Ex-Eminem employee pleads guilty to selling rapper's unreleased music for about $50,000
A former Eminem employee pleaded guilty to selling unreleased songs by the rapper, music that ended up on streaming platforms and was accessed more than 8 million times, the Justice Department said.
Joseph Strange, 48, of Holly, Michigan, pleaded guilty in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan to criminal infringement of a copyright. He faces up to five years in prison.
According to court documents, Strange worked for Eminem, whose legal name is Marshall Mathers, from about 2007 until 2021. He worked at a studio in Ferndale, Michigan, where Mathers created music for future release. Strange helped set up and operate the computer system that stored that music, and he had access to password-protected hard drives holding songs still in development.
Prosecutors say Strange copied 10 or more audio files from the drives without authority. In July and August 2024, he sold and sent them to buyers over the internet for about $50,000 total, without Mathers' knowledge or authorization.
The files were later released online and made available on streaming platforms without Mathers' permission or knowledge. Data from several streaming providers showed that infringing files identified by the government had been accessed more than 8 million times as of November 2025. The Justice Department estimated the infringement amount of the stolen files at $750,000 or more.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said Strange "abused a position of trust" to copy and sell music that was not yet authorized for public distribution.
As previously reported, Strange was named in a criminal complaint after employees at Mathers' Ferndale studio contacted the FBI on Jan. 16, 2025, to report they had found unreleased music created by the rapper available on the internet.
The FBI is investigating the case. Senior Counsel Vasantha Rao of the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Wyse and Alyse Wu are prosecuting it.
Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 27, 2027.
