🔗 Share this article

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

Possible Boost for AI Development

Observers said the seeming leak could boost AI companies searching for material to develop their models.

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

“We have identified and disabled the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a external actor scraped public metadata and employed questionable methods to circumvent DRM protections.

Archive's Declared Mission and Concerns

Spotify does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

They claimed the music files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large data files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate

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

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

The group's website makes references to LibGen, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

A founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “create their own personal free equivalent of the service”. The executive said it could also enable technology firms to “train on modern music at a large volume”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a key issue between artists, authors and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.

Government Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government suggestion to let AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder signals. Almost every respondent to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for science, innovation and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.