A digital rights group has stated to have harvested millions of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them online.
Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development
Industry experts noted the apparent data breach could boost AI companies searching for data to train their technology.
An entity called Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 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, stated that the breach did not constitute its full inventory.
“We have located and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.
The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access found a third party collected public metadata and used questionable tactics to bypass DRM protections.
Archive's Declared Mission and Concerns
The streaming service does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
They asserted the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of exchanging large data 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 information and culture”.
AI Training and Copyright Battleground
Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ copyright, said the breached music would probably be utilized for training AI models.
“Educating models on illegally sourced material is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to end up training AI models,” he stated.
The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to train its AI models.
The co-founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in theory “build their own private free equivalent of the service”. He added it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.
Copyright has emerged as a battleground between artists, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.
Policy Considerations and Reactions
In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to allow AI companies use protected work without permission unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ concerns.
The secretary of state for technology, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.
