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A digital rights organization has claimed to have harvested a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to release them publicly.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Observers said the seeming data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for data to train their technology.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its entire catalog.

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

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a third party collected public metadata and used questionable methods to circumvent DRM protections.

Archive's Declared Mission and Concerns

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

The group asserted the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.

“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, said the breached music would likely be used for training AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced material is sadly common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to train its systems.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own personal free version of Spotify”. The executive said it could also allow tech companies to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a key issue between artists, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Proposals and Responses

Across Britain, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ concerns.

The secretary of state for technology, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.