At two minutes 45 seconds it’s about the same length as With a Little Help From My Friends. But Paul McCartney’s first new recording in five years lacks the sing-along tune and jaunty guitar chops because there’s barely anything there.
The former Beatle, arguably Britain’s greatest living songwriter, is releasing a track of an almost completely silent recording studio as part of a music industry protest against copyright theft by artificial intelligence companies.
In place of catchy melodies and evocative lyrics there is only quiet hiss and the odd clatter. It suggests that if AI companies unfairly exploit musicians’ intellectual property to train their generative AI models, the creative ecosystem will be wrecked and original music silenced.
McCartney, 83 and currently touring North America, has added the track to the B-side of an LP called Is This What We Want?, which is filled with other silent recordings and will be pressed on vinyl and released later this month.
McCartney’s contribution comes as musicians and artists step up their campaign to persuade the UK government to stop technology companies from training AI models on their creative output without approval or paying royalties. Meanwhile, Britain faces anti-regulation pressure from Donald Trump’s White House.
The album track listing spells out “the British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies”.
Ed Newton-Rex, a composer and campaigner for copyright fairness behind the protest album, said: “I am very concerned the government is paying more attention to US tech companies’ interests rather than British creatives’ interests.”
Other artists already backing the campaign include Sam Fender, Kate Bush, Hans Zimmer and the Pet Shop Boys.
McCartney’s new contribution is called (bonus track) and like his best songs, it could be said to have a beginning, a middle and an end. It fades up quickly and begins with 55 seconds of tape hiss before 15 seconds of indeterminate clattering that could be someone opening a door and pacing about, before settling down to another 80 seconds of rustle-punctuated hiss and concluding with a slow and poignant fadeout.
McCartney has been among leading voices in British music voicing concern at the ministers’ plans forge a new deal between creatives and AI companies such as Open AI, Google, Anthropic and Elon Musk’s xAI, which demand access to huge volumes of training information including text, images and music.
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