UK Music Chief and Sir Paul McCartney Work to Stop AI Ripping Off Music Creators

26.01.2025: UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl has highlighted the "huge risk" AI poses to music industry as Sir Paul McCartney spoke out about proposed changes to copyright law.

His intervention came as Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney spoke to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg and warned on her Sunday show how the Government's proposed changes to copyright law could "rip off" artists and songwriters, making it impossible for music creators to make a living.

The Government is considering making controversial changes to allow AI developers to use creators' content to train their models - unless rightsholders opt out.

The government is considering an overhaul of the law that would allow AI developers to use creators' content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders opt out.

UK Music is urging the Government to rethink its AI proposals, which would only offer the prospect of transparency from AI companies in exchange for a text and data mining exception to copyright.

Sir Paul McCartney said there was a risk that AI would create a "Wild West" in which artists' copyright is not properly protected.

He told the BBC: "You get young guys, girls, coming up, and they write a beautiful song, and they don't own it.

"They don't have anything to do with it. And anyone who wants can just rip it off.

"The truth is, the money's going somewhere. Somebody's getting paid, so why shouldn't it be the guy who sat down and wrote Yesterday?"

Sir Paul urged the Government to think again about its plans, saying: "We're the people, you're the government! You're supposed to protect us. That's your job.

"So you know, if you're putting through a bill, make sure you protect the creative thinkers, the creative artists, or you're not going to have them."

Tom Kiehl said:

"Government plans to change copyright law to make it easier for AI firms to use the music of artists, composers and music companies without their permission put the music industry at a huge risk.

"It would be a wild punt against the creative sector that is already contributing over £120 billion to the economy and be counterproductive to the government's own growth ambitions.

"There is no evidence that creatives can effectively "opt out" of their work from being trained by AI systems and so this apparent concession does not provide any reassurance to those that work in music."

Interviewed on the same BBC show, Chancellor Rachel Reeves was asked if she would meet music creators to discuss their fears over AI.

She said: "The Government are looking at copyright laws. We have got to get the balance right. We have got an amazing creative industries sector in the UK - one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy.

"We want to support artists to ensure they are properly rewarded for the content that they create, but I don't think that is incompatible with attracting AI companies to invest in data, data centres and compute facility here in the UK."

The Chancellor said she was always very happy to meet with the creative sector to discuss how the economy could work better for them, but I don't think we should see these things as either or."

You can see Sir Paul's interview with Laura Kuenessberg here.

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