1,000 artists release ‘silent’ album to protest UK copyright sell-out to AI
The British government pushes ahead with plans to attract more AI companies to the region by changing copyright law. The proposed changes would enable developers to train AI models on the content of the artists found online – without permission or payment – unless makers proactively “unsubscribe”. However, not everyone marches to the same beat.
On Monday, a group of 1,000 musicians released a ‘silent album’, protesting The planned changes. The album – titled “Is this what we want?” – Contains tracks from Kate Bush, Imogen Heap and contemporary classic composers Max Richter and Thomas Hewitt Jones, among others. It also contains Co-writing credits of Hundreds moreIncluding big names such as Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn, Billy Ocean, The Clash, Mystery Jets, Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Riz Ahmed, Tori Amos and Hans Zimmer.
But this is not Bandhulp part 2. And it is not a collection of music. Instead, the artists have put together recordings of empty studios and performance spaces – a symbolic representation of what they believe that the impact of the planned copyright law changes will be.
“You can hear my cats move”, is how Hewitt Jones described his contribution to the album. “I have two cats in my studio that bother me all day when I’m working.”
To put another butter point on it, the titles of the 12 songs that form the album, a message is displayed: “The British government may not legalize music theft to improve AI companies.”
The album is just the newest step in the UK to draw attention to the issue of how copyrights are treated in AI training. Similar protests Are en route In other markets, such as the US, which emphasize worldwide care among artists.
Ed Newton-Rex, who organized the project, at the same time led a larger campaign against AI training without licenses. A petition He started has now been signed by more than 47,000 writers, visual artists, actors and others in the creative industry, with almost 10,000 of them registering in just the last five weeks since the British government announced its great AI strategy.
Newton-Rex said that in the past year he “also run a non-profit in AI, where we have certified companies that in principle not scrape and train at great work without permission.”
Newton-Rex arrived for artists after they had beaten for both parties. Classically trained as a composer, he later built an AI-based music composition platform called Jukedeck that people could circumvent with the help of copyright works by making their own. The catchy pitch, where he ricked and ranged on the virtues of using AI to write music, won the WAN Startup Battlefield competition in 2015. Jukedeck was eventually taken over by Tiktok, where he worked on music services for some time.
After a few years at other technology companies such as Snap and stability, Newton-Rex is again considering how to build the future without burning the past. He is considering that idea from a pretty interesting vantage point: he now lives in the Bay Area with wife Alice Newton-Rex, VP of product at WhatsApp.
The album release comes just before the planned changes in copyright legislation in the UK, who who do not want to force artists to use their work for AI training problems to proactively “report”.
Newton-Rex thinks that this effectively creates a loss loss situation for artists, because there is no opt-out method, or a clear way to be able to follow which specific material has been entered in an AI system.
“We know that opt-out schedules are simply not being recorded,” he said. “This will just give 90% [to] 95% of people’s work on AI companies. That is without a doubt. “
The solution, says the artists, is to produce work in other markets for which there might be better protection. Hewitt Jones die threw a working keyboard in a port in Kent during a personal protest not long ago (he fished it, then broken) that he is considering markets as a Switzerland to spread his music in the future.
But the rock and hard place of a port in Kent are nothing compared to the wild west of the internet.
“We have been told for decades to share our work online because it is good for exposure. But now that AI companies and, incredible, governments are turning around and say, “Well, you’ve posted that online for free …” said Newton-Rex. “So now artists are just stopping making and sharing their work. A number of artists have contacted me to say that this is what they do. “
The album will be placed on a large scale somewhere on Tuesday on music platforms, the organizers said, and all donations or proceeds from playing them go to the charity musicians.
