Spotify, major labels file $13b lawsuit over alleged music scraping

Spotify and the world's three biggest record labels have launched sweeping legal action against Anna’s Archive, accusing the site of copying tens of millions of songs and preparing to release them online for free.

The lawsuit, described as one of the most aggressive copyright crackdowns linked to large-scale music scraping, seeks damages of about $13 billion, reports Complex.

Spotify has joined forces with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in the case, alleging the platform unlawfully accessed and copied 86 million audio files along with vast quantities of track metadata.

The complaint was filed on December 26 and was revealed on January 16.

Court documents accuse Anna’s Archive of what the companies call the 'brazen theft' of recordings on an industrial scale. The companies estimate damages at roughly $151,000 per file, bringing the total claim into the billions.

The filing states the site has 'threatened to imminently mass-release and freely distribute its pirated copies of the sound recording files to the public, without authorisation from or compensation to the relevant rights holders.'

Anna’s Archive, formerly known as Pirate Library Mirror, said last month it planned to build what it described as 'the world’s first ‘preservation archive’ for music' with files distributed via BitTorrent.

Billboard reported the group scraped 256 million rows of track metadata alongside the 86 million audio tracks for peer-to-peer sharing.

The organisation denies piracy claims, arguing it does not directly host files. It has not commented publicly since the lawsuit was unsealed.

After the site failed to respond by a court deadline on January 16, Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued a preliminary injunction on January 20, according to Consequence.

The order instructs hosting providers and domain registries to block access to several domains linked to Anna’s Archive.