Recommendations of the Editorial team
Aside from the occasional track like the 1972 single “Give Ireland Back to the Irish,” Paul McCartney is not generally associated with current songs. Now, however, he is joining a new one Musicians protest against copyright infringements by AI companies.
Originally released in February of this year, “Is This What We Want?” consisted entirely of background noise recorded in recording studios, but did not contain any voices, songs or instruments. The project aimed to highlight how AI companies could use recorded music and other art forms as the basis for their own projects, thanks to a planned change to UK copyright law. According to a statement from organizers, the silence on the record was intended to “symbolize the impact we expect the government’s proposals will have on musicians’ livelihoods.”
For the upcoming vinyl release on December 8th, McCartney contributed his own silent contribution: the “Bonus Track”, which includes 2 minutes and 45 seconds of silence.
Speaking to the BBC earlier this year, McCartney expressed concern about AI invading his business:
“Here come young men and women who write a beautiful song, but they don’t own it,” he said.
“They have nothing to do with it, and anyone who wants can just copy it… When it hits the streaming platforms, someone gets it [das Geld]and that should be the person who created it. It shouldn’t just be some tech giant somewhere. Someone is getting paid. Why shouldn’t it be the one who sat down and wrote ‘Yesterday’?”
Album structure and artists involved
Every song on the original digital version of “Is This What We Want?” had a one-word title that, when strung together, spelled out: “UK government must not legalize music theft to benefit AI companies.”
Musicians named as co-authors include The Clash, Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Tori Amos, Damon Albarn, composer Hans Zimmer, Billy Ocean and Yusuf/Cat Stevens. Profits go to the charity Help Musicians.