Spotify has been cleared of a potential security breach, putting all hacking rumors to rest. However, there’s more to the incident that sent the internet, more specifically Spotify users, into a frenzy. A third-party scraper reportedly made an unauthorized data scrape, accessing metadata and audio files.
Spotify’s 86 million audio files ‘scraped’ after third party accessReports indicate that Spotify’s music library has been scraped by a pirate activist group.
According to an Anna’s Archive blog post, the data mining operation released 86 million audio files and 256 million rows of metadata on P2P networks. The scraped data totaled roughly 300 terabytes. However, an updated report released on Sunday, December 21, unveiled that the group only released metadata, not songs.
The blog also suggested that this is a “preservation archive” effort. For those intrigued, it means an attempt to protect music from disappearing if streaming platforms lose licenses. “Of course Spotify doesn’t he all the music in the world, but it’s a great start”, the post read.
However, Spotify isn’t on the same page and has confirmed unauthorized access. In a statement given to Billboard, a representative said, “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. We are actively investigating the incident.”
Meanwhile, reactions to the initial report by Anna’s Archive poured in in no time. A detailed one is a LinkedIn post from Yo Zimmerman, CEO/co-founder of Third Chair. Commenting on the unauthorized scrap, he wrote, “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.”
Zimmerman further highlighted that the incident could overshadow MusicBrainz, the largest open music archive, which boasts around 5 million unique tracks. Notably, Spotify’s total audio files surpass the number mentioned in Anna’s Archive.