The future is human: AI and music

CAMPAIGN

The future is human: AI and music

AI is reshaping industries and sectors across the economy, including music. There is growing concern from creators that their songs and compositions are being used without consent, compensation or credit to create AI-generated works that will then compete with their music.

The role of AI in music

Music makers have always been at the forefront of using new technologies as part of their creative process. For example, the Beatles explored the potential of multitrack recording and MIDI and digital sampling were crucial to the development of hip-hop in the ’80s.

AI will be no different. As the representative organisation for songwriters and composers, we want to ensure that AI can be used by creators to explore new genres and ideas but is not being developed at the expense of creators and their rights, upon which their future ability to create relies.

Our position

All music starts with creators and they must be in control of how their works are used and be fairly remunerated and credited if they choose to allow their works to train AI models.

AI should work in service of human originated creativity not against it
Creators need to know if their music has been ingested for the training of AI
The ingestion of copyright works and creation of derivative works requires authorisation and remuneration and there is an important role for collective rights management within a free-market licensing system
If there is a licensing regime on a go-forward basis, there must also be compensation for the ingestion of copyright material prior to that licensing regime being in place
Such compensation must be fairly divided between the creator and rightsholder
Music generated by AI without any human contribution should not benefit from copyright protection
All technology requires rules for safe, responsible and ethical use: AI needs a regulator
Creators’ moral rights need to be strengthened
A new personality right should be created to protect the personality/image of songwriters and artists

What we are doing

We are working with the creative industries and music industry partners to lobby the government, give the views of music creators through government consultations and stop potentially damaging legislation. We have added our voice to the Human Artistry Campaign and holding our first Creators Summit about AI and Music.