🔗 Share this article

A digital rights organization has claimed to have scraped a vast number of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them online.

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers noted the apparent data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for data to train their models.

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

“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify representative.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access identified a external actor scraped public metadata and employed questionable tactics to bypass DRM protections.

Archive's Stated Mission and Worries

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

They asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large data files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and culture”.

Model Development and Copyright Battleground

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

“Educating models on illegally sourced data is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.

The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by Meta to train its systems.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of the service”. The executive said it could also enable tech companies to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has become a battleground between artists, authors and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Considerations and Responses

Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner opts out. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has backed artists’ concerns.

The secretary of state for technology, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.