Michael Jackson’s back catalogue stolen from Sony Music

Sony Music has confirmed that songs from the now defunct King of Pop’s back catalogue have been stolen following their servers being hacked.

Following revelations made by the Sunday Times that computer hackers had managed to gain access to Sony Music’s servers and steal Michael Jackson’s entire music back catalogue, the record label has confirmed the theft of a number of tracks.

In 2010, Sony Music negotiated a contract worth 250 million dollars with Michael Jackson’s heirs to acquire the distribution rights to the King of Pop’s albums until 2017.

Sony also got their hands on some 50 000 tracks from the singers career including never before heard duets (never commercially released) with will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas and even older singers like Freddie Mercury from Queen.

If we believe the Sunday Times, "everything that Sony purchased has been compromised" through this attack. This is rather embarrassing for Sony, who would rather not release details on the number of tracks taken and what they were.

The unauthorized access to the servers was discovered a few weeks after Sony’s PlayStation Network was hacked in April 2011, with the record label only today confirming that the attack took place. No indication has at this time been made as to whether the songs illegally taken have appeared on the web.

Two people living in the United Kingdom have been accused of conducting this attack, with their trial currently set to take place in January 2013.