Man sentenced in $8M AI music streaming fraud first, prosecutors say
Fox Business • • entertainment
Key Points:
- Michael Smith, a 54-year-old from North Carolina, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for using AI-generated music and thousands of bots to fraudulently collect over $8 million in streaming royalties.
- Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and created thousands of fake accounts on platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music from 2017 to 2024.
- He operated up to 10,000 bot accounts simultaneously, streaming AI-generated songs to collect royalties from non-existent listeners while evading anti-fraud detection systems.
- In April 2023 alone, Smith's bots generated 80.9 million fraudulent YouTube Music streams, vastly outnumbering legitimate streams of major artists like Taylor Swift.
- In addition to prison time, Smith was ordered to forfeit over $8 million and serve two years of supervised release, marking the Justice Department's first criminal case involving AI-assisted music streaming fraud.
