Ariana Grande Wins Fast-Track Subpoena Power to Name Alleged Music Hackers

A Los Angeles judge has granted Ariana Grande the legal mechanism she says is necessary to unmask the people behind years of unreleased music theft. In a ruling Wednesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark H. Epstein waived a 20-day notice period tied to her invasion of privacy lawsuit, finding that Grande cannot identify the alleged hackers without immediate subpoena power.

The singer filed the lawsuit on July 27, claiming that hackers used stolen login credentials and phishing schemes to access the personal digital accounts of her photographers and producers. Once inside, they allegedly took unreleased masters, demos, and recording-session footage, then sold the material on the dark web for “significant sums.” Her filings state that 45 unreleased songs were stolen and leaked in 2023 alone, part of a pattern she says dates back to her 2011 debut.

Grande’s lawyers argue that the defendants hide behind multiple pseudonymous accounts across platforms including Twitter, Instagram, Discord, TikTok, and Dropbox, and use peer-to-peer payment methods that obscure subscriber identities. Without fast-tracked discovery, her filing says, the hacking, theft, and sales “will continue.”

The ruling does not name anyone. It clears a procedural path for Grande to request business records from platforms that may hold the account data needed to connect anonymous aliases to real people. For artists whose unreleased material circulates as currency online, that is often the only route from leak to legal accountability.