🔗 Share this article Activist Collective Claims to Have Extracted Millions of Audio Files from the Streaming Giant A digital rights organization has claimed to have harvested millions of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them publicly. Potential Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development Observers noted the apparent data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to develop their models. A group called Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and record names. The company, which hosts more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not constitute its entire inventory. “We have identified and deactivated the malicious user accounts that engaged in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify representative. The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorised access found a third party collected public metadata and used questionable methods to bypass DRM protections. Group's Stated Goal and Concerns Spotify does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music. They claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘torrents’, a means of exchanging large data files online. “Naturally Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “safeguarding humanity’s information and culture”. AI Training and Copyright Battleground Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, said the breached music would likely be used for developing AI models. “Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately common in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he said. The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge online archive of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to train its AI models. A founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on LinkedIn that members of the public could in theory “create their own private free version of Spotify”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “train on modern music at scale”. Copyright has emerged as a battleground between creatives, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other. Policy Proposals and Responses Across Britain, artists and writers 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 idea has backed artists’ concerns. The secretary of state for science, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this right”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.