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A digital rights organization has stated to have scraped a vast number of tracks from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them publicly.

Possible Impetus for Artificial Intelligence Training

Observers said the apparent data breach could aid AI companies searching for data to develop their models.

An entity called Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million rows of associated data such as performer and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the breach did not constitute its entire catalog.

“We have identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that were involved in unlawful scraping,” stated a company representative.

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access identified a third party collected public metadata and used illicit methods to circumvent DRM protections.

Archive's Declared Goal and Worries

The streaming service does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public 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.

They claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large data files online.

“Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s information and culture”.

AI Training and Intellectual Property Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, remarked the leaked music would probably be used for developing AI models.

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

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

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own private free equivalent of the service”. He said it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

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

Policy Considerations and Responses

In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without consent unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the proposal has supported artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for science, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.