Advocacy Collective Asserts to Have Extracted Millions of Audio Files from Spotify

A digital rights group has stated to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly.

Possible Boost for AI Development

Observers noted the apparent leak could boost AI companies searching for data to develop their models.

A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its full inventory.

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

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a third party collected public metadata and used illicit methods to bypass DRM protections.

Archive's Stated Goal and Worries

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

They asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing 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 mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would likely be used for training AI models.

“Training on pirated material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he stated.

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

A founder of an AI startup posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own personal free version of the service”. The executive said it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on contemporary music at scale”.

Copyright has emerged as a battleground between artists, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Proposals and Responses

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

The secretary of state for technology, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.