More than 1,000 artists and musicians including Kate Bush, Damon Albarn, Sam Fender and Annie Lennox have recorded a silent album in protest at proposed changes to copyright law, which they say could lead to artists being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).
Is This What We Want? also involves artists including Billy Ocean, Tom Grennan, New Order, Simon Le Bon, Tori Amos, Pet Shop Boys, The Clash, Bashy, Jamiroquai and Imogen Heap – along with a range of composers, conductors and organisations such as Hans Zimmer, and the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
It features recordings of empty studios and performance spaces – which artists say could become a reality for musicians in the UK if the changes go ahead.
Duran Duran star Simon Le Bon. Pic: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
The track listing spells out the message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”
Under the government’s plans, an exemption to copyright would be created for training AI, so tech firms would not need a licence to use copyrighted material – and creators would need to opt out to prevent their work from being used.
A consultation on the issue closes today.
Imogen Heap at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards in January 2020. Pic: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
Sir Elton John and Simon Cowell have also backed a campaign opposing the proposals, and Sir Paul McCartney has spoken out against them.
The new plans fail to reimburse artists for AI recreating and copying their work, stifle creativity, and the proposed opt-out scheme places an unnecessary burden on artists, critics say.
All profits from the silent album will be donated to the musicians’ charity, Help Musicians.
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Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer is also involved in the campaign
‘Throwing creative industries under the bus’
Campaigner Ed Newton-Rex, who organised the album, said: “The government’s proposal would hand the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians’ work to outcompete them.
“It is a plan that would not only be disastrous for musicians, but that is totally unnecessary. The UK can be leaders in AI without throwing our world-leading creative industries under the bus.
“This album shows that, however the government tries to justify it, musicians themselves are united in their thorough condemnation of this ill-thought-through plan.”
The creative industries have been vocal in their opposition to how powerful AI models such as ChatGPT can be used to generate fresh content on demand, imitating what already exists.
Concerns around their use by film and TV studios to write scripts or even replace actors were a key driver of the Hollywood strikes in 2023, while music labels have sought to prevent pop stars’ vocals from being freely cloned and photographers have spoken out against online art generators.
In 2023, UK music contributed £7.6bn to the UK economy, with exports of UK music reaching £4.6bn.
While some AI firms have started making deals to license content, many existing models have been trained using data from the public internet, including from news and other publishing websites.
Dan Conway, chief executive of the Publishers Association, the trade organisation representing book, journal and electronic publishers in the UK, said the “extraordinary strength of support” against the proposals is “something the government ignores at its peril”.
He continued: “When Booker, Grammy, Oscar and Nobel prize winners are united in calling on the government for a fair hearing, we have to hope they listen…
“The message to government is clear: the great copyright heist cannot go unchallenged.”
