Grammy-winning Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab has called for musicians to receive fair compensation whenever their recordings train artificial intelligence (AI) models or generate new music, arguing that artists should receive payment for the use of their work.
In two Instagram stories, Aftab shared campaign messages from United Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW), a trade union representing music industry professionals, highlighting the need for transparency, proper labelling and fair remuneration as AI-generated music becomes increasingly prevalent.
The first post called for clear labelling of AI-generated recordings across the music industry, including by software developers, record labels, studios, distributors and retailers. The campaign argues that listeners should distinguish music created using AI from recordings made by human artists.
Sharing the message, Aftab highlighted how musicians’ work could develop AI systems, writing: “Even if you don’t use AI to make music - it is going to use your music to make AI music!! So let’s get the rules right and get on with it.”
The singer also endorsed calls for paying artists when their recordings train AI systems and when the resulting technology generates new music.
In her second story, Aftab argued that compensation should cover both the initial use of music to train AI models and the subsequent use of what those systems have learnt.
“The artist should get paid bec AI has already used my music to train itself, aka usage,” she wrote, adding that artists should also receive payment whenever AI draws on that learning to produce new music, which she described as “derivative work”.
