A digital rights group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them publicly.
Potential Impetus for AI Training
Observers said the seeming data breach could aid AI companies looking for data to train their technology.
An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and album names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its full catalog.
“We have located and deactivated the malicious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” said a company spokesperson.
The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit methods to bypass DRM protections.
Group's Stated Mission and Worries
Spotify does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
The group claimed the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.
“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” said Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture”.
AI Training and Copyright Battleground
Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, said the breached music would probably be used for training artificial intelligence systems.
“Training on pirated data is sadly common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is almost certain to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.
The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a vast online repository of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its AI models.
A founder of an AI startup wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “create their own private free equivalent of the service”. He added it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on contemporary music at scale”.
Intellectual property law has emerged as a key issue between creatives, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Proposals and Reactions
Across Britain, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ apprehensions.
A government minister for technology, research and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.
