Spotify claims hackers pirated its music catalog

Spotify announced on Monday that it had deactivated the accounts of a group of hackers activists who claimed to have “copied” millions of music files and metadata from the streaming service.

The group Anna’s Archives stated in a blog post that it had copied 86 million songs from Spotify and the metadata of 256 million songs – a process known as “scraping” – in order to create an open “preservation archive” for the music.

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Anna’s Archives claimed that the 86 million music files represented more than 99.6% of Spotify “listens,” while metadata copies represented 99.9% of all Spotify songs.

The breach, which has no impact on Spotify users, means that in theory anyone could use the information to create their own free music file, although in practice they would be quickly pursued by rights holders.

“Spotify identified and deactivated the accounts of malicious users who were engaged in illegal scraping,” the company said in a statement sent to AFP.

“We have implemented new security measures for these types of copyright attacks and are actively monitoring any suspicious behavior,” he said.

“From day one, we have supported the artist community against piracy and are actively working with our industry partners to protect creators and defend their rights,” Spotify added.