Activist Group Asserts to Have Scraped Countless of Audio Tracks from Spotify

A digital rights group has claimed to have harvested millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them online.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Training

Industry experts noted the apparent leak could aid artificial intelligence firms searching for data to train their models.

An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and record names. The company, which carries more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the leak did not represent its entire inventory.

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

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit methods to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

Archive's Declared Goal and Worries

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

They asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large data files online.

“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

AI Training and Copyright Debate

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

“Training on pirated material is sadly common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used instructing AI models,” he said.

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

A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “build their own private free equivalent of Spotify”. He added it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Copyright has become a battleground between artists, authors and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Considerations and Reactions

Across Britain, artists and writers have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to allow AI companies use protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.