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Crime

Radiohead donate stolen tracks to Extinction Rebellion

June 11, 2019

The band has reacted in unusual fashion to a ransom notice over 18 hours of hacked material. Rather than pay hackers, the group has put the tracks online and asked fans to donate to Extinction Rebellion.

Radiohead playing a live-stream concert in London in 2016
Image: picture-alliance/PA Wire/D. Jensen

The British rock band Radiohead announced on Tuesday that it would make public some 18 hours of previously unreleased music from the late 1990s, recorded around the time the band made the 1997 album "OK Computer."

The band was recently the victim of hackers who stole the music from singer Thom Yorke's private archive.

Those behind the hack had demanded $150,000 (€133,000) in return for not publishing the tracks, but Radiohead went on the offensive, announcing, "We're releasing all 18 hours on Bandcamp [a music-sharing site] in aid of Extinction Rebellion."

No surprises?

The band says it never intended to release the tracks, but that fans would now be able to purchase the music for 18 pounds ($23.00, €20.20) over the next 18 days, to "find out if we should have paid that ransom."

Extinction Rebellion, which recently gained attention for days of climate-change protests it orchestrated in London, said, "We thank Radiohead for supporting us so that we can continue to build our already far-reaching and powerful movement of non-violent civil disobedience."

js/msh (AP, dpa)

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