Spotify has disabled user accounts and tightened safeguards after a piracy-linked group known as Anna’s Archive disclosed it had scraped roughly 86 million tracks from Spotify, according to the sources provided. The operation, which the group described as a “preservation archive,” amassed nearly 300 terabytes of audio and metadata—covering about 99.9% of Spotify’s catalog through July 2025 and accounting for 186 million unique ISRCs, making it one of the largest public music metadata collections to date.
According to sources, the group relied on third-party accounts to conduct month-long stream-ripping, bypassing digital protections to access audio and public metadata; popular tracks were retained at 160 kbps OGG Vorbis while less-played songs were re-encoded at lower bitrates. Metadata was released on December 21, 2025, with audio files planned for staged torrent releases by popularity. Spotify said it disabled linked accounts, added defences against anti-copyright attacks, and confirmed there was no impact on user data, reiterating its opposition to piracy and its partnerships with the music industry to protect creators.
