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An activist group has stated to have scraped a vast number of songs from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly.

Potential Impetus for AI Training

Industry experts said the seeming data breach could boost AI companies searching for material to train their technology.

A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and album names. The company, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not constitute its entire catalog.

“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access identified a external actor collected public metadata and used questionable tactics to circumvent DRM protections.

Archive's Stated Goal and Concerns

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

The group claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing large digital files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and culture”.

Model Development and Copyright Battleground

A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, said the breached music would probably be used for training artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on illegally sourced data is sadly 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 alludes to LibGen, a huge online archive of pirated books that has allegedly been used by Meta to develop its systems.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own private free version of the service”. The executive said it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.

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

Policy Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Almost every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ concerns.

The secretary of state for science, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.