Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy and MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl at last year’s Labour Party Conference. Photo: ©The MU.
This week, MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl met with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy.
Along with senior colleagues from allied unions Equity and BECTU, Naomi spoke about the issues already facing our members related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and warned that the Government must act soon in order to prevent further damage to musicians and other creatives.
We're calling for legislation to protect musicians from AI misuse
The MU is calling on the Government to introduce legislation to protect musicians and creators, ensuring:
- Consent: Tech firms and rightsholders such as record labels should be legally required to get explicit consent from human creators to use their works to train AI models.
- Labelling: AI-generated works should be clearly labelled so people can choose what they listen to
- Remuneration: Composers and performers should be guaranteed a fair share of the revenue from AI-generated music. We are advocating for transparent blanket licensing via the collecting societies.
We are also asking the Government to introduce personality and image rights.
Watch our latest Instagram video below to see how music fans reacted when asked to trade live music for AI, and share it with friends and fellow musicians.
Arts funding: urgent action needed
Naomi took the opportunity to talk to the Secretary of State about a much-needed increase in arts funding, which has been at a standstill for 20 years now and is causing untold damage to the creative sector.
She particularly highlighted issues affecting the orchestral sector and cuts from local authorities which were compounding the problem. The Secretary of State spoke enthusiastically about her recent visit to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the outreach and community projects they undertake.
The meeting with the Secretary of State was very productive and we hope that some creative solutions to the financial issues being faced by many musicians and creative organisations can be found.
BBC charter and CIISA oversight
They also discussed the BBC's charter renewal and the establishment of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) which both the MU and the Secretary of State are supportive of.
The MU is advocating for secure funding for CIISA, which will work to tackle sexual harassment and bullying in the creative industries. We also want to see a stable future for the BBC, which is the biggest employer and engaged of musicians in the UK.