A notorious pirate group, Anna’s Archive, has announced it has successfully scraped 86 million songs —nearly the entire publicly available catalog—from Spotify. The archive, totaling nearly 300 terabytes of music metadata, is slated for release via torrents.
The Scale of the Breach
Anna’s Archive claims their collection covers 99.6% of all Spotify listens, with metadata for around 99.9% of tracks. Spotify’s total catalog is estimated at 256 million songs, making this scrape one of the most comprehensive unauthorized copies ever assembled. As of now, only the metadata—song titles, artist names, etc.—has been released, but the group intends to make the actual music files available.
Why This Matters
This incident highlights several key issues:
– Digital music ownership is illusory. Despite paying for streaming services, users do not “own” the music they listen to; access is granted by the platform.
– The vulnerability of centralized databases. Spotify’s entire library, built over years and billions in licensing fees, was scraped by a determined group.
– The ongoing tension between copyright and preservation. Anna’s Archive frames this as a “preservation archive,” suggesting that music should be freely available regardless of copyright restrictions.
“This Spotify scrape is our humble attempt to start such a ‘preservation archive’ for music,” the group stated in a blog post. “Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start.”
Spotify’s Response
Spotify has already taken action, disabling the accounts used in the scraping operation. The company maintains a staunch anti-piracy stance, working with industry partners to protect creators’ rights.
“We’ve implemented new safeguards for these types of anti-copyright attacks and are actively monitoring for suspicious behavior,” a Spotify spokesperson said.
What Happens Next?
The release of the full archive could trigger a legal showdown between Anna’s Archive and major record labels. Even if the files are successfully distributed, takedown requests and legal pressure will likely follow. This incident reinforces the cat-and-mouse dynamic between copyright holders and those seeking to bypass restrictions, demonstrating that unauthorized copies of digital content are always a risk.
