Spotify has taken action after reports emerged that a group scraped its library with plans to make it publicly available as a “preservation archive.”

Reports surfaced early Monday (Dec. 22) that a “pirate activist group” had scraped metadata from Spotify’s music library and released it to the public. Billboard identified an open-source search engine known as Anna’s Archive as one of the first to draw attention to the incident.

Anna’s Archive promotes itself as the “largest truly open library in human history.” The site claims that its efforts to highlight the available Spotify music files are based on “preservation.”

How Did Spotify Respond to the Music File Scraping Incident?

Hours after the incident was first reported, Spotify stated it had tracked down user accounts behind the data breach.

“Spotify has identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” a spokesperson said in a statement provided to Euronews Next. “We’ve implemented new safeguards against these types of anti-copyright attacks and are actively monitoring for suspicious behavior.”

Spotify asserts that the only user-related data involved in the incident was connected to publicly available playlists created by users.

What Was Included in the Spotify Breach?

Anna’s Archive claims it has access to 86 million of Spotify’s music files, which is only a portion of Spotify’s 256 million music tracks.

The breach included metadata and album art for each song.

It appears that the only part made publicly available so far is the metadata. Anna’s Archive states there are plans to release the music files and album art on its torrents page at a later date.

READ MORE: 9 Rock + Metal Bands Who Pulled Their Music Off Spotify in 2025

What Insights Were Gained from Spotify’s Metadata?

Anna’s Archive claims to have analyzed the metadata obtained in the breach and has begun sharing its insights publicly. This metadata allegedly included details such as popularity scores attached to tracks and stream counts.

While it is believed that the breach included less than 40 percent of Spotify’s total music library, Anna’s Archive states that the songs obtained account for 99.6 percent of listens on the platform.

Here are some of the high-level insights already shared by Anna’s Archive:

• Albums released by year jumped from 8 million in 2023 to nearly 10.5 million in 2024.
• The music genre with the highest number of artists on Spotify is opera, followed by choral and chamber music.
• Full-length albums on Spotify most often feature 10 tracks.
• Nearly 2 million albums on Spotify are allegedly duplicated due to factors such as updated versions or releases under different licenses.
• The site also claims that songs on Spotify are most frequently in the musical key of C.

Why Are Artists Leaving Spotify?

Spotify has made headlines in 2025 due to multiple acts choosing to remove their music from the platform. At least nine rock and metal bands have left Spotify since the beginning of the year, including:

• King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor
• My Bloody Valentine

See the full list of rock and metal bands who left Spotify in 2025 here.