Anna's Archive Claims Massive Spotify Scrape, Plans to Torrent 300TB of Music

Pirate activist group Anna's Archive claims it has scraped Spotify’s entire music library, capturing 86 million song files that total nearly 300 terabytes. The group announced its plan to release the massive collection through torrents, framing the controversial act as an effort in cultural preservation.

A 'Preservation Archive' of Pirated Music

In a blog post, the group detailed the staggering scope of the operation. While Spotify hosts around 256 million tracks, Anna’s Archive says its collection contains metadata for an estimated 99.9% of them. The 86 million archived audio files reportedly account for 99.6% of all listener activity on the platform. So far, only the metadata has been released, not the actual music.

Anna's Archive, which typically focuses on text-based media like books and academic papers, defended its move into music. "This Spotify scrape is our humble attempt to start such a ‘preservation archive’ for music," the group wrote. "Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start."

Spotify Responds, Vowing to Protect Artists

Spotify moved quickly to address the breach. A spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company has already identified and disabled the user accounts involved in the data scraping. "We’ve implemented new safeguards for these types of anti-copyright attacks and are actively monitoring for suspicious behavior,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The company reiterated its long-standing position against piracy. "Since day one, we have stood with the artist community against piracy, and we are actively working with our industry partners to protect creators and defend their rights."