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An activist group has stated to have scraped millions of songs from Spotify and is preparing to release them online.

Potential Impetus for AI Training

Industry experts noted the apparent leak could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for data to develop their models.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as performer and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the leak did not constitute its full catalog.

“We have identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access found a third party collected public metadata and employed questionable methods to bypass DRM protections.

Archive's Declared Mission and Concerns

Spotify does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

They asserted 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 digital files online.

“Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for training AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to a large online archive, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its systems.

The co-founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of Spotify”. The executive said it could also enable technology firms to “train on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a battleground between creatives, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Proposals and Responses

In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the idea has backed artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for technology, innovation and development told 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 next year.