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Spotify blocks hacker group after massive music data theft

by VARINDIA 2025-12-26

Spotify has blocked a hacker group following the discovery of a large-scale theft of internal music-related data, raising fresh concerns over cybersecurity risks facing global digital platforms. The incident reportedly involved the unauthorized access and extraction of sensitive music data, though Spotify has stated that no user passwords or financial information were compromised.

The claims were made in a blog post published by Anna’s Archive, an open-source search engine known for indexing so-called “shadow libraries.” According to the post, the group “backed up” Spotify’s catalogue and released metadata for 256 million tracks and 86 million audio files, covering music uploaded to the platform between 2007 and 2025. The archive reportedly represents around 99.6% of listening activity on Spotify.

Anna’s Archive described the release as the world’s first open “preservation archive” for music, claiming it could be mirrored by anyone with sufficient storage capacity. The group said the dataset totals just under 300 terabytes and would be distributed via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

Spotify confirmed the unauthorised scraping in a statement, saying the third party used illicit methods to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) systems in order to access some audio files. The company said it had identified and disabled the accounts involved in the activity and implemented additional safeguards to prevent similar attacks.

“There is no indication that any non-public user information was exposed,” a Spotify spokesperson said, adding that the only user-related data involved was limited to public playlists. Spotify did not disclose the exact volume of data accessed.

The incident has raised concerns beyond piracy, particularly around the potential misuse of the data for artificial intelligence training. Yoav Zimmerman, CEO of intellectual property protection firm Third Chair, warned that such datasets could significantly lower barriers for AI companies seeking to train models on contemporary music at scale. While copyright laws remain a deterrent, enforcement remains a key challenge.

Anna’s Archive has previously focused on preserving books and academic texts and said the Spotify dataset marked an expansion of its mission to include music. The group acknowledged that Spotify does not host all recorded music globally but described the archive as a starting point.

Spotify said it is working closely with industry partners to protect artists and rights holders, reiterating its long-standing opposition to piracy. “Since day one, we have stood with the creative community,” the company said.

While any attempt to recreate or distribute Spotify’s catalogue would likely trigger swift legal action, the episode highlights growing risks around large-scale data scraping and the increasing pressure on digital platforms to protect intellectual property in the age of AI.