An activist organization has stated to have harvested millions of songs from the popular streaming service and is getting ready to publish them online.
Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development
Observers noted the seeming data breach could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for data to train their models.
A group called Anna’s Archive reported it had obtained 86 million audio tracks from the platform and 256 million entries of metadata such as artist and record names. Spotify, which carries more than 100 million tracks, stated that the breach did not represent its entire inventory.
“We have identified and disabled the malicious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” said a Spotify representative.
The Swedish company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a external actor scraped public metadata and used illicit methods to bypass DRM protections.
Group's Declared Goal and Worries
Spotify does not think the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.
The group claimed the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music streamed to by Spotify users and would be shared via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of exchanging large digital files online.
“Naturally the service 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 knowledge and culture”.
AI Training and Intellectual Property Debate
A composer and campaigner for defending artists’ copyright, remarked the breached music would likely be used for training AI models.
“Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.
The group's website alludes to LibGen, a huge online repository of pirated books that has reportedly been leveraged by Meta to develop its systems.
The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on the professional network that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of Spotify”. He said it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at a large volume”.
Intellectual property law has become a battleground between artists, writers and content creators on one side and AI companies on the other.
Policy Proposals and Responses
In the UK, creative professionals have protested against a ministerial suggestion to let AI companies utilize protected work without consent unless the rights holder opts out. Virtually every participant to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ apprehensions.
A government minister for science, research and development told parliament this month there was “little consensus” on the issue, noting that ministers would “take the time to get this correct”. The administration has pledged to make regulatory plans on AI and copyright by next year.
