Activist Group Asserts to Have Extracted Millions of Music Tracks from the Streaming Giant
An activist organization has stated to have harvested a vast number of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to release them online.
Potential Boost for AI Development
Observers said the apparent leak could aid artificial intelligence firms searching for data to train their technology.
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 record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not constitute its full inventory.
“We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company spokesperson.
The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a external actor collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management].
Group's Stated Mission and Worries
Spotify does not think the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.
They asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large digital files online.
“Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”.
AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate
A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be used for training AI models.
“Training on illegally sourced data is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.
The Anna’s Archive site alludes to a large online archive, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models.
The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “create their own private free equivalent of the service”. The executive added it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Copyright has become a battleground between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Considerations and Reactions
Across Britain, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.
The secretary of state for technology, research and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.