Paul McCartney Releases Silent Track in AI Copyright Protest

Paul McCartney joins music industry protest against AI with silent track

Former Beatle and artists including Sam Fender, Kate Bush and Hans Zimmer record silent LP Is This What We Want At two minutes 45 seconds it's about the same length as With a Little Help From My Friends. But Paul McCartney's first new recording in five years lacks the sing-along tune and jaunty guitar chops because there's barely anything there. The former Beatle, arguably Britain's greatest living songwriter, is releasing a track of an almost completely silent recording studio as part of a music industry protest against copyright theft by artificial intelligence companies. In place of catchy melodies and evocative lyrics there is only quiet hiss and the odd clatter. It suggests that if AI companies unfairly exploit musicians' intellectual property to train their generative AI models, the creative ecosystem will be wrecked and original music silenced. McCartney, 83 and currently touring North America, has added the track to the B-side of an LP called Is This What We Want?, which is filled with other silent recordings and will be pressed on vinyl and released later this month. McCartney's contribution comes as musicians and artists step up their campaign to persuade the UK government to stop technology companies from training AI models on their creative output without approval or paying royalties. Meanwhile, Britain faces anti-regulation pressure from Donald Trump's White House. The album track listing spells out "the British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies". Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for copyright fairness behind the protest album, said: "I am very concerned the government is paying more attention to US tech companies' interests rather than British creatives' interests." Other artists already backing the campaign include Sam Fender, Kate Bush, Hans Zimmer and the Pet Shop Boys. McCartney's new contribution is called (bonus track) and like his best songs, it could be said to have a beginning, a middle and an end. It fades up quickly and begins with 55 seconds of tape hiss before 15 seconds of indeterminate clattering that could be someone opening a door and pacing about, before settling down to another 80 seconds of rustle-punctuated hiss and concluding with a slow and poignant fadeout. McCartney has been among leading voices in British music voicing concern at the ministers' plans forge a new deal between creatives and AI companies such as Open AI, Google, Anthropic and Elon Musk's xAI, which demand access to huge volumes of training information including text, images and music. "We['ve] got to be careful about it because it could just take over and we don't want that to happen, particularly for the young composers and writers [for] who, it may be the only way they['re] gonna make a career," McCartney has said of AI. "If AI wipes that out, that would be a very sad thing indeed." Bush, another artist involved in the protest album, has said: "In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?" The composer Max Richter said: "The government's proposals would impoverish creators, favouring those automating creativity over the people who compose our music, write our literature, paint our art." The government has consulted on allowing an exception to UK copyright law for "text and data mining", which includes the possibility of requiring copyright holders to actively opt out of their work being used to train AI models. Ministers face the difficulty of balancing the interests of creative industries, which add £125bn annually to the UK economy, and US tech companies who want light regulation and recently announced more than £30bn in investments, mostly in datacentres. A new legal system for AI and copyright is not expected to be debated in parliament before 2026. In the meantime, the government has signed deals with AI companies including Open AI, Google and Anthropic to boost AI adoption across government and the wider economy. Trump has said: "We have to allow AI to use that [copyrighted] pool of knowledge without going through the complexity of contract negotiations" and warned international governments not to "make rules and regulations that ... make it impossible" for AI companies to do business. Beeban Kidron, a cross-bench peer and film director who campaigns for copyright protection, told the Guardian: "The government is trying to play both sides and convincing neither." She added: "They have proven themselves unfit to govern in the economic interests of the creators." A government source said Liz Kendall, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, was committed to finding a solution between AI firms and creatives and "recognises both of these sectors are British success stories and she is talking to both sides". There was concern when Kendall appointed a special adviser in September who had previously argued: "Whether or not you philosophically believe the big AI firms should compensate content creators, they in practice will never legally have to." Responding to McCartney's intervention, a government spokesperson said it put the interests of the UK's citizens and businesses first. "We've always been clear on the need to work with both the creative industries and AI sector to drive AI innovation and ensure robust protections for creators," they said. "We are bringing together both British and global companies, alongside voices beyond the AI and creative sectors, to ensure we can capture the broadest possible range of expert views as we consider next steps."

