A digital rights organization has stated to have harvested millions of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to publish them online.
Potential Impetus for AI Training
Industry experts noted the apparent data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for data to train their models.
A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the leak did not represent its full catalog.
“We have located and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a company representative.
The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access found a third party scraped public metadata and employed questionable tactics to circumvent DRM protections.
Archive's Stated Mission and Concerns
Spotify does not believe the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
The group asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing large data files online.
“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and culture”.
AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate
A composer and campaigner 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 stolen music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he said.
The group's website alludes to LibGen, a huge online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been used by Meta to develop its AI models.
The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “create their own personal free version of the service”. The executive added it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at a large volume”.
Intellectual property law has become a battleground between artists, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Considerations and Responses
Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government proposal to allow AI companies use protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has backed artists’ concerns.
A government minister for science, innovation and technology informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, adding 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.
