A new study has estimated the ecological cost of video streaming, mainly focusing on Spotify.
In their latest study, Greenly, a specialist in carbon accounting and management for enterprises, highlights streaming’s reliance on a rising energy-reliant infrastructure. This includes servers, transmission networks, data centres, the growing use of AI, and even users’ devices. Greenly also noted streaming music in general, and that playlists are constantly on loop.
Also included in the study is the notation that Spotify consists of a section on its carbon footprint in its yearly report, but that the data has been incomplete since 2021. The main reason for this is that Spotify no longer accounts for the energy consumption of user devices. Greenly then used the last complete dataset alongside the increase in users since 2021 to calculate Spotify’s total carbon footprint.
Using this approach, Greenly estimates that Spotify will emit 187,040 tonnes of CO emissions in 2025, roughly 12 times the Vatican City’s most recent carbon footprint. Greenly says this is a 67 per cent increase compared to 2021 (112,000 tonnes), the same percentage as their jump in followers. The emissions average out to 1.04g of CO2 emissions per hour of listening. Greenly also says that the average user would emit 276g per year listening to music on the platform.
What about video streaming?
In 2024, Spotify added video clips to certain songs, which Greenly describes as ” a shift toward a significantly more energy-intensive format.”
According to the study, streaming a video for an hour can generate up to 55g of CO2 emissions, which is more than 50 times the amount generated from only streaming audio for an hour. Back in 2019, Spotify introduced its ‘Canvas’ feature, which added a looping video to certain tracks.
Currently, the feature is only available for Spotify Premium subscribers, but Greenly warns that if the feature is opened to more users, the ecological impact could be massive.
The only upside to this is that if the app with the video feature is used as it is now, with the screen locked and music played passively, the impact may not be as severe.
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