🔗 Share this article Activist Group Claims to Have Extracted Countless of Music Tracks from Spotify A digital rights group has claimed to have scraped millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to release them publicly. Potential Impetus for AI Development Industry experts noted the apparent data breach could boost AI companies searching for data to develop their technology. An entity known as Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and album names. The company, which carries more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its full catalog. “We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify representative. The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a external actor scraped public metadata and used questionable tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management]. Group's Declared Mission and Worries Spotify does not think the music taken 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 streamed 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 great start,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”. Model Development and Copyright Debate Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would probably be used for developing AI models. “Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up training AI models,” he said. The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been used by Meta to develop its systems. The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “create their own personal free version of Spotify”. The executive added it could also enable tech companies to “educate models on contemporary music at a large volume”. Copyright has become a battleground between artists, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other. Government Considerations and Responses In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns. A government minister for technology, research and technology 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 regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.