Advocacy Group Claims to Have Scraped Millions of Audio Tracks from the Streaming Giant

A digital rights organization has stated to have scraped millions of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them online.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers said the seeming leak could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for material to train their technology.

A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the leak did not represent its full catalog.

“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a external actor collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

Group's Stated Goal and Concerns

Spotify does not believe the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

The group claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large data files online.

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

AI Training and Copyright Debate

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

“Training on pirated data is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he said.

The group's website alludes to LibGen, a huge online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to train its systems.

The co-founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own private free version of the service”. He added it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.

Copyright 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, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, research and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.