Sounds Right made nature a Spotify artist to fund conservation

Global conservation projects compete for the same shrinking pool of grants and one-off donations, which spike after a crisis story goes viral and dry up the moment attention moves elsewhere. Music streaming, meanwhile, pays real royalties to credited artists every single time a track plays, indefinitely, with no separate fundraising ask required — a stable income mechanism conservation had never been plugged into.

The Museum for the United Nations – UN Live, Spotify, AKQA and EarthPercent needed a funding model that didn't depend on repeated donor appeals or news-cycle attention. Streaming platforms already had the legal and financial infrastructure to pay a credited artist automatically; nature itself had never been treated as one.

Sounds Right launched 'NATURE' as an official credited artist on Spotify and other platforms: musicians including Hozier, Ellie Goulding and AURORA released tracks featuring recorded birdsong, ocean waves and rainforest ambiance with NATURE credited as a featured artist, so ordinary streaming royalties split automatically and flow into frontline conservation projects.

Credited NATURE as a featured artist on Spotify so streaming royalties split automatically and flow to conservation, turning passive listening into ongoing funding.

Streaming royalties split automatically among credited artists on every play.

Crediting NATURE made conservation a legal party to that split.

Listeners stream for entertainment, not charity, so funding is decoupled from news cycles.

Payments recur passively as long as tracks are played, no donor action needed.

Look for existing automated payment systems you can join as a party of record, turning ordinary transactions into recurring funding.

NATURE-credited tracks reportedly passed 14 million Spotify streams by mid-2025 (Music Ally's headline figure); royalties are projected to reach $500,000 for conservation by 2026, per both sources read for this case — recurring income requiring no separate donation ask, generated the same way any other featured artist earns royalties.