North Carolina musician charged over “brazen” AI music streaming fraud scheme that allegedly faked billions of playsA North Carolina musician has been charged by US federal prosecutors in connection with a scheme to create “hundreds of thousands of songs” with artificial intelligence (AI) and using bots to fraudulently stream these tracks billions of times.
According to New York authorities, 52-year-old Michael Smith from Cornelius, North Carolina, allegedly collected over $10 million in royalty payments through the fraudulent operation, which began in 2017. Smith is now being charged with three counts of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, facing a penalty of up to 60 years in prison.

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“As alleged, Michael Smith fraudulently streamed songs created with artificial intelligence billions of times in order to steal royalties,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in an indictment on Wednesday (September 4).
“Through his brazen fraud scheme, Smith stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed.”
Smith was arrested Wednesday and will face a US magistrate judge in North Carolina. His lawyer has declined comment, Rolling Stone reports.
Per the indictment, Smith allegedly created thousands of accounts on streaming platforms to stream songs. The “bot accounts” were allegedly used to generate about 661,440 streams per day, yielding annual royalties of $1,027,128. At the height of his alleged scheme, the musician is said to have had “as many as 10,000 active bot accounts” running.
Streams were also allegedly spread across thousands of songs to avoid detection from streaming platforms and music distribution companies. The indictment accuses Smith of enlisting the help of the CEO of an AI company and a music promoter, both of whom are unnamed, to create the songs needed. Smith allegedly emailed his two co-conspirators in 2018, saying: “We need to get a TON of songs fast to make this work around the anti-fraud policies these guys are all using now.”
The indictment also alleges that Smith made numerous misrepresentations to streaming platforms to further the fraud. Smith allegedly repeatedly lied to the platforms when he used false names and other information to create the bot accounts and when he agreed to abide by the terms and conditions that prohibited streaming manipulation. A 2019 email from an alleged co-conspirator to Smith reads: “Keep in mind what we’re doing musically here… this is not ‘music,’ it’s ‘instant music’ ;)”.
FBI Acting Assistant Director Christie M. Curtis said that Smith’s alleged scheme “played upon the integrity of the music industry by a concerted attempt to circumvent the streaming platforms’ policies.”
“The FBI remains dedicated to plucking out those who manipulate advanced technology to receive illicit profits and infringe on the genuine artistic talent of others.”
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