🔗 Share this article Advocacy Group Claims to Have Scraped Countless of Audio Tracks from the Streaming Giant An activist organization has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them publicly. Potential Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development Industry experts said the apparent data breach could aid artificial intelligence firms searching for material to train their technology. A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and record names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its full inventory. “We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson. The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access found a external actor scraped public metadata and used illicit methods to circumvent DRM protections. Archive's Declared Goal and Worries Spotify does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music. They claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of exchanging large data 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 “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture”. Model Development and Intellectual Property Battleground A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for developing AI models. “Educating models on illegally sourced data is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he stated. The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems. A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “create their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. He said it could also allow technology firms to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”. Intellectual property law has emerged as a battleground between creatives, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other. Government Proposals and Reactions Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a government proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the rights holder signals. Almost every participant to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ concerns. The secretary of state for technology, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.