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An activist organization has claimed to have harvested a vast number of songs from Spotify and is preparing to release them publicly.

Possible Impetus for AI Development

Observers said the apparent leak could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for data to develop their technology.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million entries of associated data such as artist and album names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its full inventory.

“We have located and disabled the malicious user accounts that were involved in illegal scraping,” stated a Spotify spokesperson.

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM protections.

Group's Stated Goal and Concerns

Spotify does not believe the music taken 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 ‘preservation archive’ for music.

They claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a means of exchanging large data files online.

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

AI Training and Copyright Battleground

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ copyright, remarked the leaked music would probably be used for developing AI models.

“Educating models on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is almost certain to end up instructing AI models,” he stated.

The Anna’s Archive site alludes to a large online archive, a huge online repository of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by the parent company of Facebook to develop its systems.

A founder of an AI startup posted on the professional network that members of the public could in theory “build their own personal free version of Spotify”. The executive said it could also allow technology firms to “educate models on modern music at a large volume”.

Copyright has become a battleground between artists, authors and creatives on one side and AI companies on the other.

Policy Considerations and Reactions

In the UK, artists and writers have protested against a government suggestion to let AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Almost every participant to a government call for evidence on the idea has backed artists’ apprehensions.

The secretary of state for technology, research and technology informed parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the issue, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this right”. The government has pledged to make policy proposals on AI and copyright by March 2025.