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An activist group has claimed to have harvested a vast number of songs from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly.

Possible Impetus for AI Training

Industry experts noted the seeming leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to train their models.

A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million rows of associated data such as performer and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its full catalog.

“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit methods to bypass DRM [digital rights management].

Archive's Stated Mission and Concerns

Spotify does not think the audio acquired 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 claimed the audio files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large data files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and culture”.

AI Training and Copyright Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, remarked the breached music would likely be used for training AI models.

“Training on pirated material is unfortunately common in the AI industry, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site alludes to a large online archive, a vast online archive of pirated books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own personal free equivalent of the service”. The executive said it could also allow technology firms to “train on contemporary music at scale”.

Copyright has emerged as a key issue between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Considerations and Responses

Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies use protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.