A group of hackers from Anna’s Archive has reportedly downloaded 86 million tracks from Spotify, representing 99.6% of the platform's available catalog. The hackers intend to release these tracks publicly via torrents, totaling approximately 300 TB of data.
Details of the Breach
Anna’s Archive, known for its role as a search engine for shadow libraries, has already published metadata from the breach. This data reveals that over 70% of Spotify's songs have fewer than 1,000 plays. Additionally, an HTML file listing the 10,000 most popular tracks has been released.
Spotify's Response
A Spotify representative confirmed the breach, stating that a third party collected publicly available metadata and used illegal methods to bypass DRM protections to access certain audio files. Spotify is currently investigating the incident.
Motivations Behind the Leak
Anna’s Archive claims their actions are driven by a mission to preserve human knowledge and culture, aiming to create the world's first archive of preserved music. The group has yet to release the full set of tracks, focusing initially on metadata publication.
