Advocacy Group Asserts to Have Extracted Millions of Music Files from the Streaming Giant

An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly.

Potential Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development

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

A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the leak did not constitute its full catalog.

“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify representative.

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a external actor scraped public metadata and used questionable methods to bypass DRM protections.

Archive's Stated Goal and Worries

Spotify does not believe the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

The group asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large digital files online.

“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.

Model Development and Copyright Debate

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would likely be used for training artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on illegally sourced material is sadly common in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he said.

The group's website makes references to LibGen, a vast online repository of copyrighted books that has reportedly been leveraged by Meta to train its AI models.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own private free version of Spotify”. The executive said it could also enable technology firms to “train on contemporary music at scale”.

Copyright has emerged as a key issue between artists, authors and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Considerations and Reactions

Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every respondent to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for technology, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.