An activist group has stated to have harvested a vast number of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly.
Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development
Industry experts noted the seeming data breach could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.
A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries 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 catalog.
“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify spokesperson.
The Swedish company, 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 circumvent DRM protections.
Archive's Stated Goal and Concerns
Spotify does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.
They asserted the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large digital files online.
“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.
AI Training and Copyright Debate
A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ rights, said the leaked music would probably be used for training artificial intelligence systems.
“Training on pirated data is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.
The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a huge online repository of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by Meta to train its AI models.
The co-founder of an AI startup posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own private free equivalent of the service”. The executive said it could also enable tech companies to “train on modern music at a large volume”.
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
Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government proposal to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Almost every participant to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.
A government minister for technology, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The administration has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.
