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A digital rights organization has claimed to have scraped millions of songs from Spotify and is preparing to publish them publicly.

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Training

Industry experts noted the seeming leak could boost artificial intelligence firms searching for material to train their models.

An entity called Anna’s Archive said it had obtained 86 million music files from Spotify and 256 million rows of metadata such as artist and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not constitute its full catalog.

“We have identified and deactivated the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” stated a company spokesperson.

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an inquiry into unauthorized access identified a third party collected public metadata and used questionable methods to bypass DRM [digital rights management].

Archive's Declared Mission and Worries

Spotify does not believe the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for providing links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

They asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large data files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic beginning,” said Anna’s Archive, which frames its purpose as “safeguarding humanity’s knowledge and heritage”.

AI Training and Copyright Debate

Ed Newton-Rex for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for training artificial intelligence systems.

“Educating models on illegally sourced data is unfortunately widespread in the AI industry, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he said.

The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online archive of copyrighted books that has allegedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its systems.

A founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in theory “create their own private free version of Spotify”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has emerged as a battleground between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.

Government Proposals and Reactions

In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies use protected work without permission unless the owner signals. Almost every respondent to a government call for evidence on the proposal has backed artists’ concerns.

A government minister for technology, research and technology told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the matter, adding that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has committed to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.