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An activist organization has claimed to have scraped a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to release them publicly.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Industry experts noted the apparent leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for data to train their technology.

A group known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million entries of metadata such as artist and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not represent its entire catalog.

“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a third party scraped public metadata and employed questionable tactics to circumvent DRM protections.

Archive's Declared Goal and Worries

The streaming service does not believe the audio taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

They claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of exchanging large data files online.

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

Model Development and Intellectual Property Battleground

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would probably be used for training artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on pirated data is sadly common in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he said.

The group's website makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that members of the public could in theory “create their own personal free equivalent of the service”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.

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

Government Considerations and Responses

In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to allow AI companies use copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder signals. Almost every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.