Activist Collective Claims to Have Extracted Millions of Music Tracks from Spotify

An activist group has claimed to have harvested millions of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them online.

Potential Boost for AI Development

Industry experts said the apparent data breach could boost AI companies searching for material to develop their technology.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, 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, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorized access identified a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit tactics to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Declared Goal and Worries

The streaming service does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

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

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and heritage”.

Model Development and Copyright Debate

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

“Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he said.

The group's website alludes to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by Meta to develop its systems.

The co-founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own personal free version of Spotify”. He added it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has become a key issue between creatives, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.

Policy Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the proposal has backed artists’ concerns.

The secretary of state for technology, research and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.