Coldplay and Upsahl songs stolen by Luton cyber hacker

Coldplay were the headline act at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, which was held in Luton in the summer

PA Media Coldplay's Chris Martin performing on stage at Wembley Stadium, north London, in 2022. He has short brown hair and stubble and is holding the microphone up to his mouth with his left hand. His right hand is outstretched. He is wearing a reddish t-shirt — Coldplay were the headline act at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, which was held in Luton in the summer

A cyber hacker has pleaded guilty to stealing unreleased music from artists including Coldplay, Canadian singer Shawn Mendes and US singer Bebe Rexha.

Skylar Dalziel made about £42,000 by selling the tracks online, according to City of London Police.

Prosecutor Richard Partridge said she “selfishly used their music to make money for herself by selling it on the dark web”.

The 22-year-old, of Winchester Gardens in Luton, admitted 11 copyright offences at Luton Crown Court and was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months.

Det Con Daryl Fryatt, from the force’s 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.”

Mendes has had a number of chart-topping hits in the UK, US and Canada

PA Media Shawn Mendes who has dark fairly short wavy hair and stubble. He is wearing a black jacket and looking towards his left with his hands up in prayer — Mendes has had a number of chart-topping hits in the UK, US and Canada

Dalziel got hold of the music by illegally accessing cloud storage accounts linked to the artists.

The thefts came to light when Sony Music Entertainment discovered a cloud account owned by Upsahl had been compromised and reported it to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in June 2021.

Forty unreleased tracks had been extracted and were being sold online, police said.

The IFPI and the Recording Industry Association of America identified an account on an online forum selling unreleased music from various artists and that account was linked to Dalziel.

Rexha, whose real name is Bleta Rexha, is best known for high-energy pop hits like I’m Good (Blue) with David Guetta, and Heart Wants What It Wants

PA Media Bebe Rexha during the 76th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, n 2023. She has blonde hair pulled back and around her face. She is wearing a spaghetti strap dress with a very large pink bow at her back. Her head is tilted up and she is wearing a silver necklace saying Bebe — Rexha, whose real name is Bleta Rexha, is best known for high-energy pop hits like I’m Good (Blue) with David Guetta, and Heart Wants What It Wants

The thefts came to light when Sony Music Entertainment discovered that a cloud account owned by Upsahl had been compromised

Getty Images UPSAHL performing July 31, 2024 in Miami Beach, Florida. Shehas pulled back reddish hair and is wearing a grey and blue jacket, possibly leather. She is seated and playing a guitar, looking slightly over to her right, with a microphone on a stand in front of her — The thefts came to light when Sony Music Entertainment discovered that a cloud account owned by Upsahl had been compromised

Officers said they arrested Dalziel on 9 January 2023 and seized three drives which contained 291,941 music tracks.

They also found a spreadsheet which showed she had sold tracks to customers and her PayPal and bank accounts revealed she had received £42,049 from April 2021 to January 2023.

Some of this money was transferred to bank accounts in the US and City of London Police said it was working with Homeland Security Investigations to identify the people linked to the accounts.

Martinez, whose songs include Teacher’s Pet and Play Date, is known for her distinctive two-toned hair and baby-doll dresses, was also affected by the hack

Getty Images Melanie Martinez perform in 2024 in Milan, Italy. She has her arms outstretched with her microphone held in her right hand and is looking up and smiling. She is wearing a pink dress, with short white puffed sleeves — Martinez, whose songs include Teacher’s Pet and Play Date, is known for her distinctive two-toned hair and baby-doll dresses, was also affected by the hack

Dalziel pleaded guilty to 11 counts of making for sale an article without licence of the copyright’s owner, one count of transferring criminal property and three counts of acquiring/using/possessing criminal property.

She was also sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work.

Det Con Fryatt said the sentencing “sends a clear message that we have the ability and tools to locate cyber criminals and hold them to account for their actions”.