Music streaming fraud involves billions in stolen royalties

Criminals are generating billions through fraudulent music streaming, a practice increasingly amplified by artificial intelligence. Melanie Stavenow, a specialist based in New York, tracks digital footprints to uncover these schemes.

Fraudsters use bots to repeatedly play specific songs, artificially inflating play counts to claim music royalties. This process diverts funds from legitimate artists and rights holders. In some instances, musicians unknowingly pay for marketing services that actually deploy bots to manipulate their streaming numbers, while in other cases, the fraud is a deliberate attempt to launder money from other criminal activities.