An activist organization has stated to have scraped a vast number of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to publish them online.
Possible Impetus for AI Development
Observers said the apparent leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for data to train their models.
A group known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million rows of metadata such as artist and record names. The company, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its entire catalog.
“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.
The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a external actor collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM protections.
Archive's Declared Mission and Concerns
Spotify does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
The group asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of sharing large digital files online.
“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.
Model Development and Intellectual Property Debate
A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would probably be used for developing AI models.
“Training on illegally sourced material is sadly common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used instructing AI models,” he said.
The group's website makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to train its systems.
The co-founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own private free equivalent of the service”. He added it could also allow technology firms to “train on modern music at scale”.
Copyright has become a key issue between artists, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Considerations and Responses
In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial suggestion to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.
A government minister for science, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The administration has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.
