What Will Prime Minister Andy Burnham Do for Musicians?

Make copyright for musicians and songwriters stronger:

Copyright law is not able to keep pace with technology right now. The end result is big companies like Spotify making billions from new technologies while musicians and music creators miss out.

Andy Burnham knows this. While working for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the 2010s, he helped negotiate copyright term extension from 50 to 70 years. Now we need him to change the law to strengthen those rights he helped extend.

Stronger copyright laws should require consent from, and compensation for, original human creators for the use of their work to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. Tech firms should also be required to regularly publish updated lists of works used for AI training, and introduce effective mechanisms of redress for composers and performers whose work is used without consent or compensation.

This would help us feed two birds with one scone, by securing fair pay from both the use of music to train AI models and music streaming, helping to make a career in music viable for generations to come.