Grouper's Viral Hit Was Stolen: Liz Harris Fights Streaming Scam

Grouper's Liz Harris discovered her song 'Poison Tree' was fraudulently uploaded and monetized, with hundreds of millions of plays.

The Guardian's Jenn Pelly reports that during the pandemic, Liz Harris's 2008 rarity 'Poison Tree' — a gothic hymn written in her mid-20s after relocating to Portland while feeling intensely isolated — went viral on TikTok, introducing a 'younger generation of really sweet, rad, open-minded kids' to her ambient project Grouper. According to the Guardian, Harris pays little attention to streaming stats and didn't even know how to look them up. When Brian Foote, general manager of her label Kranky, told her the song had accrued 20 million plays, she replied that it was 'weird' because she had never put it on digital services. Foote's answer — 'that's why I'm telling you' — revealed the problem: someone else had registered and uploaded the song, per the Guardian's account.

Per the Guardian, the fraudulently registered track had already earned Harris's impersonator around six figures, and 'Poison Tree' now sits at more than 300 million plays on what the paper calls the world's biggest music streamer. Harris says she and Foote were able to shut down the scammer and recover what she was owed only because the fraudster happened to use the same distribution platform as she did. She tells the Guardian that people assume streaming platforms are far more regulated than they actually are: 'It is not regulated.' Beyond this one case, she describes fighting fake remixes and copycat uploads as a constant chore of 'whack-a-mole-ing' infringing tracks, and says it is 'rational' to fear immersing herself in the music industry.

The Guardian's interview frames why Harris keeps the industry at arm's length: she started Grouper in 2005 in Oakland's DIY noise warehouses and now works alone in Astoria, Oregon, making densely layered songs from guitar, piano, voice and space — work she describes as 'like a bloodletting.' Pelly notes her influence spans artists as disparate as Phoebe Bridgers and Mk.gee, with samples by Lil B and 100 Gecs. Harris also tells the paper her parents joined a Sonoma County spiritual group called the Group — where 'groupers' got her project's name — which she now calls 'a cult' that was 'exploitative,' though she says it no longer holds her focus the way it once did.

The reason for the Guardian's profile right now is 'Linda's Head,' the second album by Helen, Harris's dream-pop trio with drummer Jed Bindeman and bassist Scott Simmons, and the backdrop of two sold-out Grouper nights at New York's Town Hall — her first time 'out in the world' since the song blew up, per the interview. Harris says Helen lets her show a side of herself that doesn't get through Grouper: 'I like having fun and I like my friends. I'm not just in the corner crying,' she tells the paper, adding that rehearsals were 'restorative' while she navigated medical difficulties. The Guardian says she's feeling more 'integrated' lately — her set now opens with a cappella 'Invisible,' reframed as a superpower to retreat as she needs. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed is leaning into festival fantasy of a different sort, publishing a dream-lineup quiz tied to the theatrical release of 'Rolling Loud: The Movie.'