Advocacy Collective Claims to Have Scraped Countless of Audio Tracks from the Streaming Giant
An activist group has claimed to have harvested millions of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them publicly.
Potential Boost for AI Training
Industry experts said the apparent leak could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for data to train their technology.
An entity known as 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, stated that the breach did not represent its full catalog.
“We have located and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify representative.
The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access found a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit methods to circumvent DRM protections.
Archive's Declared Goal and Worries
The streaming service does not believe the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
They claimed the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large data files online.
“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”.
Model Development and Intellectual Property Debate
A composer and campaigner for protecting 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 almost certain to end up instructing AI models,” he stated.
The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been used by Meta to develop its systems.
A founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “create their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. The executive added it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Intellectual property law has emerged as a key issue between artists, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Considerations and Responses
Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ apprehensions.
The secretary of state for technology, research and development informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The government has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.
