A digital rights group has claimed to have scraped a vast number of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly.
Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training
Observers noted the seeming data breach could aid AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.
A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its full inventory.
“We have located and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify representative.
The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a external actor scraped public metadata and employed questionable tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management].
Archive's Stated Mission and Concerns
Spotify does not believe the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
They asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a method of exchanging large digital 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 describes its mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture”.
AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground
A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, remarked the leaked music would likely be utilized for training artificial intelligence systems.
“Training on illegally sourced data is unfortunately common in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said.
The Anna’s Archive site makes references to a large online archive, a vast online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been leveraged by Meta to develop 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 equivalent of Spotify”. He added it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Intellectual property law has become a key issue between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.
Policy Considerations and Responses
In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a government suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.
The secretary of state for technology, research and development informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, noting that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.
