🔗 Share this article Advocacy Collective Claims to Have Scraped Countless of Music Files from Spotify A digital rights organization has claimed to have scraped a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is getting ready to publish them publicly. Potential Boost for AI Development Observers said the seeming data breach could boost AI companies searching for data to develop their models. A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as artist and album names. The company, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not constitute its entire inventory. “We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” stated a company representative. The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access identified a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management]. Group's Stated Mission and Worries Spotify does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to copyright-infringing books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music. They asserted the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing large data files online. “Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s information and heritage”. AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, said the breached music would probably be used for training AI models. “Training on illegally sourced material is sadly common in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he stated. The group's website alludes to LibGen, a vast online archive of pirated books that has allegedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to train its systems. A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “create their own personal free version of the service”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”. Copyright has emerged as a battleground between creatives, authors and creatives on one side and tech giants on the other. Policy Proposals and Responses Across Britain, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial proposal to allow AI companies use protected work without permission unless the rights holder opts out. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions. The secretary of state for science, research and development told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The administration has committed to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.