Did anybody have a “silent” album by more than 1000 most prominent British artists protesting against government proposed changes to the copyright law on their bingo cards? We certainly haven’t but we will be more than happy to “review” it. After all, what our right wing Labour government is trying to pass, will affect every single musician in this country. Our industry, destroyed by payola, developers, misogyny, racism, nepotism, Brexit, major record labels and austerity (not in this particular order and feel free to add anything else you want), is barely holding onto its dear life. If Labour gets to pass the changes, it will be the proverbial last nail to its coffin. So please fasten your seat belts, because this “review” is political and written by an angry feminist, the kind that the male editors at big magazines truly hate. Mostly because they know what we say is right.
Album cover
Official bio: More than 1,000 musicians and groups have come together to release Is This What You 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. Musicians on this album came together to protest this. The album consists of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, representing the impact the combined musicians expect the government’s proposals would have on musicians’ livelihoods. All profits from the album are being donated to the charity Help Musicians.
Let’s start from the beginning. Labour is trying to relax copyright law for the sole benefit of the AI business – big American tech companies that are run by the richest people on the planet. Recently, Technology Magazine ran an article listing the biggest AI pushing companies on the market and I think it’s vital that we all know who they are: Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet (owners of Google), Meta (owners of Facebook, Instagram and Threads), Tesla (yup, Elon Musk), Palantir Technologies (Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal) and Open AI (Samuel Altman, owner of ChatGPT).
In a nutshell, it’s the unholy trinity of Zuckerberg, Musk and Thiel that backed up Trump and helped him to become president of the US of A. While Zuckerberg has been critical of dear Donald during his first term, he is now Trump’s biggest cheerleader going as far as amplifying conservative voices on his platforms, removing independent fact checkers and getting rid of many protections for Facebook users. I don’t have to introduce Musk to anybody, but he donated more than $200 millions to the Trump campaign and now he leads DOGE trying to destroy American democracy. My absolute favorite villain out of the three is Peter Thiel. Conservative libertarian as he likes to introduce himself, he is the founder of Palantir Technologies, a company behind surveillance systems used by CIA, Israeli Occupation Forces and others. They offer their services to enforcement agencies, border security, private companies, and in the UK, they will now be responsible for running the NHS on a small contract of £480 millions. Thiel is besties with Alex Karp (CEO of Palantir, a lovely gent that wants to kill his enemies), donates monies to Heritage Foundation (the people behind Project 2025) and he doesn’t think that “democracy and freedom are compatible”. Thiel doesn’t like free healthcare, access to abortion, diversity, multiculturalism, welfare and of course women in general calling them “notoriously tough for libertarians” aka incels. He is gay, but he doesn’t support same sex marriages (although he is himself married to Matt Danzeisen). As you can see he is all around trustworthy fella. Combined net worth of the tech companies stands at more than 1.5 trillion USD.
MAKE IT FAIR poster
So this is where we are now. Oligarchs, billionaires and tech bros are pushing Artificial Intelligence for their own private gain. They train AI on everything real humans produce: photography, art, literature, videography, dance, theatre, poetry, music. There are multiple reports that big tech trains AI algorithms on stolen content (like here, here and here) doing this purposefully so creators do not get paid. They ripped off AP and Reuters for journalistic content and the press and news agencies took several AI companies to court – you can read a good report on the case here. AI is also harmful to our planet, it needs a huge amount of water and energy, another good piece is here if you have the time. Trump, quelle surprise, supports big tech as much as he can, they bought the election for him, so it’s time to return the favour. The first convicted criminal in the White House threatens huge tariffs on US allies that would like to curb the big tech’s appetite for world domination. He mostly attacks the EU and its Digital Market Act and Digital Services Act, calling them extortion and discrimination.
