An activist group has claimed to have scraped a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly.
Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training
Industry experts noted the apparent leak could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for data to train their models.
An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not represent its entire catalog.
“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” stated a company representative.
The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access identified a third party collected public metadata and used questionable tactics to circumvent DRM protections.
Group's Declared Goal and Concerns
Spotify does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
They asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of exchanging large digital 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 describes its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.
Model Development and Copyright Battleground
Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, 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 almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said.
The group's website alludes to LibGen, a vast online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been used by Meta to develop its AI models.
The co-founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own private free version of Spotify”. The executive said it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Intellectual property law has become a key issue between artists, authors and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.
Government Proposals and Responses
Across Britain, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner opts out. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ apprehensions.
A government minister for technology, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.
