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A digital rights group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers noted the seeming leak could boost AI companies searching for data to train their models.

An entity called Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million rows of associated data such as artist and album names. The company, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the breach did not constitute its entire inventory.

“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” said a company spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access found a third party scraped public metadata and used questionable tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

Group's Stated Goal and Concerns

The streaming service does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to copyright-infringing 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 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,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s information and heritage”.

Model Development and Copyright Debate

A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ rights, said the breached music would likely be utilized for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Educating models on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up instructing AI models,” he stated.

The group's website alludes to LibGen, a vast online repository of copyrighted books that has allegedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own personal free version of the service”. The executive said it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.

Copyright has emerged as a key issue between artists, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Proposals and Reactions

In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for technology, innovation and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by March 2025.