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An activist organization has claimed to have harvested a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them publicly.

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers said the apparent data breach could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their models.

A group known as Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the leak did not represent its entire inventory.

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

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access found a third party scraped public metadata and used questionable methods to bypass DRM [digital rights management].

Archive's Declared Goal and Concerns

Spotify does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to copyright-infringing 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 streamed to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of sharing large digital files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and heritage”.

Model Development and Copyright Battleground

A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would likely be utilized for training AI models.

“Educating models on pirated data is unfortunately common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he stated.

The group's website alludes to LibGen, a vast online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of Spotify”. The executive added it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Copyright has become a battleground between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Proposals and Reactions

In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state 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 right”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.