The Ivors Academy urges Irish government to "use EU presidency to lead on AI protections for songwriters and composers"

The Ivors Academy has called on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to use the EU presidency to introduce protections from AI for songwriters and composers.

Ireland has assumed the EU presidency from July 1 until December 31, 2026. The presidency gives the government the power to negotiate and close EU legislation, steering the EU agenda to best suit the 27 member states, including Ireland.

The Ivors Academy are calling for legislation to protect and empower music creators, as the leading organisation for songwriters and composers in Ireland and the UK. Their mission is to ensure artists get fair compensation for their work.

The CEO Roberto Neri has written to the Taoiseach to mitigate the negative impact of generative AI on musicians.

"The Irish Government has a unique opportunity to protect songwriters and composers" says Neri, "We need authorization, remuneration and transparency."

They are appealing to the government to introduce a framework of legislation for authorization, remuneration and transparency for musicians who opt-in their work for AI licensing. Legislation is necessary to protect creators and their ability to refuse without fear of penalty or as a condition for a new deal signing.

They are requesting protection for "songwriters and composers from deep fakes and unauthorised digital replicas by introducing new personality rights for creators."

"Require AI services to introduce transparency", properly labelling AI music for the consumer's benefit and clear about the music used to train their models.

AI is a threat to music creators, according to research by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC). Revenues could drop by almost a quarter by 2028, accumulating to a potential loss of €10 billion over five years.

Last year, protests against the proposed changes around copyright law for artificial intelligence in the UK saw Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Damon Albarn among more than 1,000 musicians that came together to record a silent album.