Alleged fraudster got $10 million in royalties using robots to stream AI-made music

Man charged for using bots to stream AI-generated songs for $10M in royalties

Federal authorities hit a North Carolina man with charges arising from allegations that he fraudulently earned streaming royalties through a scheme involving bots and AI-generated songs.

‘Musician’ Arrested for Using AI Songs and a Bot Army to Scam Spotify for Millions in Royalties

Is this the future of AI scamming? Michael Smith, a 52-year-old from Cornelius, North Carolina, allegedly used AI to automatically generate hundreds of thousands of songs that he then put on streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. He’s accused of using an army of bots to “listen” to the tracks that he created with no effort and likely no musical talent.  That netted him over $10 million in streaming royalties.  Now, Smith…

Man Created AI Songs And Used Bots To Collect $10M In Royalty Payments: Indictment

Computers played the AI-generated songs billions of times on various streaming platforms.

Man charged with streaming his AI-generated music billions of times using bots, generating $12 million

Between 2017 and 2024, 52-year-old Michael Smith of Cornelius, North Carolina, and his co-conspirators fraudulently increased the number of streams his AI-generated tracks received on platforms including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and YouTube, states court documents (via BleepingComputer).Read Entire Article

Musician accused of stealing $10m in royalties with bots and AI

The FBI claims the musician created hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs, which were streamed for years by bots to accumulate millions in revenue. Read more: Musician accused of stealing $10m in royalties with bots and AI

Man accused of using bots and AI to earn streaming revenue

Prosecutors in the US say he fraudulently earned millions of dollars through billions of streams.