A digital rights organization has claimed to have harvested millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to publish them publicly.
Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development
Observers noted the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to train their models.
An entity known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the leak did not represent its full inventory.
“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.
The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a third party collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM protections.
Archive's Declared Mission and Concerns
Spotify does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
They claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of sharing large data files online.
“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”.
Model Development and Copyright Debate
A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would probably be used for training AI models.
“Training on pirated material is sadly common in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he stated.
The group's website makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been used by Meta to train its AI models.
The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of the service”. The executive added it could also enable tech companies to “train on contemporary music at scale”.
Copyright has emerged as a battleground between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.
Government Proposals and Reactions
In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.
The secretary of state for science, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.
