🔗 Share this article Activist Collective Asserts to Have Extracted Millions of Music Tracks from the Streaming Giant An activist group has claimed to have scraped a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly. Potential Impetus for AI Training Observers noted the apparent data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to train their models. A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its full catalog. “We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify representative. The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access found a third party collected public metadata and employed questionable tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management]. Archive's Stated Mission and Concerns The streaming service does not believe the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, said 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 listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large data files online. “Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and culture”. AI Training and Copyright Debate A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would probably be utilized for developing AI models. “Training on pirated material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said. The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge online repository of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems. A founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own private free version of the service”. The executive added it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on contemporary music at a large volume”. Copyright has emerged as a key issue between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other. Policy Proposals and Reactions In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a government proposal to let AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has backed artists’ concerns. The secretary of state for science, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.