Hacktivist group Anna’s Archive claims to have scraped almost all of Spotify’s catalog and is now seeding it via BitTorrent, effectively turning a streaming platform into a roughly 300 TB pirate “preservation archive.”

On its blog, the group states:

“A while ago, we discovered a way to scrape Spotify at scale. We saw a role for us here to build a music archive primarily aimed at preservation.”

Spotify insists that the hacktivists obtained no user data. Still, the incident highlights how large‑scale scraping, digital rights management (DRM) circumvention, and weak abuse controls can turn major content platforms into high‑value targets.

Anna’s Archive claims it obtained metadata for around 256 million tracks and audio files for roughly 86 million songs, totaling close to 300 TB. Reportedly, this represents about 99.9% of Spotify’s catalog and roughly 99.6% of all streams.

Spotify says it has “identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping” and implemented new safeguards.

From a security perspective, this incident is a textbook example of how scraping can escalate beyond “just metadata” into industrial‑scale content theft. By combining public APIs, token abuse, rate‑limit evasion, and DRM bypass techniques, attackers can extract protected content at scale. If you can create or compromise enough accounts and make them appear legitimate, you can chip away at content protections over time.

The “Spotify scrape” will likely be framed as a copyright story. But from a security angle, it serves as a reminder: if a platform exposes content or metadata at scale, someone will eventually automate access to it, weaponize it, and redistribute it.

And hiding behind violations of terms and conditions—which have never stopped criminals—is not effective security control.

How does this affect you?

There is currently no indication that passwords, payment details, or private playlists were exposed. This incident is purely about content and metadata, not user databases. That said, scammers may still claim otherwise. Be cautious of messages alleging your account data was compromised and asking for your login details.

Some general Spotify security tips, to be on the safe side:

• If you have reused your Spotify password elsewhere or shared your credentials, consider changing your password for peace of mind.
• Regularly review active sessions on streaming services and revoke anything you do not recognize. Spotify does not offer per-device session management, but you can sign out of all devices via Account > Settings and privacy on the Spotify website.
• Avoid unofficial downloaders, converters, or “Spotify mods” that ask for your login or broad OAuth permissions. These tools often rely on the same kind of scraping infrastructure—or worse, function as credential-stealing malware.

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About the author

Was a Microsoft MVP in consumer security for 12 years running. Can speak four languages. Smells of rich mahogany and leather-bound books.