Downloading 86 Million Songs from Spotify, Ordered to Pay Rp 5.5 Trillion

Spotify has won a lawsuit against the open-source library platform and pirate activist group Anna’s Archive, which released 86 million music files to the public. The hackers must pay a total of US$322 million (Rp 5.5 trillion) as per the decision.

Previously, Anna’s Archive announced that it had taken 86 million songs from Spotify. This was done to create a ‘preservation archive’ for music and distribute it via BitTorrent, as cited from The Verge on Monday (20/4/2026).

Spotify filed the lawsuit publicised in January, along with three major record labels: Universal Music Group (UMG), Warner Music Group (WMG), and Sony Music. The latest ruling was made after Anna’s Archive failed to respond to the lawsuit.

One month after the lawsuit, Anna’s Archive was found to have still released 3 million song files via torrent.

Spotify and the record companies stated that Anna’s Archive engaged in theft containing almost all commercial recordings in the world.

Spotify received compensation of US$300 million, while the three record labels received US$22.2 million. In addition, the court decided that internet service providers must block the Anna’s Archive site.

Anna’s Archive was also ordered to destroy all copies of the music works taken from Spotify.

However, enforcing the ruling will be very difficult. This is because the entity behind the hacker group remains highly mysterious.

Billboard reported that Anna’s Archive has previously conducted criminal operations with new domain names. Such efforts were made to prevent their sites from being shut down.