McCartney to release silent AI protest song

London (AFP) - Pop legend Paul McCartney will release a silent music track next month as part of a silent album to protest UK copyright law changes that would give exemptions to tech firms. Other artists such as Hans Zimmer and singer Kate Bush have joined the project, highlighting what they say are the dangers artificial intelligence (AI) poses to the creative industries. McCartney's contribution to the album "Is This What We Want". It will draw "attention to the damning impact on artists' livelihoods controversial government proposals could cause," the artists behind the project said in a statement. Called "Bonus Track" it is a two minute 45 seconds recording of an empty studio featuring a series of clicks. More than 1,000 artists, including Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Jamiroquai, have collaborated on the silent album which was first released in February. They maintain that the government's law changes "would make it easier to train AI models on copyrighted work without a licence". "Under the heavily criticised proposals, UK copyright law would be upended to benefit global tech giants. AI companies would be free to use an artist's work to train their AI models without permission or remuneration," they added. The changes "would require artists to proactively 'opt-out' from the theft of their work - reversing the very principle of copyright law," they added. Only 1,000 copies of the vinyl album have been pressed. In May, some 400 writers and musicians including Elton John and Bush condemned the proposals as a "wholesale giveaway" to Silicon Valley in a letter to The Times newspaper. Other signatories included the 83-year-old McCartney, singer-songwriters Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and Sting, and writers Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Morpurgo and Helen Fielding. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously said the government needs to "get the balance right" with copyright and AI while noting that the technology represented "a huge opportunity". "They have no right to sell us down the river," Elton John told the BBC in May, urging Starmer to "wise up" and "see sense". According to a study by UK Music last week two out of three artists and producers fear that AI poses a threat to their careers. More than nine out of 10 surveyed demanded that their image and voice to be protected and called for AI firms to pay for the use of their creations.

Paul McCartney's Next Track Will Be Silent -- and It's All Because of AI

Sir Paul McCartney has contributed a bonus track to an album that was created in protest against proposed changes to the United Kingdom's data protections law. These changes would allow AI companies to train on copyrighted material, including music and literature. Here's the context: In late 2024, members of the UK's parliament debuted a report detailing various proposals for how to alter the country's data protections law, with a goal of both protecting artists and growing its AI industry. The option preferred by the government would allow AI companies to train on all copyrighted material that hasn't been explicitly opted out of training by rights-holders, but also require AI companies to be transparent about the works their models are trained on. In response, in February, a group of 1,000 musicians, including Hans Zimmer, Kate Bush, Imogen Heap, Cat Stevens, Jamiroquai, New Order, and Riz Ahmed released a digital album called "Is This What We Want?" According to the project's website, "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 climbed to #38 on the UK's official digital album downloads chart. Then, in June, Parliament passed a bill to reform its data privacy and copyright laws, but for now, the act only directs the UK Government to study the potential impacts of changes to the laws, and publish a report on its findings in 2026.

Paul McCartney Protests AI with Silent Track

Is AI Coming for Your Favorite Local DJ? Real-Life Jocks Are Worried Other than the occasional track, like the 1972 single "Give Ireland Back to the Irish," Paul McCartney isn't generally associated with topical songs. But he's changing his tune, so to speak, as part of a new protest by musicians against copyright theft by AI companies. Originally released this past February, the album Is This What We Want? consisted entirety of background noise taped at recording studios, but no actual voices, songs, or instruments. The project was designed to draw attention to the way AI companies could exploit recorded music, along with other art forms, as the basis for projects, thanks to a proposed change in U.K. copyright law. According to a statement from the album organizers at the time, the record's use of silence was meant to symbolize "the impact we expect the government's proposals would have on musicians' livelihoods." For the album's upcoming vinyl release on Dec. 8, McCartney contributed his own blank slate: "Bonus Track," which spans 2 minutes and 45 seconds long of silence. Speaking to the BBC earlier this year, McCartney discussed his concerns about AI infiltrating his business. "You get young guys and girls coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don't own it," he said. "They don't have anything to do with it, and anyone who wants can just rip it off ... When it gets on the streaming platforms, somebody's getting [the money], and it should be the person who created it. It shouldn't just be some tech giant somewhere. Somebody's getting paid. Why shouldn't it be the guy who sat down and wrote 'Yesterday'?" Each song on the original digital version of Is This What We Want? had a one-word title, which, when listed in full, spelled out "The British Government Must Not Legalize Music Theft to Benefit AI Companies." Among the musicians credited as co-writers are the Clash, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Tori Amos, Damon Albarn, composer Hans Zimmer, Billy Ocean, and Yusuf/Cat Stevens. Profits will go toward the charity Help Musicians.

Paul McCartney debuts first new recording in five years: An almost three-minute protest against AI usage in music

The former Beatle has joined the Is This What We Want album to campaign against the unfair exploitation of music artists by AI firms. The war on artificial intelligence by creatives continues to ramp up. Following the release of the Is This What We Want album earlier this year, which is a project that is designed to spotlight the unfair exploitation of musical performers and creators by major AI firms, now former Beatle Paul McCartney has joined the fight with his first new recording in five years, as per The Guardian. It's a song that is two minutes and 45 seconds in duration and it consists of barely anything of substance. It's a track that is meant to spotlight the damage that AI can do to a creative field like music production, and this song will feature on the B-side of the LP when it is pressed onto vinyl and shared with the public in full later this month. For a taste of what the album has to offer, you can already listen to many of the tracks via music streaming services, with the track list featuring songs that when arranged in order spell out the following: "The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies". As per the other stars that have collaborated on this album, some of the major names include Hans Zimmer, Pet Shop Boys, Kate Bush, and Sam Fender.