Songwriters, including Paul Williams, Jimmy Tan, and Terry Lewis, will meet with members of Congress tomorrow, September 21. Together, they are to discuss the use of artificial intelligence in music.
They plan on meeting for the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers, Stand with Songwriters Day. According to Pitchfork, the songwriters mentioned above are seeking legislation that pertains to the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers’ six principles:
- Human Creators First: Prioritizing rights and compensation for human creativity
- Consent: Protecting the right to decide whether one’s work is included in an AI training license
- Compensation: Making sure creators are paid fairly when their work is used in ANY way by AI, which is best accomplished in a free market, NOT with government-mandated licensing that essentially eliminates consent
- Credit when creators’ works are used in new AI-generated music
- Transparency in identifying AI vs. human-generated works and retaining metadata
- Global Consistency: An even playing field that values intellectual property across the global music and data ecosystem
The meeting that will take place tomorrow is a continuation of tonight’s “We Write the Songs” concert at the Library of Congress. There will be performances from the said songwriters.
Songwriter Paul Williams has vocalized his opinions on using artificial intelligence in music production. He said: “True music comes from deep within our souls; it’s human-first, heart songs, revealing and often healing our human condition. Now we need Congress to put humans first, stand with songwriters and protect our rights to our own musical works. Don’t give them away to AI.”
Williams has since written lyrics for Texas-native singer Gary Clark Jr. in his song “Valley of Last Resort” in 2020. The former has also written songs for other famous films, including The Muppets’ Christmas Carol in 1992.
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