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An activist group has stated to have harvested millions of tracks from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them online.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Development

Industry experts said the seeming leak could aid artificial intelligence firms looking for data to train their technology.

A group known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, confirmed that the breach did not represent its entire inventory.

“We have identified and disabled the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” said a company representative.

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a third party collected public metadata and used illicit tactics to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Stated Goal and Worries

The streaming service 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 copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

The group claimed the audio files represented 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large digital files online.

“Naturally the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, remarked the leaked music would probably be used for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Educating models on illegally sourced material is sadly common in the AI industry, so this accessed music is almost certain to be used instructing AI models,” he said.

The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online repository of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems.

A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of Spotify”. The executive said it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.

Copyright has become 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 raised concerns against a government proposal to let AI companies use protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Virtually every participant to a government call for evidence on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for technology, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.