An activist group has claimed to have harvested a vast number of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them online.
Potential Boost for AI Training
Observers said the seeming leak could boost AI companies looking for data to train their technology.
An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the breach did not represent its entire inventory.
“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.
The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access found a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit methods to bypass DRM protections.
Group's Declared Goal and Concerns
Spotify does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
They claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of sharing large digital files online.
“Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.
AI Training and Copyright Battleground
A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, said the breached music would probably be used for developing AI models.
“Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he said.
The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a huge online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to train its systems.
A founder of an AI startup posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own private free equivalent of Spotify”. He said it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on contemporary music at scale”.
Copyright has emerged as a battleground between artists, authors and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.
Government Proposals and Responses
In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Almost every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has backed artists’ concerns.
A government minister for science, innovation and technology informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.
