A 22-year-old hacker from Luton, England, has admitted to stealing unreleased music from famous artists, including Coldplay, Shawn Mendes, Bebe Rexha, and Melanie Martinez. Skylar Dalziel exploited cloud storage accounts to access and sell 40 unreleased tracks, earning £42,000, according to City of London Police.
Dalziel pleaded guilty to 11 copyright offences and other financial crimes at Luton Crown Court. She was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months, and ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work. The sentencing was part of an extensive investigation led by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.
Prosecutor Richard Partridge criticised Dalziel’s actions, saying she “selfishly used their music to make money for herself.” Det Con Daryl Fryatt emphasised the broader implications, stating, “Stealing copyrighted material jeopardises the work of artists and the livelihoods of those who support them.”
The scheme unravelled after Sony Music Entertainment reported a compromised cloud account linked to singer Upsahl in June 2021. Investigators discovered that Dalziel sold the stolen tracks on the dark web, using PayPal and bank accounts to receive payments. Funds were traced to accounts in the US, prompting collaboration with Homeland Security Investigations.
Police seized 291,941 music tracks and evidence of financial transactions during Dalziel’s arrest in January 2023. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the Recording Industry Association of America played key roles in identifying the hacker.
This case highlights the dangers of cybercrime in the entertainment industry. Police stressed their commitment to holding cybercriminals accountable, w
