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A digital rights group has stated to have harvested millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to release them online.

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Industry experts said the apparent data breach could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their models.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the leak did not represent its full inventory.

“We have identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson.

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit methods to bypass DRM [digital rights management].

Group's Stated Mission and Concerns

Spotify does not believe the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

The group asserted the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of sharing large digital files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

Model Development and Intellectual Property Battleground

A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would likely be used for training AI models.

“Educating models on pirated data is sadly widespread 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 huge online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own personal free equivalent of the service”. He said it could also enable technology firms to “train on contemporary music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a battleground between artists, authors and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.

Policy Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a government proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the owner opts out. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for science, research and development told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The administration has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.