🔗 Share this article Activist Group Asserts to Have Extracted Millions of Audio Tracks from the Streaming Giant An activist organization has stated to have harvested a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them publicly. Possible Boost for AI Development Industry experts noted the seeming data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for data 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 associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the leak did not constitute its full catalog. “We have identified and disabled the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson. The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a third party collected public metadata and used questionable methods to circumvent DRM protections. Group's Stated Goal and Worries Spotify does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music. The group asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, 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”. AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for developing AI models. “Training on pirated material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he said. The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a huge online repository of copyrighted books that has reportedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its systems. A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “build their own private free equivalent of Spotify”. He said it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”. Copyright has emerged as a battleground between artists, authors and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other. Policy Proposals and Reactions In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Almost every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ concerns. A government minister for science, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.