🔗 Share this article

An activist group has stated to have scraped a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to publish them publicly.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Industry experts said the seeming data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for data to develop their technology.

An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of metadata such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its entire inventory.

“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” stated a Spotify spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access found a external actor scraped public metadata and employed questionable methods to bypass DRM protections.

Archive's Stated Goal and Worries

Spotify does not think the music taken 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 ‘preservation archive’ for music.

The group asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing large data files online.

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

AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground

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

“Training on illegally sourced data is sadly widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up training AI models,” he stated.

The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by Meta to develop its AI models.

The co-founder of an AI startup posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own personal free version of Spotify”. He said it could also enable tech companies to “train on modern music at a large volume”.

Intellectual property law has become a key issue between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Considerations and Responses

In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner opts out. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for technology, research and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.