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A digital rights organization has stated to have scraped a vast number of songs from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them online.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers said the apparent data breach could aid AI companies searching for data to train their models.

A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as performer and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its entire inventory.

“We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a third party scraped public metadata and employed questionable methods to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Declared Goal and Worries

Spotify does not believe the audio 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 ‘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 method of sharing large digital files online.

“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

Model Development and Copyright Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, remarked the breached music would likely be utilized for training AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced material is sadly common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to end up training AI models,” he stated.

The Anna’s Archive site makes references to LibGen, a vast online archive of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. The executive added it could also enable tech companies to “train on modern music at a large volume”.

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

Policy Proposals and Reactions

Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed 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 committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.