A Holly, Michigan, man who worked for Eminem at his music studio has pleaded guilty to a federal copyright-infringement charge for reproducing and selling the rap star’s unreleased music.
Joseph Strange, 48, faces up to five years in prison Jan. 17 when he is sentenced Jan. 27 by U.S. District Judge Brandy McMillion in the federal courthouse in Detroit, according to U.S. Attorneys.
Strange was an employee of Eminem’s Mathers Music Studio in Ferndale when he allegedly stole and posted over 25 unreleased songs by the rap superstar on the internet, and sold them to multiple buyers for $50,000, FBI officials alleged in the March 2025 criminal complaint. The songs, created by Eminem between 1999 and 2018, were in “various stages of development” and released without the consent of Eminem or the Interscope Capital Labels Group, the FBI said.
“Joseph Strange abused a position of trust to unlawfully copy and sell unreleased music belonging to Eminem, profiting from works that were not yet authorized for public distribution,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “His conduct undermined both legal and artistic rights.”
“Detroit has always been a city where creativity thrives, and no one has the right to steal or profit from another artist’s work without their permission,” said Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan of the FBI Detroit Field Office. “Today’s guilty plea reinforces a simple principle: accountability follows those who compromise the integrity of another person’s creative labor. I want to commend the outstanding work of our FBI Oakland County Resident Agency and the entire investigative team, whose persistence and professionalism drove this case forward. We also appreciate the cooperation of Mathers Music Studio throughout the investigation. Protecting intellectual property means protecting the time, talent, and livelihoods behind it, and we will continue to treat these violations with the seriousness they deserve.”
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, is a Warren native and Clinton Township resident. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
Strange was a employee of Mathers from approximately 2007 until 2021 at the studio that Mathers used to create and develop music for sale and distribution, officials said. Strange helped set up and operate a computer system that stored music created by Mathers. Strange had access to password-protected hard drives that contained music in the process of being developed by Mathers and that was not yet meant to be released to the public. At some point Strange without permission copied 10 or more audio files of music and material in various stages of development from one or more of these drives. Strange illicitly sold and transmitted 10 or more of these music files to purchasers via the internet, all done without Mathers’s knowledge or authorization in July and August 2024.
Officials said the investigation started after music-studio employees contacted the FBI on or about Jan. 16, 2025, telling agents unreleased Eminem songs were being played on web sites such “reddit, YouTube and leaked.cx,” the complaint said. While no commercial release of the music or material within these files was imminent or even certain, professional efforts had been made to prepare some of the music for possible commercial release, in some cases including studio mastering, officials said. Data provided by several streaming providers evidenced that, as of November 2025, infringing audio files identified by the government had been accessed more than eight million times. The value of the stolen files is estimated to be at least $750,000, officials said.
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Financial records indicate payments were made to Strange for the music by three groups of fans via electronic transactions, officials said.
Mike Strange, who was a sound engineer at the studio, told agents he is Joseph Strange’s uncle but that they “were raised together and consider themselves brothers,” the complaint says.
Joseph Strange was “heavily involved in Bitcoin,” Mike Strange said, and worked as a delivery driver for a marijuana dispensary after he left the studio, according to the complaint.
Joseph Strange needed the money to fund a surgery he underwent, according to another witness, the complaint said.
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