A digital rights group has claimed to have harvested millions of songs from Spotify and is getting ready to release them publicly.
Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development
Observers said the apparent leak could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for material to train their technology.
An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its full inventory.
“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” stated a company representative.
The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access found a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management].
Archive's Stated Mission and Concerns
The streaming service does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released 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 claimed the audio files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large data files online.
“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.
Model Development and Copyright Debate
A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would probably be used for training AI models.
“Training on pirated material is sadly widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he said.
The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a huge online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its AI models.
A founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “create their own private free version of Spotify”. He added it could also enable tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”.
Intellectual property law has become a battleground between artists, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Considerations and Reactions
In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner opts out. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.
The secretary of state for technology, innovation 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 government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.
