An album against AI

It’s called Is This What We Want? :

More than 1,000 musicians have come together to release Is This What We Want?, an album protesting the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law.

In late 2024, the UK government proposed changing copyright law to allow artificial intelligence companies to build their products using other people’s copyrighted work — music, artworks, text, and more — without a licence.

The musicians on this album came together to protest this. The album consists of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, representing the impact we expect the government’s proposals would have on musicians’ livelihoods.

The album’s twelve tracks: “The,” “British,” “Government,” “Must,” “Not,” “Legalise,” “Music,” “Theft,” “To,” “Benefit,” “AI,” “Companies.” Those tracks streamed in February. The vinyl LP has a thirteenth bonus track: a recording of an empty studio from Paul McCartney. Point made.

Proceeds go to the UK charity Help Musicians.

Related reading
All OCA AI posts (Pinboard)