This guy could be fined up to US$8 million for streaming fraud
Michael Smith thought he had a good scam going from his home in Cornelius, Virginia. Using an AI program, he generated thousands–yes, thousands–of fake songs and posted them on Spotify and other platforms.
Using some nefarious technology, he figured out a way to stream those songs to no one billions–yes, billions–of times. The DOJ said that his bots were good for 661,440 streams per day. The potential annual payoff was US$1.2 million.
All those streams generated royalties. And until he was caught, all those royalties flowed to Smith. Millions of dollars–probably around US$8 million–that should have gone to real, live humans went instead to Smith’s AI slop. His methods were clever, and he was able to avoid all of the platforms’ fraud detection measures. Until they did.
Smith was first indicted in September 2024. At the time, it was the first-ever criminal case of streaming fraud in the US. He pleaded not guilty and was set free on bail of US$800,000.
Since then, though, he’s had a change of heart. Yesterday (March 19), he pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy. This means he could get just five years in jail as opposed to the 60 years he was originally facing.
Could he still get jail time? Yes. A fine? Yes. He’s gotta pay back that US$8 million. We’ll find out at his sentencing on July 29.
