Paul McCartney joins forces with Kate Bush and Cat Stevens for new album release - with a twist
17 November 2025, 12:10
Some of the biggest names in music have collaborated on a silent album protesting AI.
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Earlier this year, some of the very biggest names in music "collaborated" on a very unusual album.
Originally released in February 2025, Is This What We Want? collected 12 tracks of silence and background noise whose titles when put together formed the sentence "The British Government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies".
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While the individual tracks weren't given an author, over 1,000 artists were credited with writing the album, including massive names like Kate Bush, Billy Ocean, Cat Stevens/Yusuf, Annie Lennox, Hans Zimmer, The Clash and many more.
Together with Elton John, Paul McCartney has been one of the most high profile opponents to the way AI models use existing data, and he's now added his own contribution to the album.
His "song", called "bonus track", is two minutes and 45 seconds of no instruments or vocal, capturing instead a bit of background noise from the studio.
Is This What We Want?
His track will be added to the vinyl pressing of Is This What We Want? , which previously charted at number 38 on the UK Albums Downloads Chart.
The project is the brainchild of composer and Stability AI employee Ed Newton-Rex, who runs non-profit Fairly Trained, that offers certification for AI models who have co-operated with copyright holders
"The government's proposal would hand the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies, for free, letting those companies exploit musicians' work to outcompete them," he previously said of the government proposals on dealing with how training data is used.
"It is a plan that would not only be disastrous for musicians, but that is totally unnecessary: the UK can be leaders in AI without throwing our world-leading creative industries under the bus."
