Smashing Pumpkins lead singer paid hackers to prevent leak of new songs

The Smashing Pumpkins’ new album ATUM has already been released. But hackers might have disrupted the procedure, the band’s lead singer Billy Corgan says, and admitted he had paid a ransom from his own pocket.

ATUM: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, the twelfth studio album by American rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, is already on sale. It was released in three separate installments of 11 songs each in November, January, and just recently on May 5th.

But at least nine songs would have been leaked online prematurely, the band’s lead singer Corgan has now revealed, unless ransom was paid to the hackers. Corgan says he did just that.

In Klein. Ally. Show, a podcast by broadcast and internet radio platform Audacy, Corgan revealed that the hack took place about half a year ago when the album was going through mixing and mastering.

The singer acknowledged that he felt uncertainty about the whole editing process because, nowadays, digital files are sent out to different people and the risk of a leak is quite high. That’s precisely what happened – a fan contacted Corgan to let him know that nine songs had been leaked.

“They were all probably the most catchy, single-y type songs,” Corgan said in the interview “You’re pretty much giving away the album before you even have a chance to set your feet into the ground.”

According to the singer, the hacker was offering the stolen files for money, which Corgan paid from his own pocket. He then contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigations, which eventually tracked the hacker down and arrested him.

"I don't know the end result of it yet. They had stuff that was shocking to me, classic stuff from bands in the past probably doing re-issues. I don't think any of that stuff's leaked out, so whatever happened it all got shut down," Corgan said.

Songs or albums might leak on the internet days, weeks, or months before their scheduled release. They usually originate from advance copies sent to journalists and industry insiders. In some cases, hackers leak demos or scrapped work that was never intended for public release.

One of the first albums to leak on the internet was Depeche Mode's 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion. Someone took possession of the recordings from the band’s sessions, formed them into songs, and shared them in chat rooms online.