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

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers said the apparent leak could aid AI companies looking for material to train their technology.

A group known as Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the leak did not constitute its entire inventory.

“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” stated a Spotify spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a external actor collected public metadata and employed questionable methods to circumvent DRM protections.

Group's Stated Goal and Worries

The streaming service does not think the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been released 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 asserted the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.

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

AI Training and Copyright Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, said the leaked music would probably be utilized for developing AI models.

“Educating models on illegally sourced material is unfortunately common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site alludes to a large online archive, a vast online repository of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by Meta to develop its AI models.

A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “build their own private free version of Spotify”. He added it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on contemporary music at scale”.

Copyright has emerged as a key issue between artists, writers and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other.

Government Proposals and Responses

Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a government suggestion to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for science, innovation and development 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 regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.