Atlantic Records subpoenas Reddit to catch Twenty One Pilots leaker

by Jeremy Mersereau

August 3, 2016

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The label had big plans for the Suicide Squad single... until a redditor leaked it.

You’d think that when someone goes to the trouble of subpoenaing a major website, they’re looking for criminal activity a few orders of magnitude greater than leaking a song from a movie about sexy supervillains, but that’s not the world we live in.

A song from Ohio duo Twenty One Pilots, “Heathens,” was planned for release back on June 24th, but an enterprising Redditor known only as ‘twentyoneheathens’ managed to get ahold of the track, upload it, and leak it with a post to their favourite community a full 9 days ahead of schedule.

Normally, that kind of lead time on a leak isn’t such a huge deal, but Atlantic Records planned to heavily push the the single as part of the marketing campaign around the (apparently terrible) Suicide Squad. As we all know, release dates tend to get a little more critical when they’re entwined with killer clowns and Will Smith.

According to a court document filed by Atlantic, the label is now trying to ascertain the identity of the Reddit user/leaker through legal means. Atlantic says all of its employees who were aware of the impending Pilots release were “contractually obligated and/or under a fiduciary obligation” not to disclose the existence of the track, and so the leaker, whoever they are, is legally culpable for the illicit upload… and of course, there’s the whole ‘lost revenue’ thing:

“Following the June 16, 2016, release, sales of the Heathens single, which were unsupported by Atlantic’s carefully-planned marketing strategy, failed to reach predicted levels, causing substantial harm to Atlantic in the form of lost single and album sales revenue,” reads Atlantic’s complaint, and with it, they’re asking the court to force Reddit to hand over any information it may have that could help identify ‘twentyoneheathens’.

The original upload, which was hosted on Slovakian site Dropfile.io, has since expired.

Come on though, I think we all know the leaker’s real identity: Jared Leto as The Joker, in full irritating method-acting mode. Only a guy who tattoos “Damaged” on his forehead could pull off a nefarious act like this. [h/t Digital Music News]

Tags: Music, News, Twenty One Pilots

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