Spotify Users Sell Data To AI Developers

Spotify is in conflict with Unwrapped, a project where thousands of users sell their listening data to AI firms, challenging data ownership norms.

Spotify is clashing with a growing group of users who want to sell their listening data to developers building AI tools, as first reported by ArsTechnica.

The Unwrapped project, started in February, and now has more than 18,000 Spotify users who joined the platform. By pooling their data through the decentralized platform Vana, users can sell it to AI companies, researching for new ways to analyze listening habits.

ArsTechnica reports that the June vote from 10,000 members allowed Solo AI to purchase a small portion of their data for $55,000. Users received $5 worth of cryptocurrency from the deal.

ArsTechnica reports that Vana co-founder Anna Kazlauskas admitted this payout was not “ideal,” saying she wished users had earned “a hundred times” more. Still, she called the deal “meaningful” because it showed Spotify users that their data ‘‘is actually worth something.”

“I think this is what shows how these pools of data really act like a labor union,” Kazlauskas said, as reported by ArsTecnica.

Unwrapped received a warning from Spotify through a letter, because the project allegedly infringes on their Wrapped trademark and violates developer guidelines, as noted by ArsTechnica. The platform rules at Spotify prohibit developers from using platform resources or content to create machine learning or AI models.

“Spotify honors our users’ privacy rights, including the right of portability […]All of our users can receive a copy of their personal data to use as they see fit. That said, UnwrappedData.org is in violation of our Developer Terms which prohibit the collection, aggregation, and sale of Spotify user data to third parties,” a spokesperson said as noted by ArsTechnica.

Unwrapped developers rejected that claim, arguing: “They are simply exercising digital self-determination. To suggest otherwise is to claim that users do not truly own their data—that Spotify owns it for them.”