We are the music makers

Topic

Ai-training

  • Japan's JASRAC won't collect for fully AI-made songs, and wants the training exception in Article 30-4 changed

    Japan's biggest music rights society will only manage the human-made parts of a song, and songwriters must say which parts AI made when they register. It is also asking for Article 30-4, which lets AI firms train on works without permission, to give creators a choice. That puts Japan's songwriters further from a say over training than their counterparts in the EU or the UK.

    Artist rightsvia Japan Copyright Office (Agency for Cultural Affairs)

  • The UK drops its AI copyright opt-out plan, and the same idea turns up in Australia

    On 18 March 2026 the UK government said a copyright exception letting AI firms train on work unless creators opt out is no longer its preferred option. Musicians won this one through public pressure and votes in Parliament, but the government hasn't ruled the idea out, and seven months later an opt-out model is on the table in Australia.

    Artist rightsvia GOV.UK (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

  • The silent album: how 1,000 UK artists turned an empty studio into a campaign

    Is This What We Want?, out on 25 February 2025, is 12 recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, credited to more than 1,000 musicians, whose track titles spell out a message to the UK government. It landed on the day the government's AI copyright consultation closed. As a piece of artist activism it is unusually well designed, and the design is worth copying.

    Industryvia Is This What We Want? (artists' campaign)

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