Activist Collective Claims to Have Scraped Millions of Music Tracks from the Streaming Giant

A digital rights group has claimed to have harvested millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly.

Possible Impetus for AI Development

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

A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its full inventory.

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

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access found a external actor collected public metadata and used questionable methods to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Stated Mission and Concerns

The streaming service does not think the audio acquired 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 ‘preservation archive’ for music.

They claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing 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 culture”.

Model Development and Intellectual Property Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on illegally sourced material is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he stated.

The Anna’s Archive site alludes to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “build their own private free version of the service”. He added it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary 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 Proposals and Responses

Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

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