Michael Smith sentenced to 18 months for $8 million AI music fraud

Michael Smith has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for orchestrating a massive streaming fraud scheme that diverted over $8 million in royalties. Operating between 2017 and 2024, Smith used up to 10,000 automated bot accounts to simulate billions of plays for hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs.

To evade detection by anti-fraud systems, Smith distributed the artificial streams across a vast volume of tracks rather than concentrating them on a few songs. The scheme utilized fake email addresses and fraudulently obtained debit cards to legitimize the bot accounts on platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. At one point, the volume of fraudulent streams reportedly exceeded the total plays of Taylor Swift’s entire catalog.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald described the case as the first-ever criminal prosecution for AI-assisted streaming fraud, noting that Smith’s actions robbed genuine artists and songwriters of millions in payments. In addition to his prison sentence, Smith is ordered to pay back $8.09 million and will serve two years of supervised release.