Spotify Takes Legal Action Against Anna’s Archive Over Massive File Theft Allegations

WASHINGTON — In a legal battle that has captured attention, Spotify initiated a lawsuit against the digital activist organization Anna’s Archive, demanding an astronomical sum in damages. The lawsuit follows the group’s assertion that it had duplicated a substantial segment of Spotify’s music collection, with intentions to distribute it online by the end of last year.

Anna’s Archive detailed in their blog post that they compiled metadata for some 256 million tracks and audio files, which collectively represent about 86 million songs. This ambitious undertaking amounts to a staggering 300 terabytes of data.

The December 20, 2025, blog post clarifies that only metadata was released, and no actual music tracks were made available.

Shortly after this revelation, Spotify, along with major music labels Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group, took legal action against Anna’s Archive. The lawsuit, initially filed under seal on December 26, 2025, was made public on January 16.

It accuses Anna’s Archive of copyright infringement, breach of contract, violating of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

It accuses Anna’s Archive of “brazen theft of millions of files containing nearly all of the world’s commercial sound recordings.” The lawsuit said if the music was released and freely distributed, it would “irreparably harm the music industry.”

Anna’s Archive has not publicly responded to the lawsuit.

A judge granted a preliminary injunction ordering Anna’s Archive to stop all distribution of copyrighted works and stop them from hosting, linking to, or allowing downloads of the recordings after they failed to appear at a hearing or file any response to the court, according to Music Business Worldwide.

The music companies listed in the lawsuit seek statutory damages in the amount of up to $150,000 for each work infringed.

Anna’s Archive is a controversial nonprofit project that aims to preserve all of humanity’s culture and knowledge, according to Gizmodo. It hosts an online library through multiple names and website domains. 

Katrina Morgan contributed to this report.