---
title: Radiohead Releases Music Tracks After Being Hacked
description: Radiohead gets hacked. After a hacker steals Radiohead music tracks, the band releases the tracks instead of paying hackers a blackmail or ransom demand.
---

[SecureWorld News ](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news)

# [Radiohead Releases Music Tracks After Being Hacked](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/radiohead-hacked-music-tracks)

 Written by [SecureWorld News Team](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/author/secureworld-news-team) | Tue | Jun 11, 2019 | 6:06 PM Z

Hackers lose.

Radiohead fans win.

It's an odd tale that could possibly make for good song lyrics.

## **Hacker tries to blackmail Radiohead**

A hacker attempted to blackmail Radiohead after stealing music tracks from lead singer Thom Yorke's computer.

*Pay up, or I publish, *was essentially the message.

The group changed the tune on that one by making a surprising announcement on its blog: 

"We got hacked last week, someone stole Tom's mini-disc archives from around the time of Ok Computer [the band's 1997 album which sold nearly 8 million copies] and reportedly demanded $150,000 on threat of releasing it.

So instead of complaining—much—or ignoring it, we're releasing all 18 hours of it on Bandcamp in aid of Extinction Rebellion."

<http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace>

Bandcamp is a music discovery site where you can find "amazing new music and directly support the artists who make it."

In this case, however, the band says the £18 price for the 18 mini-discs which were hacked will raise money for a climate protest group called [Extinction Rebellion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_Rebellion).

Radiohead posted this note on the hacked tracks [download page](https://radiohead.bandcamp.com/):

"As it’s out there it may as well be out there until we all get bored and move on."

Let's see how long that takes.

### **Fans react to  Radiohead hacking response**

For now, Radiohead fans seem to be loving the band's decision to not pay hackers and instead raise money for a cause with these tracks, which were never intended to be released.

Evidence of this comes from when lead guitarist and keyboardist Johnny Greenwood [tweeted the news](https://twitter.com/JnnyG/status/1138403690350596098).  Here is how fans replied:

Radiohead is certainly not the first in entertainment to have creative content stolen. Here are a few additional entertainment industry hacks which come to mind:

[Hackers Release 'Game of Thrones' Episode](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/game-of-thrones-episode-leaked-following-unrelated-hbo-hack)  
[Leaked Email Claims HBO Offered Hackers $250,000](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/leaked-email-claims-hbo-offered-hackers-250000-in-disguised-bug-bounty-ransom-payment)  
'[Orange Is the New Black' Hacking Details](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/orange-is-the-new-black-supposedly-leaked-online-after-netflix-refuses-to-pay-ransom)

[View full post](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/radiohead-hacked-music-tracks)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "SecureWorld News Team"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2019-06-13T22:10:43.681Z",
  "datePublished" : "2019-06-11T18:06:06Z",
  "headline" : "Radiohead Releases Music Tracks After Being Hacked",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 334,
    "url" : "https://info.secureworldexpo.com/hubfs/Radiohead-editorialimage-shutterstock.jpg",
    "width" : 500
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/radiohead-hacked-music-tracks",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60.0,
      "url" : "https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/2221756/Logos/SWE/SWE_logo_full-long_forWHITEbackgrounds.jpg",
      "width" : 304.46954
    },
    "name" : "SecureWorld News"
  }
}
```