A pirate activist group has scraped and released metadata from Spotify's music library, with plans to distribute 86 million audio files. The breach, reported on December 21, 2025, involves 256 million rows of track data set for peer-to-peer sharing. Spotify is investigating the unauthorized access.
On December 21, 2025, Anna’s Archive, an open-source search engine typically focused on books and academic papers, announced it had scraped Spotify's music library. The group released metadata comprising 256 million rows of track information and intends to share 86 million audio files via peer-to-peer networks in torrents totaling about 300 terabytes. As of that Sunday, only the metadata had been made public, not the audio files.
Spotify confirmed the incident in a statement: “An investigation into unauthorized access identified that a third party scraped public metadata and used illicit tactics to circumvent DRM to access some of the platform’s audio files.” The company added, “We are actively investigating the incident.”
Anna’s Archive framed the project as part of its mission to “preserve humanity’s knowledge and culture,” calling it an effort to “build a music archive primarily aimed at preservation.” The group noted, “Of course Spotify doesn’t have all the music in the world, but it’s a great start.”
Reactions highlighted potential implications. Yoav Zimmerman, CEO and co-founder of Third Chair—a startup developing AI tools for media companies—suggested via LinkedIn that the leak could allow individuals to create a personal, free version of Spotify using sufficient storage and a server like Plex. He pointed out barriers remain in copyright law and enforcement fears. Zimmerman also observed that the scrape might surpass MusicBrainz, an open music archive with around five million unique tracks, though Spotify's total files exceed the leaked amount.
The event underscores ongoing tensions between preservation efforts and digital rights management in streaming services.
