Ariana Grande Wins Court Order to Subpoena Instagram, TikTok and PayPal in Music Leak Case

Ariana Grande can now compel Instagram, TikTok and PayPal to hand over account information that could identify people behind the leak of her unreleased music, after a Los Angeles judge granted her request for expedited discovery on August 19.

Judge Mark H. Epstein of the Los Angeles Superior Court wrote in the order: "Plaintiff may serve the discovery aimed at identifying the identities of the Doe defendants at any time." Expedited discovery is a fast-track legal process that lets a plaintiff gather evidence — in this case, account, subscriber and login data — before the usual pre-trial exchange, because names are needed just to know who to sue.

Grande's attorney, Joshua Rosenberg, filed the request on August 18. The underlying lawsuit was filed on July 27, listing the defendants as John Doe 1 and John Does 2 through 100 — placeholder names used when identities are not yet known.

According to the complaint, hackers broke into the personal digital accounts of photographers and producers who have worked with Grande and sold the stolen personal data and content on the dark web, the layer of the internet accessible only through specialised software. The complaint states that the hackers' transactions ran through payment services including PayPal and CashApp.

The scale alleged in the filing is significant. The suit claims 45 unreleased songs were "hacked, stolen and leaked by defendants" in 2023 alone, and that hundreds of similar leaks have occurred since Grande's music debut in 2011.

The legal claims brought in the suit cover invasion of privacy, conversion (the wrongful taking of someone else's property), and violation of California's Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, a state law targeting unauthorised access to computer systems and data.

The court order opens a path to unmasking the people involved. Subpoenas served on Instagram and TikTok could reveal the accounts used to distribute leaked material, while PayPal records could trace the payment trail described in the complaint.

For an artist, unreleased material is unfinished work — demos, alternate takes and session recordings that may never be intended for release, or may be held for a future album rollout. When that material surfaces publicly ahead of schedule, it can derail release plans and compromise creative control, regardless of how the leaked recordings sound or whether they find an audience.

Billboard first reported the court order on August 19, with The Hollywood Reporter confirming the grant of expedited discovery the same day. Music Business Worldwide published further details of the complaint on August 20.