The silent album from more than 1,000 musicians protesting against the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law is being released on vinyl, with a bonus track from Paul McCartney.
The vinyl release will be available from December 8.
In February 2025, more than 1,000 musicians came together to release a silent album protesting against the UK government’s planned changes to copyright law, which would make it easier to train AI models on music without a licence. It coincided with the Make It Fair campaign by the creative industries including the music sector.
The album, titled Is This What We Want?, featured recordings of empty studios and performance spaces to represent the potential impact on artists’ and music professionals’ livelihoods.
The digital release in February 2025 made the UK Top 40. It is now being released on vinyl, with a bonus track – a recording of an empty studio – from Paul McCartney.
The vinyl edition is being released by The state51 Conspiracy.
Under the heavily criticised proposals to UK copyright law, AI companies would be free to use an artist’s work to train their AI models without permission or remuneration. The government’s proposed changes would require artists to proactively ‘opt-out’.
‘Opt-out’ models are near impossible to enforce, have yet to be proven effective anywhere else in the world, and place enormous burdens on artists, particularly emerging talent,” said a statement from the silent album organisers. “Facing major backlash from the creative sector and beyond, the government has said its previous proposal is no longer its preferred option. However, it has not proposed an alternative, simply recommitting to its plan to ‘modernise the copyright legislation’. In the meantime, it has sent creatives a worrying signal, five times rejecting House of Lords amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would have given rights-holders visibility over when their work was being used against their wishes by AI companies.”
The government set up expert working groups on AI and copyright in the summer including tech firms and major labels.
The government must commit to not handing the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies for free
Ed Newton-Rex
Peter Kyle, then Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, said: “I am determined to harness expert insights from across the debate as we work together to deliver a solution that brings the legal clarity our creative industries and AI sector badly need in the digital age.”
The silent album’s track listing spells out a simple message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”
Ed Newton-Rex, the organiser of the album, said: “The government must commit to not handing the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies for free. Doing so would be hugely damaging to our world-leading creative industries, and is totally unnecessary, only benefiting overseas tech giants. It should listen to Paul McCartney and the 1,000 other musicians who took part in this album, and resist calls to legalise music theft from the big tech lobby.”
Paul Sanders, founder of The state51 Conspiracy, said: “When tech companies lobby governments to give them songs for free, it’s not so they can cure diseases, feed the hungry, or provide clean water where it is needed. It’s simply so they can make millions of fake songs and keep all the profits for themselves. As a company with a lifelong commitment to musicians, The state51 Conspiracy was honoured to be asked to help get this message out on vinyl. All profits go to Help Musicians, which is what our politicians should be doing instead of sucking up to tech bros.”
The full list of musicians and groups involved can be seen here.
