The UK government is reportedly considering a proposal that would allow AI companies to train their models on copyrighted music without needing permission from artists or rights holders.
According to a report in The Times on Friday (March 6), a “commercial research exception” is one of a number of proposals officials are preparing ahead of a parliamentary statement on copyright reform, due on March 18.
Under the proposal, AI developers would be free to use copyrighted material for training purposes without obtaining permission, but would need to secure licences from rights holders before bringing any resulting products to market.
According to The Times, the exception was initially put forward by Microsoft, Google and Meta, as well as a number of academics. The Times noted that creative industry groups have pushed back, arguing that such a framework would tilt the balance of power in favour of AI developers in any subsequent licensing negotiations.
Sophie Jones, Director of Strategy at the BPI, which represents the UK’s recorded music industry, described the reported commercial research exception as “deeply troubling”, telling Charting Gen AI that it “would give AI developers even more power to steal music for commercial purposes than the earlier mooted — and now discredited — TDM with opt-out.”
Jones added: “In the months since the government began its consultation on AI and copyright, numerous deals between music companies and AI developers have been struck and it has become abundantly clear that AI licensing can develop in a way which benefits the UK’s creative and AI sectors.
“We recommend that the government focuses on enabling this opportunity by implementing sensible record-keeping measures, rather than on an ill-conceived, damaging and unnecessary weakening of copyright that would hamper growth just as the licensing market is developing.”
Baroness Twycross, the culture minister, declined to rule out the commercial research exception when challenged by Conservative politicians last week, calling it ‘pre-emptive’ to do so.
However, The Times reports that sources close to the discussions believe Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall do not support the exception.
Ministers have already been forced to abandon a previous preferred option — an opt-out model that would have let AI companies scrape copyrighted material by default — following a campaign by the creative sector.
Last year, more than 400 artists and industry figures, including Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Shirley Bassey, signed a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urging his government to back proposed amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill that would require AI companies to be transparent about the copyrighted materials used to train their models.
In May 2025, the House of Lords voted 272 to 125 in favour of an amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill, tabled by Baroness Kidron, that would have required AI developers to disclose which copyrighted materials they used in training and to obtain consent from rights holders. However, the amendment was subsequently removed by the House of Commons, and the Act received Royal Assent in June 2025 without those provisions.
“Our creative industries face a clear and present danger from uncredited and unremunerated use of copyrighted material to train AI models.”
Baroness Keeley, Lords Communications and Digital Committee
On Friday (March 6), the Lords Communications and Digital Committee published a report warning that generative AI poses a serious threat to the creative industries, and concluded that a developer exception was neither “necessary or desirable.” You can read it in full here.
The report notes that the creative industries contributed £124 billion (USD $154.2bn at the average annual exchange rate published by the IRS) to the UK economy in 2023 and employed 2.4 million people, whereas the AI sector contributed just £12bn ($15.3bn) in 2024 and employed 86,000 people.
“Our creative industries face a clear and present danger from uncredited and unremunerated use of copyrighted material to train AI models,” said Committee Chair Baroness Keeley.
“Photographers, musicians, authors and publishers are seeing their work fed into AI models which then produce imitations that take employment and earning opportunities from the original creators.
“AI may contribute to our future economic growth, but the UK creative industries create jobs and economic value now.”
In addition, the report argues that weakening copyright protections to attract US tech companies would be a “race to the bottom.”
“The future for AI in the UK should be based on transparent and responsible use of training data,” concluded Baroness Keeley. “We are calling on the government to embrace the opportunities this presents, and to demonstrate its commitment to the UK’s gold-standard copyright regime and our outstanding creative industries in its forthcoming economic assessment and update on AI and copyright.”
A spokesperson for the UK government told The Times: “The government wants a copyright regime that values and protects human creativity, can be trusted, and unlocks innovation.
“We welcome the committee’s contributions, and we will continue to engage closely with parliament going forwards.”Music Business Worldwide
