A music producer was arrested Wednesday and charged with multiple crimes after allegedly raking in more than $10 million in royalties using hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs.
AI bots are ruining Spotify
Michael Smith, 52, of Cornelius, NC, allegedly created thousands of bot accounts on platforms including Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music. According to the indictment, he used the accounts to automatically stream AI music he uploaded to the platforms, amounting to as many as 661,440 streams per day.
Smith allegedly orchestrated the scheme to circumvent the platforms’ fraud detection systems. Prosecutors allege he initially engaged in fraudulent streaming of music he owned. But the streaming platforms could likely detect fraud if a particular piece of music was streamed a billion times.
Then, according to the indictment, he began producing as much music as possible.