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A digital rights organization has claimed to have harvested a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly.

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers said the apparent leak could aid AI companies looking for material to develop their models.

A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and record names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the breach did not represent its entire inventory.

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

The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a external actor scraped public metadata and employed questionable methods to circumvent DRM [digital rights management].

Group's Declared Goal and Concerns

The streaming service does not believe the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said 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 listened to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing large data files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”.

AI Training and Copyright Debate

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would probably be utilized for developing artificial intelligence systems.

“Training on pirated data is sadly common in the AI industry, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he said.

The group's website alludes to a large online archive, a vast online repository of copyrighted books that has allegedly been used by Meta to develop its systems.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that members of the public could in principle “build their own private free version of the service”. The executive added it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has become a battleground between artists, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.

Policy Proposals and Reactions

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

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