A shockwave hit the internet world: almost the entire Spotify archive was copied and made available on torrent sites as a massive 300TB data package. This action, carried out by a group called ‘Anna’s Archive,’ sent shockwaves through the music industry.

Giant Spotify Archive Copied: Details of the Project

According to Anna’s Archive, this massive operation resulted in the acquisition of metadata for 256 million tracks and audio files for 86 million songs. These figures represent approximately 99.6% of all Spotify streams. The archive, totaling 300TB, is being distributed via torrent files, sorted by popularity.

The group describes this project as a “preservation archive.” Their main argument is that while popular songs are well-backed up, millions of lesser-known tracks risk being lost forever if streaming platforms lose their licenses or shut down. Therefore, they state that Spotify is a “great starting point” for preserving modern music history.

Although Anna’s Archive presents its actions as a “good faith” conservation effort, the process is entirely illegal. Spotify licenses most of the music on its platform from record labels and rights holders under very strict legal terms. Downloading these audio files en masse and redistributing them via torrents clearly violates both Spotify’s terms of service and copyright laws in many countries.

Copyright laws generally do not allow an exception for such “protective” actions. Therefore, it is only a matter of time before Spotify and major record labels respond with legal threats and content removal demands. However, whether this massive archive can be completely erased from the internet remains to be seen.

So, what are your thoughts on the copying of the Spotify archive? Share your opinions with us in the comments!