Kate Bush and 1,000+ other musicians “co-write” a “silent” album to protest the UK's proposal to let AI train on their copyrighted work if they don't opt out
Recordings of empty studios represent impact on musicians of UK's plans to let AI train on their work without permission
The GuardianDan Milmo
Context & Ripple Effects
The musicians’ intervention broadened a copyright fight already joined by publishers, writers and film producers in an earlier cross-media rejection of the proposed AI copyright exemption. It turns a technical opt-out question into a visible statement about what creators stand to lose when recordings can be used by default.
More than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, use a jointly released silent recording to concentrate public and policymaker attention on the UK’s proposed default access to copyrighted recordings for AI training.
The proposal’s opt-out design becomes the immediate target: artists are arguing that permission, rather than creator-by-creator exclusion, should govern use of their recordings.
Second-order effects
The campaign increases pressure on the UK government to defend how an opt-out system would work for individual musicians and rights holders, rather than treating copyright as a frictionless input for AI developers.
It gives labels, collecting societies and other creative sectors a common public frame for seeking licensing-based alternatives, while AI companies face greater scrutiny over the provenance of training material.
Third-order effects
If creator coalitions continue to organize across media, AI-training policy is likely to be shaped less as a narrow technology exception and more as a market-access question: who can authorize, track and be paid for use of creative works.
The durable fault line is moving toward consent and compensation infrastructure for training data; whether regulation or private licensing resolves it will determine how much leverage individual creators retain.
The trend: This is one data point in the shift from broad creator objections to AI training toward coordinated demands for consent-based, compensated access to copyrighted works.
We're among 1,000+ musicians who are jointly releasing this album of recordings of empty studios to protest the government's planned changes to copyright law, which would hand the life's work of the country's musicians to AI companies for free. — Don't legalise music theft! ist…
No, tech firms absolutely should not be able to train AI on my music without my consent - which is why I'm proud to be one of the 1000+ very quiet artists on www.isthiswhatwewant.com , an album of silent music released to protest against AI scraping of musicians' work. [embedded…
I'm one of 1,000+ artists who are jointly releasing this album today to protest the UK government's planned changes to copyright law, which would hand the life's work of the UK's musicians to #AI companies for free. — Don't legalise music theft! — #IsThisWhatWeWant? — isthi…
#isthiswhatwewant — I'm one of over 1000 musicians who participated in this silent album to protest the government's planned changes to copyright law which would hand our life's work to AI companies for free. — Don't legalise music theft! — Isthiswhatwewant.com
Great to see our artists coming out so strongly to protect our creative heritage from AI. The AI companies want to take every piece of human creativity for nothing then use it to outcompete our artists. The consultation ends today. The Gov't must listen. — www.theguardian.co…
We're very happy to be part of this campaign - an opt-out system to stop AI companies stealing creative work (one of the few economic success stories of this country at the moment) is simply not good enough. — www.isthiswhatwewant.com [images]
Love this effort. — Perhaps we should all be flooding these engines the same way. — 1,000 artists release ‘silent’ album to protest UK copyright sell-out to AI | TechCrunch #AI — https://techcrunch.com/... [image]
Along with 1,000 musicians, today we're releasing an (almost) silent album protesting the UK government's plan to upend copyright law to benefit AI companies. It's an album of recordings of empty studios & performance spaces, representing the effect the govt's plans would have [i…
The album, which is a collection of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, represents the impact on artists' and music professionals' livelihoods that the proposals could have. Find out more here: https://www.isthiswhatwewant.com/ 2/2 [video]
No creative wants their work to be used without their permission. The website listing the music artists against UK govt changes to allow AI companies to plunder their output is here 👇https://www.isthiswhatwewant.c om/
1,000 UK musicians have today released a silent album to protest government proposals to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, as the Government's Copyright & AI Consultation closes today. @ednewtonrex 1/2 [image]
Damon Albarn is among over 1,000 musicians who have contributed to Is This What You Want?, a “silent” album featuring recordings of empty studios and performance spaces in protest against proposed UK copyright AI laws. Read more about it and listen here: https://www.isthiswhatwew…
💿#IsThisWhatWeWant? 1000+ musicians have come together to release a silent album, protesting the UK government's planned changes to copyright law, which would hand the work of musicians to AI companies for free. 🔗https://isthiswhatwewant.com/
Kate Bush and Damon Albarn among 1,000 artists on silent AI protest album | Recordings of empty studios represent impact on musicians of UK's plans to let AI train on their work without permission