Studio Engineer Charged For Selling Unreleased Eminem Tracks Online

Joseph Strange, who lost his job at Eminem’s studio in 2021, copied the tunes to an external hard drive before selling it to buyers online.

FBI prosecutors say a former studio engineer was charged with copyright infringement and interstate transportation after distributing 25 of Eminem’s unfinished songs online.

Joseph Strange, 46, played and distributed Eminem’s tracks online without his or Interscope Capital Labels Group’s consent after downloading the unfinished songs from a hard drive kept in a password-protected safe at Eminem’s studio in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb.

Strange, who lost his job at the studio in 2021, copied the tunes to an external hard drive in October 2019 and January 2020, before selling it to buyers online. One buyer, known by his online alias as Doja Rat, told investigators he had purchased 25 unreleased songs from Strange for about $50,000 (R900,000) in Bitcoin. Several of the stolen tracks have also ended up on Reddit and YouTube.

Records show another group of fans, organised by someone in Connecticut using the screen name ATL, also purchased “a couple” of songs from Strange for about $1,000 (R18,000).

In a statement, Strange’s attorney Wade Fink his client is a married father of two “with decades of dedication to the music industry”. He called the charges “untested allegations” that haven’t been vetted by a grand jury or a judge, adding: “We will handle the matter in a courtroom and we have great faith in the judges of our district.”

Strange, who apparently took his one shot yo, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the charges.