Paul McCartney Joins Silent Protest Album Ahead of Vinyl Release

Silent album Is This What We Want? is set to receive a limited-edition vinyl release, including a bonus track from Paul McCartney, next month. Photo Credit: Ed Newton-Rex

UK politicians are “sucking up to tech bros” by advocating for inadequate AI training protections – at least according to the team behind silent album Is This What We Want?, which is releasing on vinyl with a bonus track from Paul McCartney.

We covered the Ed Newton-Rex-spearheaded album’s streaming debut closer to the top of 2025, amid high-stakes debates concerning a proposed “opt-out” model for AI training across the pond. One component of the overarching AI Bill, that proposal would have set the stage for generative models to lawfully ingest all manner of copyrighted works without permission or payment, per critics.

Chief among those critics: The over 1,000 musicians who added their names to Is This What We Want?, the track titles on which emphasized that “the British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”

And while the wider campaign’s February kickoff (including a letter signed by McCartney and Elton John) helped fuel a March setback for the legislation, the battle for adequate IP safeguards is still in full swing.

“[T]he government has said its previous [opt-out] proposal is no longer its preferred option,” the silent project’s organizers summed up. “However, it has not proposed an alternative, simply recommitting to its plan to ‘modernise the copyright legislation’. In the meantime, it has sent creatives a worrying signal, five times rejecting House of Lords amendments to the data bill that would have given rights holders visibility over when their work was being used against their wishes by AI companies.”

Enter the forthcoming Is This What We Want? vinyl edition, profits from which will benefit Help Musicians.

Limited to 1,000 “gold foil numbered copies” and priced at £28 ($37), the physical release is available for preorder now and will begin shipping early next month. Besides the Beatles legend’s bonus track, simply entitled “(Bonus Track),” each copy will include “a letter to sign & send to your MP.”

“The government must commit to not handing the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies for free,” underscored the Fairly Trained CEO Newton-Rex. “Doing so would be hugely damaging to our world-leading creative industries, and is totally unnecessary, only benefiting overseas tech giants.

“It should listen to Paul McCartney and the 1,000 other musicians who took part in this album, and resist calls to legalise music theft from the big tech lobby,” the former Stability AI higher-up concluded.

In remarks of his own, state51 Conspiracy founder Paul Sanders, whose business is releasing the vinyl, took aim at tech players’ alleged objective of leveraging favorable AI laws to “make millions of fake songs and keep all the profits for themselves.”

“As a company with a lifelong commitment to musicians The state51 Conspiracy was honoured to be asked to help get this message out on vinyl,” the Consolidated Independent (CI) co-founder proceeded. “All profits go to Help Musicians, which is what our politicians should be doing instead of sucking up to tech bros.”