Coldplay

Formed in London in 1997 by Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman, and Will Champion, Coldplay grew from the wistful debut Parachutes (2000) into one of the best-selling music acts of all time, with more than 100 million albums sold and stadium tours that rank among the biggest in history.

Signing the Starmer letter

In May 2025, Coldplay joined more than 400 artists — alongside Elton John, Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, and Kate Bush — in an open letter urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to back Baroness Beeban Kidron’s amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill. The amendment would require AI developers to tell copyright holders which protected works they had used for training. The letter, whose text the band endorsed as signatories, argued that “creative copyright is the lifeblood of the creative industries” and that transparency would let developers and creators build licensing regimes “for human-created content well into the future.” The Lords passed the amendment 272–125, though the government continued to resist it.

The band’s stance is aimed at unlicensed training, not the technology itself. In 2024, Chris Martin gave his blessing — and personally helped train the model — when the band IDLES recreated Coldplay’s “Yellow” video with an AI-generated Martin singing their song “Grace,” a consensual deepfake celebrated as a playful use of the same tools the letter wants regulated.