Artists Can Now Officially Credit Nature in Their Music Through Sounds Right’s Groundbreaking Platform

NATURE is now open for collaboration. The global initiative Sounds Right today launches a world-first platform that lets any artist officially feature NATURE as a recording artist on their music, sharing their royalties to fund conservation.

Following last year’s launch of NATURE as an official artist on streaming platforms, with collaborators including Hozier, Ellie Goulding, Bomba Estereo and David Bowie x Brian Eno, the new platform FEAT. NATURE now opens submissions to musicians everywhere via soundsright.earth/feature.

From forests and oceans to rivers and wildlife, artists who feature natural sounds in their music can upload songs and release them on major streaming platforms with royalties split 50:50 between the artist and NATURE. Proceeds from NATURE’s share go to the Sounds Right Fund, which supports community-led conservation projects selected by an independent panel of Indigenous leaders, scientists, and conservationists.

26 million fans across 181 countries have now listened to the artist NATURE, generating royalties which have helped enable the Sounds Right Fund to direct $400,000 to Indigenous and community-led conservation in the Amazon and Congo Basin region, building on $225,000 directed to projects in the Tropical Andes in 2024.

The funds were announced on stage at the Global Citizen Amazonia concert (Belem, 1 November) and live on Brazilian TV.

The initiative comes at a critical cultural moment. A recent study found that people’s connection to nature has fallen by around 60% since 1800, tracking almost exactly with the loss of nature words such as river, moss and blossom from books. As nature fades from culture, our sense of belonging to it diminishes – a pattern Sounds Right hopes to reverse by inspiring artists everywhere to weave nature’s sounds back into music.

This groundbreaking venture is the first major extension to the Sounds Right model since NATURE launched as an official artist last year and is powered by a new global music distribution pathway in partnership with DistroDirect, making it easier than ever for artists to join the movement.

Ahead of COP30 in the Brazilian Amazon, Kenyan stars Blinky Bill and Bien were joining the global movement, releasing new music featuring the sounds of the Congo Basin alongside international artists.

Blinky Bill’s track Kata Matin (feat. NATURE) was re-imagining a classic Luo gospel song passed down through generations.

“Kata Matin is an old Luo Gospel song that’s been passed down generations and what’s drawn me to it is how the mood lifts and how beautiful the melody is when it’s sung, particularly in the village. I wanted to give it a contemporary feel that places it in the here and now and had so much fun working on it and I’m sure others will enjoy it too,” said Blinky Bill.

Other artists from Africa include Juls and Olivetheboy from Ghana, Lady Donli from Nigeria and  Phila Dlozi from South Africa.

Since its launch, Sounds Right has engaged millions with the sounds of the natural world, combining art, music, and conservation.

Led by the Museum for the United Nations – UN Live, the initiative is a unique collaboration between global artists, sound recordists, producers, creatives, and environmental groups, putting music at the heart of a global conversation about nature’s conservation and restoration. Partners include EarthPercent, AKQA, Spotify, Eleutheria Group, and the Hempel Foundation.

“Today, in a world first, we’re giving artists a simple and impactful way to credit NATURE in their music — helping restore nature’s presence in popular culture while directing new music royalties to frontline conservation. This matters because nature has been steadily disappearing from our culture, with fewer references in children’s stories, popular music, even major films.”

“This cultural loss is deepening the growing disconnect between people and the planet at a time we can least afford to. With the launch, we’re taking an important step to reverse that trend, while mobilising real resources to protect and restore the ecosystems we all depend on,” said Gabriel Smales, Global Programme Director, Sounds Right – UN Live.

Hans Poulsen, Program Partner at Eleutheria Group, said the launch aimed to extend the Sounds Right model into a scalable mechanism for independent artists globally.

He explained that it offered a practical and transparent framework that integrated purpose into the core of music distribution, aligning creative freedom with measurable environmental impact.

Poulsen added that this initiative represented the meeting point between cultural innovation and industry infrastructure, and expressed pride in contributing to building that bridge.