Hacker Who Stole Unreleased Songs From Coldplay and Shawn Mendes Sentenced to Prison

For decades, fans have found ways to listen to their favorite songs. Although there are several streaming platforms that offer a long list of artists, they didn’t always exist. And for several years, music lovers learned to save their favorite singers on CDs. While illegal to steal a singer’s song, one individual, Skylar Dalziel, showcased her hacking skills when she stole unreleased music from singers like Shawn Mendes and even Coldplay. With law enforcement eventually catching up to the cyber hacker, Dalziel recently faced a judge to learn her fate. 

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According to reports, from April 2021 to January 2023, Dalziel hacked several cloud storage accounts from various artists including Coldplay. She then turned those songs into profit when she sold them on the dark web. The reports suggested the hacker made around $52,000 from selling the stolen songs. Prosecutor Richard Partridge painted a picture of the hacker, claiming she “selfishly used their music to make money for herself by selling it on the dark web.”

After facing 11 copyright offenses for selling music she didn’t legally own, the court decided to sentence her to 21 months in jail. Discussing the case, Det. Con Daryl Fryatt, who worked in the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said, “Stealing copyrighted material for your own financial gain is illegal. It jeopardises the work of artists and the livelihoods of the people who work with them to create and release their music.”

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Hacker Had Hard Drives With Over 300,000 Tracks On It Including Coldplay

Law enforcement first arrested Dalziel back in January 2023. At the time, police officers found hard drives containing nearly 300,000 songs on it. That was just the start as investigators also located a spreadsheet that showed her entire business of selling the stolen tracks. And it seemed that some of the bank accounts the hacker transferred the money to were in the United States. 

While sentencing Dalziel over the stolen songs, detectives continue to work the case, hoping to locate the people linked to the hacker’s accounts. The London Police admitted to working with Homeland Security Investigations to close the case. 

Outside of Dalziel’s time behind bars, she was also sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work. 

(Photo by NDZ/Star Max/GC Images)