Spotify and three major labels have launched legal action against a shadow library over the alleged mass scraping of the streaming giant’s music catalogue.
The lawsuit, filed alongside Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, accuses the anonymous operators of the network known as Anna’s Archive of scraping approximately 86 million tracks and 256 million lines of metadata from Spotify without authorisation.
The streaming giant claims the network used automated tools to bypass its security systems, violating the company’s terms of service and U.S. copyright law.
In the complaint, the defendants are described as “a band of anonymous Internet pirates who disregard the law” and accused of the “audacious theft of millions of files encompassing nearly all commercial sound recordings worldwide.”
Spotify and the majors are now pursuing damages of $150,000 per track — the maximum U.S. copyright law allows for wilful-infringement on an individual piece of work. If successful, the total compensation owed could be almost $13 trillion.
Made public on 16th January 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York following several weeks under seal, the lawsuit outlines how a temporary restraining order was obtained by the record labels on 2nd January.
Judge S Rakoff then issued a preliminary injunction after Anna’s Archive failed to appear at a court hearing, and neglected to file a response to the charges.
You can read the injunction here, and the lawsuit here.
DJ Mag first reported on Anna’s Archive when a statement was issued claiming Spotify’s huge library of music had been scraped and tracks would soon be available online for free, accessible via torrenting. The horde represented 99.6% of sounds hosted on the platform, and was taken with the intention to create a “‘preservation archive’ for music” outside corporate control.
In a statement following the scrape, Spotify said that it had “disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping”, “implemented new safeguards”, and is “actively monitoring for suspicious behaviour”.
The action comes amid growing criticism of Spotify and other streaming platforms over perceived inequalities in artist revenue sharing. CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in the defence industry and contribution to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration fund have also caused significant controversy.
In light of these issues, a growing number of artists and labels have opted to remove their music from streaming platforms, including Kalahari Oyster Cult, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Credit: djmag
