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A digital rights group has stated to have harvested a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to release them publicly.

Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Industry experts noted the seeming leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for data to develop their models.

A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million rows of metadata such as performer and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, confirmed that the breach did not represent its full inventory.

“We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a Spotify spokesperson.

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

Group's Declared Mission and Concerns

The streaming service does not believe the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

The group asserted the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large data files online.

“Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s information and culture”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate

A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would likely be used for developing AI models.

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

The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models.

A founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own personal free equivalent of the service”. The executive added it could also enable tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a key issue between creatives, writers and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a government suggestion to let AI companies use copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner signals. Almost every respondent to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ concerns.

A government minister for technology, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.