The FBI arrested Michael Smith, a 52-year-old musician from North Carolina, on September 5, 2024, in a major crackdown on music streaming fraud.
Smith is accused of orchestrating an elaborate scheme that involved using artificial intelligence (AI) and bot accounts to inflate the number of streams for his AI-generated songs on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. This fraudulent activity allegedly earned him over $10 million in royalties between 2017 and 2024.
According to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, "As alleged, Michael Smith fraudulently streamed songs created with artificial intelligence billions of times." The scheme reportedly involved up to 661,000 daily streams across multiple AI-generated songs, utilizing as many as 10,000 fake profiles.
Smith's operation was sophisticated, involving collaboration with the CEO of an unnamed AI music company and a music promoter to produce the volume of songs necessary for the scam.
The charges against Smith include wire fraud and money laundering, which could result in a prison sentence of up to 60 years if he is found guilty.
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