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

An activist group has stated to have harvested a vast number of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to release them online.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Observers noted the seeming data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to train their technology.

An entity called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its entire catalog.

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

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access found a third party collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM protections.

Group's Stated Mission and Concerns

The streaming service 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, 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 method of sharing large digital files online.

“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “preserving humanity’s information and heritage”.

AI Training and Copyright Debate

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, said the breached music would likely be used for training AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced data is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site alludes to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own private free version of the service”. The executive said it could also allow tech companies to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.

Copyright has become a battleground between creatives, authors and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.

Government Proposals and Reactions

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

The secretary of state for science, research and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.