🔗 Share this article Activist Collective Claims to Have Extracted Millions of Music Files from Spotify A digital rights organization has claimed to have harvested millions of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to publish them publicly. Possible Boost for AI Training Industry experts noted the apparent data breach could boost AI companies looking for material to train their technology. A group called Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million rows of metadata such as artist and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the leak did not represent its entire catalog. “We have located and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson. The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a external actor collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management]. Group's Declared Mission and Worries Spotify 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 asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large digital files online. “Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”. Model Development and Copyright Battleground Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for developing AI models. “Educating models on pirated data is unfortunately common in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he stated. The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its systems. A founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own private free equivalent of Spotify”. The executive added it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at scale”. Copyright has become a key issue between artists, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other. Policy Considerations and Responses Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies use protected work without consent unless the owner opts out. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ concerns. A government minister for technology, research and technology 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 pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.