A digital rights group has claimed to have harvested millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to publish them publicly.
Potential Impetus for AI Development
Observers said the seeming leak could boost AI companies searching for material to train their technology.
An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not constitute its full catalog.
“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson.
The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorised access identified a external actor collected public metadata and used questionable tactics to circumvent DRM protections.
Group's Declared Goal and Worries
The streaming service does not believe the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
The group claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a means of sharing large data 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 mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture”.
AI Training and Copyright Battleground
A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, said the breached music would probably be utilized for training AI models.
“Training on pirated material is unfortunately common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he said.
The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been used by Meta to develop its systems.
A founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of Spotify”. He said it could also enable tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Copyright has become a battleground between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Proposals and Reactions
Across Britain, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial suggestion to allow AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ concerns.
The secretary of state for technology, innovation and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.
