Copyright isn’t dead in the age of AI, it’s key to growing UK creative industries
Copyright is not a brake on innovation. It is the market mechanism that turns British creativity into investment and the route to responsible AI, says Ed Vaizey
The creative industries are not a side hustle for the British economy. They are a serious growth engine. The UK’s music industry alone generates around £8bn in GVA and supports roughly 220,000 jobs. Ministers are right to call the sector a priority.
Despite this, I have been struck by how quickly the debate about AI and copyright over the last 12 months slipped into a false choice: either we let technology hoover up creative work for free, or we miss out on innovation.
As someone who has spent a good chunk of my political life banging the drum for Britain’s creative and tech sectors, I have a strong sense of deja vu here. In the 2010s, when I served as minister for culture and digital economy in David Cameron’s government, we heard the same chorus (though back then it was about illegal file-sharing): copyright is outdated and infringement is the price of modernity.
It wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now. In reality, copyright is the market mechanism that underpins creativity and turns it into a precious asset: something you can buy, sell, license, finance and build a business around. If we want Britain to be both an AI superpower and a creative powerhouse, the answer is to recognise the market making power of copyright and support commercial licensing at speed and at scale.
Copyright is the market mechanism that underpins creativity and turns it into a precious asset: something you can buy, sell, license, finance and build a business around
A new report ‘Driving UK Growth: the role of licensing music in the age of AI’ has been published by WPI Economics and the BPI (British Phonographic Industry). It identifies clearly the opportunity for commerce and economic growth that comes not from sweeping away copyright, but from supporting it and licensing it.
It reveals that just as in the 2010s, when the commercial licensing of copyright gave us Spotify, Amazon Prime, and Netflix, among other services, we are beginning to see similar deals emerging in the field of AI.
Human Native, Klay Vision, Voice Swap, and Sound Patrol are some of the new services profiled in the report that provide new AI tools and infrastructure – all fully and ethically licensed by some of the largest global music copyright holders.
Just the beginning
And evidence suggests this is just the beginning. Nearly 80 per cent of independent record companies surveyed see licensing music for use in AI as key to future growth, but less than 20 per cent are actively licensing at the moment, pointing to enormous growth potential of this embryonic new market.
So, the question ministers today should be asking is simple. What do we need to do to accelerate the growth of this nascent market to the mutual benefit of creators, tech entrepreneurs, consumers and music fans? The answer is to stop rehashing tired old arguments about copyright having had its day (it absolutely hasn’t) and start with the basics of what makes these deals possible: legal certainty that comes from standing firmly behind the application of UK law; and meaningful transparency about what is used in AI training.
These are golden keys to accelerating dialogue and deal-making between creative and tech companies. Get those foundations right and Britain can lead this global transformation, not by picking a side, but by making the market work for all.
Lord Vaizey of Didcot is a Conservative peer and former UK minister for Culture and the Digital Economy