Man pleads guilty to $8M AI-generated music scheme
6 hours ago
- #AI fraud
- #music streaming
- #cybercrime
- Michael Smith, a North Carolina man, pleaded guilty to a music streaming fraud scheme using AI and bot accounts to siphon over $8 million in royalties.
- Smith used thousands of fake accounts on platforms like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music to inflate streaming numbers for AI-generated songs.
- He collaborated with a co-conspirator and an AI music company CEO to upload computer-generated tracks and used bots to generate billions of streams between 2017 and 2024.
- Smith concealed the fraud by spreading activity across thousands of tracks and using VPNs to mimic legitimate listeners.
- He created up to 10,000 bot accounts at once using fake email addresses and outsourced labor, collecting over $8 million in fraudulent royalties.
- Smith faces up to five years in prison for the scheme, which involved false statements to streaming services and rights organizations.
- Streaming platforms like Deezer are enhancing AI detection tools due to the influx of AI-generated tracks, with over 60,000 daily submissions.
- Apple is introducing metadata labels to disclose AI use in music production, aiming to differentiate human-created and synthetic content.