If you need a translation into plain olde English, I’m happy to assist. Trump wants European countries not to tax big tech at all, give them free and unlimited access to our data, services, governmental agencies and the ability to interfere with our politics. Look at what Musk is doing on Twitter: he openly supports far right parties such as German AfD, criticizes the British government, threatens democratically elected officials and sends his rabid horde of “fans” after Jess Phillips endangering her life and safety. Chaos, lies and misinformation are working well for Trump and tech organizations, but they destroy every fibre of our societies.
The Labour government is scared. They inherited a deeply destroyed country, ransacked by 15 years of Tory rule, Brexit red tape, black hole in annual budget, inflation and a very fragmented and angry electorate. Growth has been Starmer’s main goal since the elections but the UK’s GDP grew up only by 0.1% between October and December 2024 according to the BBC. That’s not much so Labour is looking to boost the numbers by cozying up to the big tech. And that is precisely why they came up with this utterly brilliant plan of allowing AI to steal from British creatives and get away with murder.
People in the endangered industries are fighting back. Press took part in a bold campaign where the first pages of almost all mainstream newspapers were left empty, bar a big MAKE IT FAIR slogan. This initiative aims to educate readers about the danger of the changes Labour plans to introduce. Now, more than 1000 musicians released a “silent” album titled “Is This What We Want?” to show how the music of the future, where nobody gets paid, could sound like.
The record, released through Virgin Media/Universal, is available on Spotify and it’s not really silent. We can hear sounds from different creative spaces: recording studios, home studios, venues, performance places. Those ambient, background noises include footsteps, traffic sounds coming in from the outside, pages ruffling, a buzzing fly, a cat and different tones, vibrations and assorted echoes. There are 12 “tracks” on the album recorded by Billy Ocean, Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Yusuf (Cat Stevens), Annie Lennox, Hans Zimmer, Marillion, New Order, Mystery Jetts, Pet Shop Boy, Pigs x 6, Robert Fripp, Sam Fender, The Anchoress, The Clash, Tom Grennan, Toyah, Yard Act and others. The album is nearly 47 minutes long and one of the compositions was recorded at Kate Bush’s home studio, it’s her first collaboration in more than a decade. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Paul McCartney, Simon Cowell and Elton John are not signatories, but they were loudly supportive, giving interviews and calling on Labour not to humiliate themselves.
MAKE IT FAIR campaign – first pages, picture provided by organizers
Each of the 12 compositions have a single word for a title, they all combine into a main statement of the artists that says: “The British government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies”. The project created and led by Ed Newton-Rex is probably one of the bravest protest campaigns I have seen in a long time. It’s a shame that the biggest names in the British music such as Genesis, Rolling Stones, Oasis, Queen, Iron Maiden and many others that dominated music landscapes for generations are choosing to remain silent. Also, young bands are not well represented either – except for Tom Grennan, Yard Act and Pigs x 6, I can’t find many new faces on the list at all. And where are Bono and Bob Geldoff, when you really need them? Remaining mum is not very rock and roll, gents.
In a moment like this, we need unity and one voice – without it, we will not form a strong enough lobby to fight those who have enough money to buy our planet and probably half of the Milky Way too.
I have a big favour to ask of you, dear reader. If you love music, like going to gigs, summer festivals, please find 5 minute of your time to email your MP. Tell them that you do not agree with the government sanctioned theft, and ask them to act. The more people do this, the more chances that Peter Kay, the U.K.’s secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, will change his mind.
So far, despite the album, protest campaign and everything else, it seems that Labour is hell bent on condemning UK music to death by AI.
Socials:
www.isthiswhatwewant.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/50voMvK8QuVh4PXpFwEMXQ
More Information:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyd3r62kp5o
https://www.nme.com/news/music/damon-albarn-kate-bush-annie-lennox-over-1000-artists-release-silent-album-protest-uk-copyright-ai-laws-3841081
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/kate-bush-silent-album-ai-protest-imogen-heap-copyright-law-b2704099.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekatz/2025/02/25/1000-plus-musicians-drop-silent-album-to-protest-ai-copyright-tweaks/
Rita Dabrowicz
Indieterria 