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A digital rights organization has claimed to have harvested a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them publicly.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers noted the seeming leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to train their technology.

A group known as Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as performer and record names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not constitute its full catalog.

“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson.

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

Archive's Declared Goal and Concerns

Spotify does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

The group claimed the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of sharing large digital files online.

“Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would probably be used for developing AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.

The Anna’s Archive site alludes to LibGen, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its systems.

A founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own private free version of the service”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at a large volume”.

Copyright has become a key issue between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Proposals and Reactions

Across Britain, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government suggestion to let AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner opts out. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for science, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was “little 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.