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A digital rights group has stated to have harvested a vast number of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them publicly.

Possible Impetus for AI Development

Industry experts said the seeming data breach could aid AI companies searching for data to develop their models.

An entity known as Anna’s Archive reported it had scraped 86 million audio tracks from Spotify and 256 million entries of metadata such as performer and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100 million songs, stated that the leak did not represent its entire catalog.

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

The Swedish service, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, added that an investigation into unauthorized access found a external actor collected public metadata and employed illicit methods to bypass DRM protections.

Group's Declared Goal and Concerns

The streaming service does not think the audio acquired by Anna’s Archive has been made public yet. Anna’s Archive, which is recognized for offering links to copyright-infringing books, said in a blog it wanted to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music.

The group asserted the music files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be distributed via ‘peer-to-peer networks’, a method of sharing large digital files online.

“Of course the service doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a fantastic start,” commented Anna’s Archive, which describes its mission as “preserving humanity’s knowledge and culture”.

Model Development and Intellectual Property Battleground

Ed Newton-Rex for defending artists’ rights, said the breached music would likely be utilized for training AI models.

“Training on illegally sourced material is unfortunately widespread in the tech sector, so this stolen music is highly likely to be used instructing AI models,” he stated.

The group's website makes references to a large online archive, a vast online archive of pirated books that has allegedly been leveraged by the parent company of Facebook to train its systems.

The co-founder of an artificial intelligence company posted on LinkedIn that individuals of the public could in principle “build their own personal free version of Spotify”. The executive added it could also allow tech companies to “train on contemporary music at scale”.

Copyright has emerged as a key issue between creatives, writers and content creators on one side and tech giants on the other.

Government Considerations and Reactions

Across Britain, creative professionals have raised concerns against a government proposal to allow AI companies utilize protected work without permission unless the owner opts out. Almost every respondent to a government consultation on the idea has supported artists’ concerns.

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