Music, Wellbeing, and Sustainability

How does music contribute to the wellbeing of people and the planet? This was one of the questions explored by the European Commission-funded project OpenMusE (Open Music Europe), which brought together music researchers and sector stakeholders from 11 EU countries and Ukraine. This factsheet is based on our population-representative survey of 4,985 respondents in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain.

Music and human wellbeing: an undeniable connection

Across all five countries, respondents use music to regulate emotions, manage stress — and simply to make everyday life feel more “alive”. These numbers are nearly equal in the five surveyed countries:

We see here confirmation on a population-representative level of prior research on the contributions of music to both everyday stress regulation and the more existential processes of finding purpose in life and catalysing emotional growth.

Notably, among musicians, amateur musicians report the strongest emotional attachment to music: 77% say music helps them manage emotions and cope with difficult situations, versus 64% of semi-professional or full-time musicians. This gap could reflect the mental and physical health risk factors to which working musicians are exposed in the current economy, thus augmenting our evidence of the need for policy support.

Music and environmental sustainability: progress made, but gaps remain

A normative consensus has emerged in European policy that music-making should benefit both individual wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet. Numerous initiatives have targeted the latter relationship, with many focusing on making live music events more sustainable.

Among our survey respondents who remember their last live music event, 58% recall recycling facilities being available — the most visible sustainability measure. Yet single-use items still remain widespread: 55% recall bottled water being sold, and 49% recall disposable cups or plates.

Explicit sustainability communication lags furthest behind: only 32% recall an event being advertised as environmentally sustainable, and just 25% recall sustainability messaging at the event itself.

Public demand outpaces sector communication

Nearly half of respondents (49%) agree with tying public cultural funding to a recipient's environmental sustainability efforts — with only 14% explicit disagreement and surprisingly little variation by political camp (56% of left-leaning respondents vs. 46% of centrists and 47% of those on the right).

The 17 to 24 percentage-point gap between public support for sustainability commitments and sustainability-oriented communication observed at events suggests the live music sector is both under-communicating its existing sustainability efforts and undershooting the mark relative to what audiences expect. This is a missed opportunity — but fortunately, one that initiatives such as GreenBeat Nexus and the Music Sustainability Alliance can help event organisers to correct.