Activist Group Claims to Have Extracted Millions of Audio Files from the Streaming Giant

A digital rights group has stated to have harvested millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to publish them online.

Possible Boost for AI Development

Observers said the apparent data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for data to train their models.

A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and record names. The company, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its entire inventory.

“We have identified and disabled the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access identified a third party collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM protections.

Group's Declared Goal and Worries

The streaming service does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

They claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.

“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would probably be used for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on pirated data is sadly common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up instructing AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “create their own private free version of the service”. He added it could also enable tech companies to “train on modern music at a large volume”.

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

Government Proposals and Reactions

Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a government suggestion to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.