Kate Bush and Annie Lennox have released a completely silent album – here's why

Independent

25-02-2025

More than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, and Damon Albarn, have united to release a silent album in protest against proposed changes to copyright law concerning artificial intelligence (AI).
The musicians warn that the government's proposals to amend UK copyright law, making it easier for AI models to be trained on copyrighted material, would significantly harm the creative sector and potentially replace artists in the long run.
The proposed changes would create a copyright exemption for AI training, allowing tech firms to use copyrighted material without a license, requiring creators to opt out to prevent their work from being used.
Critics argue that this approach fails to compensate artists for AI's replication of their work, stifles creativity, and places an undue burden on artists through the opt-out scheme.
To mark the closing of government consultation on the issue, the group of artists has released an album titled Is This What We Want?
It features recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, symbolising what they believe would become the reality of the music business if the proposed changes are implemented.
Billy Ocean, The Clash, Jamiroquai, Imogen Heap, and numerous composers, conductors, singers, and producers, including Oscar, Grammy, and Brit Award winners, have co-written the album.
The track listing spells out the message: 'The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.'
All profits will be donated to the musicians' charity, Help Musicians.
Ed Newton-Rex, the organiser of 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.'
In 2023, UK music contributed £7.6 billion to the UK economy, with exports of UK music reaching £4.6 billion.
Over the weekend, Sir Elton John and Simon Cowell backed a campaign opposing the proposals, and Sir Paul McCartney has also spoken out against them.
Although some AI firms have since started making deals to license content, many existing AI models have been trained using data from the public internet, including from news and other publishing websites, which has led to many from that sector also speaking out against the proposed changes to the law.
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 shown in recent weeks for copyright and our world-class creative industries is something the Government ignores at its peril.
'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.
'Publishing is a growth industry supporting tens of thousands of highly skilled jobs nationwide.
'We already contribute £11 billion to the UK economy and are central to creative industries' growth and UK research and development and are early adopters of AI technology to equip the readers and learners of the future.
'The message to government is clear: the great copyright heist cannot go unchallenged. Big Tech needs to pay for the creative and research content they hoover up to train AI, just as they pay for their electricity and other normal costs of running a legally compliant business.
'We urgently need transparency regulations to lift the lid on AI usage to ensure that the huge opportunities that AI can bring are realised in a way that incentivises growth across the whole economy and is safe and ethical for those who use it.
'The UK is a content superpower and its creative industries, educational institutions and academic research are the envy of the world.
'Establishing fair trading practices and encouraging partnership with, rather than subservience to, Big Tech is the way we lift all the boats and deliver for the UK.'