1,000 artists including Kate Bush and Damon Albarn join silent AI protest album
The titles of the album’s 12 tracks form the message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies”
Kate Bush, Damon Albarn and Annie Lennox are among 1,000 artists who have contributed to a silent album protesting government plans around AI.
The album, titled Is This What We Want?, features recordings of empty music studios and performance spaces. Over 1,000 artists are credited as co-writers on the 12 silent songs.
The titles of its 12 tracks forms the message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.” All profits will be donated to the charity Help Musicians.
In a statement, Bush said: “In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?”
The idea came from British composer and former AI executive Ed Newton-Rex, who 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.”
The new recording comes after Paul McCartney called on the British government to protect artists in the face of a new copyright law that could allow for AI to “rip off” creators.
“You get young guys and girls coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don’t own it. They don’t have anything to do with it, and anyone who wants can just rip it off,” McCartney told the BBC.
“The truth is, the money’s going somewhere. When it gets on the streaming platforms, somebody’s getting [the money], and it should be the person who created it. It shouldn’t just be some tech giant somewhere. Somebody’s getting paid. Why shouldn’t it be the guy who sat down and wrote ‘Yesterday’?”
Tom Kiehl, chief executive of music industry body UK Music, told the BBC: “Government plans to change copyright law to make it easier for AI firms to use the music of artists, composers and music companies without their permission put the music industry at a huge risk.”