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Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world

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An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online.

Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.

A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86m music files from Spotify and 256m rows of metadata such as artist and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100m tracks, confirmed that the leak did not represent its entire inventory.

The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, said it had “identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping”.

“An investigation into unauthorised access identified that a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM [digital rights management] to access some of the platform’s audio files,” said Spotify.

Spotify does not believe the music taken by Anna’s Archive has been released yet. Anna’s Archive, which is known for providing links to pirated books, said in a blog it wanted to create a “‘preservation archive’ for music”.

The group claimed the audio files represented 99.6% of all music listened to by Spotify users and would be shared via “torrents”, a means of sharing large digital files online.

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

“With your help, humanity’s musical heritage will be forever protected from destruction by natural disasters, wars, budget cuts and other catastrophes,” said the group.

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[+] Brewchin@lemmy.world -14 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

The same Anna's Archive that allows free anonymous downloads that are throttled to the speed of a 1990-era modem unless you pay?

Yes, I'm sure preservation and social good is their goal. Definitely not about making money.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 12 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Any idea what it costs to reliably store this data, let alone have the bandwidth to upload it to others?

This ain't a cheap game, no matter what the intentions are. I have no problem with paid content because it costs money to have it there. I pay Spotify but I'd rather pay Anna's archive

[–] Sl00k@programming.dev 8 points 15 hours ago

Not really on topic, but I recently swapped from Spotify to Qobuz and it's been a pretty good experience if you're interested in paying someone who's not Spotify

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 2 points 16 hours ago

I'm just some random on the internet but I'd rather you didn't pay Spotify. Here's one example for why, among many.

In November 2021, Prima Materia, an investment company cofounded by Ek and Spotify investor Shakil Khan, was announced as the lead investor in a €100 million fundraising round for Helsing, a European defense company that develops military strike drones and AI systems. Ek also joined Helsing's board along with its co-founders Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf and Niklas Köhler.[171] In 2025, Ek's firm increased its investment in Helsing, leading a €600 million funding round in the company that valued it at €12 billion.[172]

Several artists have objected to Ek's investments in defense technology. The German DJ and techno producer Skee Mask urged his nearly 17,000 Twitter followers not to give their "last penny to such a wealthy business that obviously prefers the development of warfare instead of actual progression in the music business." According to Sameer Gupta, a percussionist based in Brooklyn, New York, "All that money that's being taken from artists and musicians is being funneled to this," referring to Helsing. "I don't know a single musician who would ever say, 'That's the function of music.'"[173] In 2025, the bands Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hotline TNT, Massive Attack, and Sylvan Esso removed their music from the streaming service over objections to Ek's investment in Helsing.[174][175][176][177][178]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Spotify