Image credit: Alberto Bigoni

Discussions over the future of AI and music have begun with the UK government but musician groups say they aren’t being represented.

The UK government just hosted a roundtable to discuss how they should approach a music industry whose future involves AI. Covering how it should be used to enhance the industry but also the legal protection of human artists that needs to be enforced.

Certain bodies representing artists across the UK aren’t happy though. Whilst all three of the major labels were given a representative at the table, independent music was largely unrepresented. The Council of Music Makers (CMM) vocally criticised the meeting.

CMM wrote: “We are hugely concerned that the government is forming a roundtable which only gives one single seat to a representative of all creatives across all media (including film, theatre, literature, and music) but has three seats for executives from major record companies. This is profoundly unbalanced and tone-deaf.”

CMM represents the Featured Artists Coalition, Ivors Academy, Musicians’ Union, Music Producers Guild and MMF. These bodies represent the creatives and their producers and managers, not rightsholders.

The Creators’s Rights Alliance did have a place at the discussions. They represent bodies like FAC, the Ivors Academy, the MMF, and Musician’s Union. They have expressed their concerns over AI accelerating quicker than we can handle currently. They request the protection of works from being used to train AI.

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: “Central to the discussion will be concerns about copyrighted material being used without permission to train AI models like ChatGPT and the risk that content created by AI can potentially infringe creative’s intellectual property. The meeting is also expected to cover necessary protections for artists’ likenesses and voices.”

However the CMM wrote: “Corporate rightsholders are now making changes to the streaming model, while also developing brand new business models with AI companies. Again, the music-maker community is not being consulted, with decisions being taken unilaterally by record labels and the technology companies.

“Deals are being done in secret, with decisions only communicated through press releases. This is epitomised by proposals such as the so-called ‘artist-centric’ model for streaming, which has been developed with no consultation of the artist community.” They’re referencing Deezer’s recently launched change to payouts that currently only affects WMG and UMG artists.

They go on: “Of course, both corporate rightsholders and music-makers believe that AI companies must respect copyright and other creator rights – on that we are aligned. But corporate rightsholders cannot and do not speak for music-makers, and it cannot be assumed they are making decisions in the interest of music-makers.”

Musical bodies in the US are fighting their own battle to get legislation put in place that protects artists in the wake of AI technology. Some senators have put forward a ‘No Fakes Act‘ bill that would introduce legal repercussions for recreating someone’s image or voice without consent.