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An activist organization has stated to have harvested a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to release them publicly.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development

Industry experts noted the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for data to train their technology.

An entity 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. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the leak did not constitute its full inventory.

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

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access found a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit methods to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Stated Goal and Worries

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

The group claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of exchanging large digital 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 frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s information and culture”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would likely be utilized for training artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on illegally sourced data is unfortunately common in the tech sector, so this stolen music is almost certain to end up instructing AI models,” he said.

The Anna’s Archive site alludes to a large online archive, a huge online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models.

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

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

Government Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, creative professionals have raised concerns against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every respondent to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for science, research and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.