Saturday, August 2, 2025

1,000 artists launch ‘silent’ album to protest UK copyright sell-out to AI

The U.Okay. authorities is pushing ahead with plans to draw extra AI firms to the area by means of modifications to copyright legislation that might permit builders to coach AI fashions on artists’ content material on the web — with out permission or cost — except creators proactively “choose out.” Not everyone seems to be marching to the identical beat, although.

On Monday, a gaggle of 1,000 musicians launched a “silent album,” protesting the deliberate modifications. The album — titled “Is This What We Need?” — options tracks from Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, and modern classical composers Max Richter and Thomas Hewitt Jones, amongst others. It additionally options co-writing credit from tons of extra, together with massive names like Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, Billy Ocean, The Conflict, Thriller Jets, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, Tori Amos, and Hans Zimmer. 

However this isn’t Band Assist half 2. And it’s not a group of music. As a substitute, the artists have put collectively recordings of empty studios and efficiency areas — a symbolic illustration of what they imagine would be the affect of the deliberate copyright legislation modifications. 

“You may hear my cats transferring round,” is how Hewitt Jones described his contribution to the album. “I’ve two cats in my studio who hassle me all day after I’m working.”

To place an much more blunt level on it, the titles of the 12 tracks that make up the album spell out a message: “The British authorities should not legalize music theft to profit AI firms.”

The album is simply the most recent transfer within the U.Okay. to deliver consideration to the difficulty of how copyright is being dealt with in AI coaching. Related protests are underway in different markets, just like the U.S., highlighting a world concern amongst artists.

Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the venture, has concurrently been main a much bigger marketing campaign towards AI coaching with out licensing. A petition he began has now been signed by greater than 47,000 writers, visible artists, actors, and others within the inventive industries, with practically 10,000 of them signing up in simply the final 5 weeks for the reason that U.Okay. authorities introduced its massive AI technique. 

Newton-Rex stated he has additionally been “working a nonprofit in AI for the final 12 months the place we’ve been certifying firms that principally don’t scrape and practice on nice work with out permission.” 

Newton-Rex arrived at advocating for artists after having batted for either side. Classically skilled as a composer, he later constructed an AI-based music composition platform known as Jukedeck that permit individuals bypass utilizing copyrighted works by creating their very own. Its catchy pitch, the place he rapped and riffed on the virtues of utilizing AI to write down music, gained the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competitors in 2015. Jukedeck was finally acquired by TikTok, the place he labored for a while on music providers. 

After a number of years at different tech firms like Snap and Stability, Newton-Rex is again to contemplating construct the longer term with out burning the previous. He’s considering that concept from a reasonably fascinating vantage level: He now lives within the Bay Space with spouse Alice Newton-Rex, VP of product at WhatsApp. 

The album launch comes simply forward of the deliberate modifications to copyright legislation within the U.Okay, which might power artists who don’t need their work used for AI coaching functions to proactively “choose out.”

Newton-Rex thinks this successfully creates a lose-lose state of affairs for artists since there isn’t a opt-out technique in place, or any clear manner of with the ability to monitor what particular materials has been fed into any AI system. 

“We all know that opt-out schemes are simply not taken up,” he stated. “That is simply going to present 90% [to] 95% of individuals’s work to AI firms. That’s undoubtedly.”

The answer, say the artists, is to supply work in different markets the place there could be higher protections for it. Hewitt Jones — who threw a working keyboard right into a harbor in Kent at an in-person protest not way back (he fished it out, damaged, afterwards) — stated he’s contemplating markets like Switzerland for distributing his music sooner or later. 

However the rock and exhausting place of a harbor in Kent are nothing in comparison with the Wild West of the web. 

“We’ve been informed for many years to share our work on-line as a result of it’s good for publicity. However now AI firms and, extremely, governments are turning round and saying, ‘Properly, you set that on-line at no cost …” Newton-Rex stated. “So now artists are simply stopping making and sharing their work. A variety of artists have contacted me to say that is what they’re doing.”

The album might be posted broadly on music platforms someday Tuesday, the organizers stated, and any donations or proceeds from enjoying it can go to the charity Assist Musicians. 

Related Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Articles