🔗 Share this article

An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them publicly.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Observers noted the seeming data breach could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for material to develop their models.

A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not represent its entire catalog.

“We have located and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access found a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit tactics to circumvent DRM protections.

Archive's Stated Goal and Worries

The streaming service does not believe the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

The group asserted the music 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 fantastic start,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.

Model Development and Copyright Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would probably be utilized for training AI models.

“Educating models on illegally sourced material is sadly common in the tech sector, so this stolen music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he said.

The group's website makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that members of the public could in theory “create their own private free equivalent of the service”. He added it could also enable technology firms to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.

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

Government Proposals and Responses

In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner opts out. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for science, research and development informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding 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.