Paul McCartney is releasing an almost entirely silent track in a protest against copyright theft by AI companies.
Is This What We Want?, an album released as part of a campaign against the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law, features the noise of empty studios and performance spaces. It was released on 25 February 2025 on streaming services, but the vinyl edition contains a bonus track by McCartney.
In late 2024, the UK government proposed changing copyright law to allow artificial intelligence companies to build their products using other people’s copyrighted work – music, artworks, text, and more – without a licence.The musicians on this album came together to protest this. The album consists of recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, representing the impact we expect the government’s proposals would have on musicians’ livelihoods.
All profits from the album are being donated to the charity Help Musicians.
Titled ‘(Bonus Track)’, McCartney’s contribution lasts 2:45 and features sounds from his studio. It will be his first new release since 2020’s McCartney III.
According to The Guardian, “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.”
Is This What We Want? will be released on vinyl on 8 December 2025.
‘(Bonus Track)’ is not the first Beatles-related silent track. ‘Nutopian International Anthem’ was a three-second silent track which closed the first half of John Lennon’s 1973 album Mind Games.
