🔗 Share this article Activist Collective Asserts to Have Extracted Millions of Audio Files from the Streaming Giant An activist group has stated to have harvested millions of songs from Spotify and is preparing to release them online. Possible Impetus for AI Training Observers said the apparent data breach could boost AI companies searching for material to develop their models. A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its entire inventory. “We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” stated a Spotify representative. The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a external actor scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM protections. Archive's Stated Mission and Concerns The streaming service does not think the audio 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 ‘historical repository’ for music. The group claimed the music files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large digital files online. “Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”. Model Development and Copyright Battleground A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ rights, said the leaked music would probably be used for developing artificial intelligence systems. “Training on pirated data is sadly common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to end up instructing AI models,” he stated. The group's website alludes to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its systems. A founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own private free version of the service”. He added it could also enable tech companies to “educate models on contemporary music at scale”. Copyright has emerged as a battleground between artists, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other. Government Proposals and Responses In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ concerns. A government minister for science, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, 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.