New Delhi: A major legal battle in the global music industry has taken a sharp turn, with a US court ordering Anna’s Archive to pay hundreds of millions in damages. The case revolves around large-scale scraping of music data and files, something that has been under scrutiny for years now. This time, the numbers are huge, and the impact could be wider than expected.
As per a Billboard report, a US court ruled against Anna’s Archive in a case filed by Spotify along with major record labels, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment. The court ordered the platform to pay $322 million in damages after failing to defend itself in the lawsuit.
The case focused on large-scale scraping of music content. In December 2025, just a few days before Christmas, Anna’s Archive had claimed to have scraped 256 million rows of track metadata and 86million audio files from Spotify, to be distributed by torrents. At the time, the group said, “This is the world’s first ‘preservation archive’ for music which is fully open.”
Spotify had earlier described the platform as “nefarious”, accusing it of being “engaged in unlawful scraping”. The court agreed with the claims and found the platform guilty of copyright infringement, breach of contract, and violation of the DMCA.
The judgment was issued as a default ruling since the operators did not respond to the case. This played a key role in the final decision.
Under the ruling, Spotify is expected to receive around $300 million. The remaining amount will go to the record labels, with each set to receive over $7 million.
There is still uncertainty over whether the money will actually be recovered. The operators of Anna’s Archive remain anonymous, making enforcement difficult.
The court also pointed to actions taken after the case began. It said the platform showed a “blatant disregard” of court orders.
Despite an injunction, the group reportedly released some of the scraped files. Filings said songs were shared on February 9 through 47 torrents.
The court has directed internet service providers to block access to Anna’s Archive and stop further distribution of the files.
This could set a precedent for similar cases in the future. Platforms dealing with large-scale data scraping and distribution may face tighter scrutiny.
