Pirate group Anna’s Archive claims to have scraped Spotify music library

Anna’s Archive, a pirate activist group, claims to have scraped the entire Spotify music library and intends to distribute it via torrents.

Spotify hosts approximately 256 million tracks, with the Pirate group Anna’s Archive collection reportedly containing metadata for about 99.9% of them. The group archived roughly 86 million music files, covering around 99.6% of total listens, totaling nearly 300 terabytes. So far, only metadata has been released; the actual music files are not available.

The group stated in a blog post, “This Spotify scrape is our humble attempt to start such a ‘preservation archive’ for music.” They noted that while Spotify doesn’t have all music worldwide, it’s a significant start.

Spotify told TechCrunch that it identified and disabled the user accounts responsible for the scraping.

A Spotify spokesperson said in an email, “We’ve implemented new safeguards to prevent these types of anti-copyright attacks and are actively monitoring for suspicious activity. Since day one, we have stood with artists against piracy and are working with industry partners to protect creators and their rights.”

Anna’s Archive states it usually focuses on text, like books and papers, but its mission to “preserve humanity’s knowledge and culture doesn’t distinguish among media types.”