Pirate activist group scrapes Spotify metadata, releases data online

A pirate activist group has scraped and released vast amounts of metadata from Spotify, according to a blog post from the open-source search engine Anna’s Archive.

The scrape reportedly includes 256 million rows of track metadata and 86 million audio files, totaling around 300 terabytes, Caliber.Az reports via Billboard. 

As of December 21, only the metadata has been made public, with music files expected to be distributed via P2P networks in bulk torrents.

Spotify confirmed the breach in a statement to Billboard, saying, “An investigation into unauthorized access identified that a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM to access some of the platform’s audio files.” The company added, “We are actively investigating the incident.”

Reactions to the release have raised concerns. Yoav Zimmerman, CEO of Third Chair, a startup using AI for media tools, noted, “Anyone can now, in theory, create their own personal free version of Spotify [all music up to 2025] with enough storage and a personal media streaming server like Plex. The only real barriers are copyright law and fear of enforcement.”

While Spotify’s audio file collection exceeds the data mentioned by Anna’s Archive, Zimmerman pointed out the scale of the breach, potentially surpassing MusicBrainz, which contains around five million unique tracks.

By Sabina Mammadli