To create a sustainable income for WWF birds protection, Yandex.Music and Universal Music transferred the streaming model to the charitable sector with the campaign Birds Records - record label monetizing birdsong. Birdsongs of endangered species were made music samples that are available for everyone, on condition that all money earned from streaming tracks go to the WWF to support birds. 

The music video “Dich” is the starting point for Birds Records. “Dich” features the voices of endangered bird species. Their song is about people who don’t realize that their behavior leads indirectly to bird extinction.

“Dich” is an illustration of human activities that influence the extinction of rare bird species. The video consists of 9 stories in 9 different styles. Issues resonate with the audience more through the lens of visual style. Pollution is illustrated with dirty ink and the birds’ last dance consists of 120 hand drawn frames. Over 20 artists of various disciplines worked on “Dich”.

“Dich” became the most discussed topic in the press and on social media. We got over 1B impressions and helped to build awareness of the issue of birds becoming extinct. So far people have streamed over 130K hours of Birds Records music. Russia’s most popular late-night show dedicated the whole segment of the show to the project.

The results are more than impressive: traffic to the WWF website increased by 50% resulting in a steady growth of donations. For the first two month we got over 1 million rubles, it’s 65% more than the previous most successful WWF campaign for birds.

Birds Records changed the donation model itself, making it as simple as clicking the “play” button on a streaming service. It provided WWF with a stable flow of money to protect rare bird species. Streaming of all Birds Records music will generate money for as long as people keep listening to it.