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A digital rights group has claimed to have scraped a vast number of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Industry experts noted the apparent data breach could boost AI companies searching for material to train their technology.

An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the leak did not represent its entire inventory.

“We have located and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access identified a external actor collected public metadata and used questionable tactics to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Stated Mission and Worries

The streaming service does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

The group asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large data files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

AI Training and Copyright Battleground

A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be used for developing AI models.

“Training on pirated data is sadly common in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up training AI models,” he stated.

The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

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 equivalent of Spotify”. The executive said it could also enable technology firms to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a key issue between creatives, authors and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Proposals and Reactions

In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a government proposal to allow AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The administration has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.