think, IBM believe they'll be there in 4 years. https://postquantum.com/industry-news/ibm-quantum-roadmap-2029/

There's also been a breakthrough in computational processes, silicone being replaced by laser light, much faster and better for the environment.

She's my favourite computer boff for all the wrong reasons 🌹

View: https://youtu.be/b_PS8o8pi9A?si=od7lXBw46-kdbmwa

 

[Dave_]

A data centre dedicated to streaming, is likely to use a great deal less power than the monstrous data centres dedicated to AI and it's massive processing loads.

Not really a thing.

Media is delivered by CDNs (Content Distribution Networks) ie it's distributed not centralised these days

Which in reality means you're streaming from a server either hosted by your ISP within their core network or at their edge (dependant on the size of the ISP) putting it closer to the end user and mitigating transit costs for the ISP.

 

[Angle Poise-Lamp]

Not really a thing.

Media is delivered by CDNs (Content Distribution Networks) ie it's distributed not centralised these days

Which in reality means you're streaming from a server either hosted by your ISP within their core network or at their edge (dependant on the size of the ISP) putting it closer to the end user and mitigating transit costs for the ISP.

However it's done, the power consumption is dwarfed by AI's thirst. A quote from the MD of a Scottish data centre operator: "In early 2022, our data centre, with a 16MW capacity, had sold approximately 3MW over five years. This changed almost overnight with the explosion of AI demand. To meet this, we've doubled our capacity to 40MW and plan to bring over 300MW online in the next few years, all driven by the needs of AI."

 

[good_enough]

I agree with the above comments that if they've done the maths, they should show their workings. But the article doesn't pass the smell test.

I know, owning an electric car, just how much juice it takes to move physical stuff in the real world. I play a lot of vinyl, and yes it's second hand or long owned, a lot of it, but the watt hours needed to rotate my turntable against the friction of bearing and stylus must dwarf the energy required to squirt some electrons to a streamer.

In my case it's all a free lunch environmentally as I've got solar, but that ain't going to be the case for most TT owners.

 

[Deliriumbassist]

The writer also states that vinyl is only shipped once. Patently untrue, as that would mean direct from warehouse shipping to the customer. Sure, may happen every now and again, but I can think of a number of additional potential shipments, even if the pressing factory is in-country.

 

[Al ears]

The writer also states that vinyl is only shipped once. Patently untrue, as that would mean direct from warehouse shipping to the customer. Sure, may happen every now and again, but I can think of a number of additional potential shipments, even if the pressing factory is in-country.

Correct, his whole conjecture is seriously flawed.