🔗 Share this article Advocacy Collective Claims to Have Scraped Countless of Music Files from Spotify A digital rights organization has stated to have harvested a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them online. Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training Observers noted the apparent leak could aid AI companies searching for data to train their technology. A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of associated data such as performer and record names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the leak did not constitute its entire catalog. “We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify representative. The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a external actor scraped public metadata and employed questionable tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management]. Group's Declared Mission and Worries The streaming service does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music. They asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large data files online. “Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”. Model Development and Copyright Debate A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, said the leaked music would likely be used for developing artificial intelligence systems. “Educating models on illegally sourced data is unfortunately common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used training AI models,” he stated. The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its systems. A founder of an AI startup posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. He added it could also enable tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”. Copyright has emerged as a key issue between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other. Government Proposals and Reactions Across Britain, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Almost every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has backed artists’ apprehensions. The secretary of state for science, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.