The announcement had the effect of a misplaced cymbal crash: Spotify confirmed that it had deactivated accounts after the activist group Anna’s Archive put online a database containing 86 million songs from the platform. The operation is claimed by a collective which presents itself as a universal library dedicated to the conservation of knowledge, and now music.
A vacuum cleaner connected to Spotify
Spotify doesn’t beat around the bush: there was no intrusion into its internal systems. “ We identified and disabled malicious accounts involved in illegal scraping », Explains a spokesperson. The method? “Stream-ripping” carried out over several months via user accounts created by third parties, in violation of the platform’s rules. No hack, therefore, but a patient circumvention on an industrial scale.
The platform says it has strengthened its protections against this type of copyright-related attacks and is closely monitoring suspicious behavior. And to recall a well-rehearsed refrain: “ Since day one, we have supported the artist community against piracy “. Stinging detail: Anna’s Archive did not consider it useful to notify Spotify before publishing its files. For its part, the group takes responsibility head-on. In a blog post, the collective explains that its preservation mission “ does not distinguish media types ». « We discovered a way to suck up Spotify at scale », he writes, seeing this as an opportunity to launch a musical archive geared towards conservation.
The figures are dizzying: a main file of just under 300 terabytes, bringing together 86 million audio files, supposed to represent 99.6% of listening on Spotify. Added to this is a base of 256 million tracks in metadata, covering uploads from 2007 to July 2025, plus a separate batch with the 10,000 most popular titles. According to the site, it would be “ by far the largest public music database ».
The collective takes the opportunity to deliver some statistical curiosities. The three most-streamed songs — Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather,” Lady Gaga’s “Die with a Smile” and Bad Bunny’s “DtMF” — would total more plays than the least popular 20 to 100 million songs combined. A rather brutal reminder of the reality of the platforms: a handful of titles attract the maximum number of listeners, with disregard for diversity.
Anna’s Archive is not a newcomer. The site is blocked in several countries for repeated copyright violations and is in line with Z-Library, closed in 2022 after the intervention of the US Department of Justice. Z-Library then claimed more than 11 million e-books. Since then, Anna’s Archive has aggregated catalogs from Internet Archive, Library Genesis or Sci-Hub. In December, the site announced that it hosted 61 million books and 95 million scientific articles.
🟣 To not miss any news on the WorldOfSoftware, follow us on Google and on our WhatsApp channel. And if you love us, .
