More than 1,000 artists — including Damon Albarn, Kate Bush, and Annie Lennox — have released a silent album in protest of the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law, allowing AI companies to train their models using copyrighted work without a license.
Titled Is This What We Want? the project contains recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, which represent the “impact we expect the government’s proposals would have on musicians’ livelihoods.” It consists of 12 tracks, which spell out a message that reads, “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”
Other artists credited on the album include Ed O’Brien of Radiohead, The Clash, Tori Amos, Hans Zimmer, Pet Shop Boys, Jamiroquai, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens. All proceeds are being donated to the UK charity Help Musicians.
“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,” said Ed Newton-Rex, the British composer and former AI executive behind the album. “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.”
In her own statement, Bush added, “In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?”
This past December, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers published a study suggesting music industry workers could lose up to 24% of their revenue by 2028 unless governments implement robust protections against AI.
Is This What We Want? Tracklist:
01. The
02. British
03. Government
04. Must
05. Not
06. Legalise
07. Music
08. Theft
09. To
10. Benefit
11. AI
12. Companies