🔗 Share this article

A digital rights organization has stated to have harvested millions of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to release them online.

Potential Boost for AI Training

Observers noted the apparent data breach could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for material to develop their models.

A group called Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and album names. The company, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the leak did not represent its full inventory.

“We have identified and disabled the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a company spokesperson.

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

Archive's Stated Mission and Worries

Spotify does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to pirated books, said 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 its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large data files online.

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

AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, remarked the breached music would likely be used for training AI models.

“Educating models on pirated data is sadly common in the tech sector, so this stolen music is almost certain to end up instructing AI models,” he said.

The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge online repository of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its systems.

The co-founder of an AI startup posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own personal free equivalent of the service”. The executive added it could also enable tech companies to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.

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

Policy Proposals and Reactions

Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a government proposal to let AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for science, research and development informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.