A collective of cybercriminals has announced what could be considered among the boldest thefts of digital audio content, stating that it duplicated Spotify's audio files along with associated data, with intentions to distribute the materials openly as an extensive archival collection.
In an online publication outlining its actions, the organization known as Anna’s Archives reports successfully extracting 86 million audio pieces from Spotify, accounting for over 99 percent of the platform's playback activity. Additionally, it obtained details for 256 million items, covering essentially the entirety of Spotify's audio library.
The cybercriminals indicate they intend to share the entire dataset—totaling 300 terabytes—via decentralized sharing platforms as a modest effort to establish a repository dedicated to safeguarding music. At present, just the descriptive information has been made available, as noted by Music Ally.
Spotify provided this response to TechHive: 'Spotify has identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping. We’ve implemented new safeguards for these types of anti-copyright attacks and are actively monitoring for suspicious behavior. Since day one, we have stood with the artist community against piracy, and we are actively working with our industry partners to protect creators and defend their rights.'
Although Spotify maintains a library exceeding 86 million songs, the extracted content from the cybercriminals encompasses the bulk of the service's most frequently played selections, with Anna’s Archive explaining that it focused on items by their prominence. (Billboard initially covered the Spotify extraction.)
The entity, which typically concentrates on textual materials due to their superior data compactness, pursued Spotify after identifying a method for large-scale extraction and recognizing an opportunity to develop a repository centered on music conservation.
Following the dissemination of Spotify's audio files and details, 'in principle, anybody could now' assemble a custom, no-cost duplicate of the service, according to Yoav Zimmerman, chief executive of AI firm Third Chair, in a professional network update. 'The primary obstacles remain legal protections for intellectual property and concerns over repercussions.'
Beyond users establishing individual Spotify alternatives, the incident might enable questionable AI entities to 'utilize contemporary music extensively for model development,' Zimmerman added.
This report was revised soon after initial posting to incorporate Spotify's input.