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A digital rights organization has claimed to have scraped a vast number of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly.

Possible Impetus for AI Development

Industry experts said the apparent data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to develop their technology.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its full inventory.

“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a third party scraped public metadata and used questionable tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

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 recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

The group asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared 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,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”.

AI Training and Copyright Debate

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, said the breached music would likely be utilized for developing AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced data is sadly widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said.

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

A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own private free equivalent of Spotify”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has become a key issue between artists, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Considerations and Responses

Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.

The secretary of state for science, research and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.