Activist Collective Asserts to Have Scraped Millions of Music Files from the Streaming Giant
An activist organization has stated to have harvested a vast number of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to release them publicly.
Possible Boost for AI Training
Observers noted the apparent leak could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for data to develop their technology.
An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not constitute its entire inventory.
“We have identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.
The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access identified a third party collected public metadata and employed questionable tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].
Archive's Declared Goal and Concerns
Spotify does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.
The group asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a means of sharing 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 “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”.
Model Development and Copyright Debate
Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, said the breached music would likely be used for developing artificial intelligence systems.
“Training on pirated data is unfortunately common in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up training AI models,” he stated.
The Anna’s Archive site alludes to LibGen, a vast online repository of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by Meta to develop its systems.
The co-founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “create their own private free equivalent of the service”. The executive said it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Copyright has become a battleground between artists, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.
Government Considerations and Reactions
In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.
The secretary of state for technology, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.