Spotify, Major Labels Sue Anna’s Archive for $13 Trillion

Spotify has joined Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in suing controversial online shadow library Anna’s Archive for $13 trillion.

Backstory:

• In December Anna’s Archive confirmed it had scraped Spotify, obtaining 86 million audio files and metadata for 256 million tracks in its ambition of becoming the world’s first “preservation archive.”

• It planned to release them via BitTorrent.

• It denied allegations of piracy because it does not directly host the files.

Damages:

• Spotify and the labels are seeking $13 trillion in damages for the 86 million music files, or roughly $151,000 per file.

• As per Music Business Worldwide, they accuse the platform of “brazen theft of millions of files containing nearly all of the world’s commercial sound recordings.”

• They add that having already released the metadata it scraped, the platform is threatening to “imminently mass-release and freely distribute its pirated copies of the sound recording files.”

• Such actions would “irreparably harm the music industry.”

Actions so far:

• The lawsuit was filed under seal on December 26, 2025.

• Music Business Worldwide reports that on January 2, the labels obtained an emergency temporary restraining order.

• On January 20, Judge Jed S. Rakoff imposed a preliminary injunction after Anna’s Archive neither appeared at the hearing nor submitted any court response.

• The injunction required Anna’s Archive to stop distributing copyrighted material and barred it from hosting, linking to, or enabling downloads of the scraped recordings.

• It further directed domain registries, registrars, and hosting companies to block access to Anna’s Archive’s domains.

Response:

• Anna’s Archive is yet to respond.