With music such an integral part of our cultural identity, it follows that it has a huge influence on the products consumers buy. Matt Young, president of Bravado, the merchandising arm of Universal Music Group, spoke to the POC Conference audience about what sustainability means for one of the biggest record labels in the world.
Bravado has been working with Products of Change for three years, and ever since it has been asking itself: “What are we doing about sustainability, what does sustainability mean to a record label?” said Matt.
“Really, it’s a journey. We don’t have the answers to every question, sometimes we don’t even know what questions to ask, which is why we partner with Products of Change and why we’re here today,” Matt continued.
The mantra for Universal Music Group (UMG) is: ‘We exist to shape culture through the power of artistry,’ which Matt notes is never more relevant than when talking about sustainability.
UMG works with some of the most successful music artists in the world; “These folks have a voice and can get people to pay attention. So how do we create a positive impact and how do we use our influence to change culture around this topic?”
Everyone can name an artist or a song, an album, a soundtrack that has connected with them at some point in their life, said Matt. “Music is emotional, music gets you over a fight with your spouse, music gets you through a high school problem, music gets you through that crappy boss at work, music gets you through situations but also as a celebration.”
Music is emotional but also quite digital these days, Matt commented, “So merchandise is the last physical thing that you can touch that represents the emotion created by music. Bravado is in charge of making sure we build that bridge from the emotion to the fan.”
Last year, Bravado made 25 million products, just under 10% of those were sustainable; “We’ve got work to do,” Matt admitted.
Bravado was the first music company to have science-based target validation and has set itself a goal of reducing Scope 3 by 62% in the next eight years.
Scope 3 intensity is already down 46%, “since we started working with POC coincidentally enough,” said Matt.
“But we need to be better. We have to go incrementally up each year we do this, we’re committed to doing that. How we do it is the challenge.”
Artists are a powerful community, noted Matt, “So how do we use their reach to tell the story of why this is important?”
Matt said that they need to make sure they use the power they have to tell the story, “Understanding what it is we do and how it affects all the things we have been talking about today [at the POC Conference], while sharing and communicating this process.
“We are a work in progress but committed to change.”
These five areas are the biggest opportunities for Bravado:
- Sustainable materials and packaging
- Logistics, warehousing and distribution
- Vendor partners
- Waste management and energy conservation
- End product life cycle
What it is doing in these areas:
“POC is helping guide us, others in this room help guide us, our partners help guide us,” said Matt, to work toward these goals.
This can be creating products Bravado knows can be reused, that can be turned into something else, can address the product’s life cycle.
Bravado is also working with its vendors to create blanks using recycled cotton and water-based inks, thereby designing for sustainability from the start.
“Contractually we are now holding our vendors responsible for the promises, making sure we’re auditing them and following up,” said Matt, and when it comes to packaging, Bravado has been trying compostable materials and recycled paper.
Print on demand is another solution, by just making what is needed to mitigate the amount of excess stock.
And finally, talking about the efforts it is making is a big part of Bravado’s journey; “Talking about it at events like this but also bringing our vendors together for sustainability summits,” explained Matt, “These sorts of things we didn’t even talk about a couple of years ago.”
Matt continued, “There are folks in this room that we didn’t know a few years ago that we’re now partnered with, that we now do business with, because of the way we’re talking about it; admitting that we need to do better, admitting that we don’t have all the right answers.”
One of the biggest recent projects for Bravado that has put its sustainability journey to the test, is working with Billie Eilish for her latest album and tour ‘Hit me hard and soft.’
Billie Eilish is a vocal sustainability advocate and pushed for certain measures to be taken in the production of her merchandise.
The products were made in the States and are fully recycled, organic, locally made and shipped.
“We’ve worked with vendors that do great things using pre-existing Billie products and putting them into new Billie products,” said Matt.
Bravado partnered with EcoFashion, which put sustainable blanks into retail into North America for the first time, such as in Target and Urban Outfitters.
These retailers ended up paying a little more than they wanted to, and Bravado made a little bit less, explained Matt, “But we did it to show it can be done.”
Billie Eilish’s entire tour product line is made from recycled cotton, something which has never been done before, neither by Bravado or any other music merchandiser.
Video of the merchandise products being made were shown at the beginning of Billie Eilish’s shows, showing her fans that she is doing things to back up what she has said. On her web store she explains why her products are the way they are, she explains the price point, why it is worth it to the fan to keep it.
“I don’t think what we do is fast fashion, it’s a passion we create with a fan,” said Matt, “I think we have a lifecycle that is longer than most but we know it’s still a lifecycle that we have to fight for.
“There is no easy answer but we’re trying things and constantly asking the question how can we be better? There isn’t a silver bullet, there’s probably a ton of bullets we need to be using.
“But we’re here to say we’re all in and we’re going to find ways to solve these problems and we hope our partnership with POC helps us and with others in the room as we talk about these solutions in the future,” Matt concluded.
