Musician Arrested for AI Streaming Fraud

Michael Smith, a 52-year-old musician from Cornelius, North Carolina, has been arrested and charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy for orchestrating a scheme to defraud music streaming platforms of over $10 million in royalties. From 2017 to 2024, Smith used AI-generated songs and bots to inflate streaming numbers on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, generating billions of fake streams. By creating hundreds of thousands of AI-generated tracks and using thousands of bot accounts, Smith collected substantial royalties intended for legitimate artists. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the FBI led the investigation, marking the first such criminal case involving the use of bots to manipulate streaming numbers. If convicted, Smith faces up to 60 years in prison.