🔗 Share this article Advocacy Group Asserts to Have Extracted Millions of Audio Tracks from the Streaming Giant A digital rights group has claimed to have scraped a vast number of songs from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly. Possible Impetus for AI Development Industry experts said the apparent data breach could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for material to train their models. An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its entire catalog. “We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a company representative. The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorized access identified a external actor collected public metadata and used illicit methods to circumvent DRM [digital rights management]. Group's Declared Goal and Concerns Spotify does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music. They asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large digital files online. “Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”. Model Development and Copyright Battleground A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would probably be used for developing artificial intelligence systems. “Educating models on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he stated. The Anna’s Archive site alludes to LibGen, a huge online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been used by Meta to train its AI models. A founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that members of the public could in theory “create their own personal free equivalent of the service”. The executive added it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at scale”. Copyright has become a battleground between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other. Government Proposals and Reactions In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government proposal to allow AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns. A government minister for technology, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, 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.