Hacktivists Claim They Scraped 86M Spotify Tracks
• Anna's Archive says it scraped roughly 86 million Spotify audio files — about 300 TB — and made metadata for ~256 million tracks available. • The group frames the collection as a "preservation archive" and claims the audio covers about 99.6% of Spotify listens. • Spotify says it identified and disabled the accounts used and calls the operation unlawful; how scrapers bypassed DRM remains unclear. • Anna's Archive plans a torrents-only release and may add individual downloads if there is demand.
What Anna's Archive says it did
The shadow-library group Anna's Archive published a blog post saying it discovered a way to scrape Spotify at scale and archived roughly 86 million music files. The group frames the effort as a "humble attempt" to build a music preservation archive to protect "humanity's musical heritage" from loss.
Scope and stated purpose
Anna's Archive claims the stored audio amounts to about 300 terabytes and represents roughly 99.6% of Spotify's listens. The group also published metadata covering nearly all of Spotify's catalog — which the archive estimates at about 256 million tracks.
Preservation vs. completeness
Despite preservation rhetoric, the audio archive covers only about a third of Spotify's total catalog, according to the group's own numbers. That gap means many lesser-known tracks are present only as metadata, not stored audio, undermining the claim to a fully comprehensive preservation.
Distribution plans and technical questions
Anna's Archive says it will distribute the collection via a "torrents-only archive aimed at preservation" to make mirroring easy for anyone with enough disk space. The group left open the possibility of allowing individual-file downloads later, a move critics say would convert preservation into widespread piracy.
Unanswered technical issues
There is no public detail on how the team packaged 300 TB into torrents or whether they will release a single massive archive. The blog post also does not explain how the scrapers bypassed Spotify's DRM or other safeguards.
Spotify's response and legal context
Spotify told reporters it "identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping," saying it has implemented new safeguards and is monitoring for suspicious behavior. The company described the theft of content from its servers as piracy and emphasized support for creator rights.
What to watch next
Key follow-ups include whether Anna's Archive releases the audio, how distribution will be handled, and whether law enforcement or rights holders take action. The episode raises questions about large-scale scraping, DRM resilience, and the tension between archival goals and copyright law.
