🔗 Share this article

An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them online.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers said the apparent leak could aid AI companies searching for material to develop their technology.

An entity called Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million rows of metadata such as artist and record names. The company, which carries more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its full catalog.

“We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” stated a company representative.

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a third party collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management].

Group's Stated Goal and Concerns

Spotify does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

They asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.

“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and culture”.

AI Training and Copyright Battleground

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would probably be used for training AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced data is sadly common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to a large online archive, a vast online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own private free version of Spotify”. The executive added it could also allow technology firms to “train on contemporary music at scale”.

Copyright has emerged as a battleground between artists, writers and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.

Government Considerations and Responses

Across Britain, creative professionals have protested against a government suggestion to allow AI companies use protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for technology, research and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.