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| Eminem is photographed at his Mom's Spaghetti restaurant in September 2021. A former studio employee pleaded guilty Thursday to selling the rapper's unreleased recordings. (Brendan_linden/Wikimedia Commons) |
Joseph Strange helped operate the computer system that held Eminem's unreleased recordings. Now he has admitted selling music taken from that system for about $50,000.
Strange, 48, of Holly, Michigan, pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal copyright infringement in federal court in Detroit, admitting his role in a scheme that put music from the rapper's private studio into the hands of online buyers.
He faces up to five years in prison.
The guilty plea follows an FBI investigation that began in January 2025, when employees at Eminem's recording studio in Ferndale, Michigan, discovered unreleased songs circulating online.
Strange had worked for Eminem, whose legal name is Marshall Mathers, from approximately 2007 to 2021. His responsibilities included helping establish and operate the computer system used to store music in various stages of development.
That work gave him access to password-protected hard drives containing recordings that had never been cleared for public release.
According to the Justice Department, Strange copied at least 10 audio files without authorization and sold them to buyers over the internet during July and August 2024. The transactions totaled approximately $50,000.
The scope of the leak became clearer when FBI agents began tracing the music back to its source.
A criminal complaint filed in March 2025 described how investigators identified buyers, reviewed online conversations and followed Bitcoin payments connected to the sales.
One buyer, using the name Doja Rat, told investigators that a group of Eminem fans pooled money to purchase unreleased recordings from Strange. The buyer said the group acquired approximately 25 songs for about $50,000.
By the time the case became public, more than 25 recordings originally created between 1999 and 2018 had surfaced online without authorization, according to the FBI complaint.
Agents searching Strange's home in January 2025 recovered hard drives containing unreleased music and handwritten lyric sheets attributed to Eminem, the complaint said.
The leaked recordings were not necessarily songs Eminem intended to release.
Some remained works in progress, while others had undergone professional preparation, including studio mastering. Prosecutors said no commercial release was necessarily imminent or certain.
When the music first surfaced in January 2025, Eminem's longtime spokesperson, Dennis Dennehy, described the recordings to XXL as "demos, experiments and ideas" never intended for public consumption.
The exposure was considerable.
Streaming data cited by the Justice Department showed that the infringing audio files had been accessed more than 8 million times as of November 2025.
Prosecutors estimated the infringement amount at no less than $750,000. That figure is an estimated valuation of the infringement, not the amount Strange received from the sales or a court-ordered damages award.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said Strange had abused a position of trust, profiting from recordings their creator had not authorized for release.
Strange's attorney, Wade Fink, offered a different perspective on the circumstances surrounding his client's conduct.
"It is a far more complicated and nuanced matter than a man just unabashedly stealing," Fink told Reuters on Thursday.
Strange is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 27, 2027. The judge will determine his punishment after considering federal sentencing guidelines and other applicable factors.
He faces up to five years in prison.
The guilty plea follows an FBI investigation that began in January 2025, when employees at Eminem's recording studio in Ferndale, Michigan, discovered unreleased songs circulating online.
Strange had worked for Eminem, whose legal name is Marshall Mathers, from approximately 2007 to 2021. His responsibilities included helping establish and operate the computer system used to store music in various stages of development.
That work gave him access to password-protected hard drives containing recordings that had never been cleared for public release.
EMINEM MUSIC LEAK | FEDERAL CASE
$50,000
Approximate sales
10+
Files copied and sold
8M+
Recorded accesses
$750K+
Estimated infringement amount
Sources: Justice Department and FBI criminal complaint. The infringement estimate is not the seller's profit or a court-ordered damages award.
The scope of the leak became clearer when FBI agents began tracing the music back to its source.
A criminal complaint filed in March 2025 described how investigators identified buyers, reviewed online conversations and followed Bitcoin payments connected to the sales.
One buyer, using the name Doja Rat, told investigators that a group of Eminem fans pooled money to purchase unreleased recordings from Strange. The buyer said the group acquired approximately 25 songs for about $50,000.
By the time the case became public, more than 25 recordings originally created between 1999 and 2018 had surfaced online without authorization, according to the FBI complaint.
Agents searching Strange's home in January 2025 recovered hard drives containing unreleased music and handwritten lyric sheets attributed to Eminem, the complaint said.
The leaked recordings were not necessarily songs Eminem intended to release.
Some remained works in progress, while others had undergone professional preparation, including studio mastering. Prosecutors said no commercial release was necessarily imminent or certain.
When the music first surfaced in January 2025, Eminem's longtime spokesperson, Dennis Dennehy, described the recordings to XXL as "demos, experiments and ideas" never intended for public consumption.
The exposure was considerable.
Streaming data cited by the Justice Department showed that the infringing audio files had been accessed more than 8 million times as of November 2025.
Prosecutors estimated the infringement amount at no less than $750,000. That figure is an estimated valuation of the infringement, not the amount Strange received from the sales or a court-ordered damages award.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said Strange had abused a position of trust, profiting from recordings their creator had not authorized for release.
Strange's attorney, Wade Fink, offered a different perspective on the circumstances surrounding his client's conduct.
"It is a far more complicated and nuanced matter than a man just unabashedly stealing," Fink told Reuters on Thursday.
Strange is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 27, 2027. The judge will determine his punishment after considering federal sentencing guidelines and other applicable factors.
