🔗 Share this article

An activist organization has claimed to have harvested a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them publicly.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Observers noted the seeming data breach could aid AI companies looking for material to develop their models.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its entire inventory.

“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a third party scraped public metadata and employed questionable tactics to circumvent DRM protections.

Archive's Stated Goal and Concerns

The streaming service does not believe the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

The group asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large digital files online.

“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would likely be utilized for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Educating models on pirated data is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a huge online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been used by Meta to develop its AI models.

The co-founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own personal free version of the service”. The executive said it could also enable tech companies to “educate models on contemporary music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has become a battleground between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Proposals and Responses

Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Almost every respondent to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for technology, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The administration has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.