A digital rights organization has claimed to have harvested millions of songs from Spotify and is preparing to release them publicly.
Potential Impetus for AI Training
Industry experts said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to train their technology.
A group known as Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from the platform and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not constitute its full inventory.
“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify representative.
The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, further explained that an inquiry into unauthorized access found a external actor scraped public metadata and used questionable methods to bypass DRM [digital rights management].
Archive's Stated Mission and Concerns
The streaming service does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.
They claimed the music files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, 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 beginning,” commented Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.
Model Development and Intellectual Property Battleground
Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ copyright, said the breached music would probably be used for developing AI models.
“Educating models on illegally sourced material is sadly widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to end up instructing AI models,” he stated.
The group's website makes references to LibGen, a huge online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to develop its AI models.
A founder of an artificial intelligence company wrote on the professional network that members of the public could in principle “create their own personal free equivalent of Spotify”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Copyright has emerged as a key issue between artists, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Considerations and Reactions
Across Britain, artists and writers have protested against a ministerial proposal to let AI companies use protected work without consent unless the rights holder signals. Almost every respondent to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ concerns.
A government minister for science, innovation and development informed parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “use the time to get this correct”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by next year.
