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An activist group has stated to have harvested millions of tracks from the popular streaming service and is preparing to release them online.

Possible Boost for Artificial Intelligence Development

Observers noted the seeming leak could boost artificial intelligence firms looking for material to train their technology.

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

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

The Stockholm-based service, which has more than 700 million subscribers worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorised access identified a third party scraped public metadata and used questionable tactics to bypass DRM [digital rights management].

Archive's Stated Goal and Worries

Spotify does not think the music acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for offering links to pirated books, wrote in a blog it wanted to create a ‘historical repository’ for music.

They asserted the audio files accounted for 99.6% of all music listened to by its listeners and would be distributed via ‘torrents’, a method of sharing large digital files online.

“Naturally Spotify 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 Battleground

A composer and campaigner for protecting artists’ rights, said the leaked music would likely be utilized for training artificial intelligence systems.

“Educating models on pirated material is sadly widespread in the tech sector, so this accessed music is highly likely to be used training AI models,” he stated.

The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a huge online archive of copyrighted books that has reportedly been used by Meta to train its AI models.

A founder of an AI startup wrote on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of the service”. The executive added it could also enable technology firms to “educate models on modern music at scale”.

Intellectual property law has become a battleground between creatives, authors and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.

Policy Proposals and Reactions

In the UK, artists and writers have raised concerns against a government suggestion to allow AI companies utilize copyright-protected work without consent unless the owner opts out. Almost every respondent to a government consultation on the proposal has backed artists’ apprehensions.

A government minister for science, innovation and technology told parliament this month there was “no clear consensus” on the matter, 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.