Man Pleads Guilty to Using AI to Generate $8 Million in Fraudulent Streaming Music Royalties

A North Carolina man pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal cost tied to a scheme that used synthetic intelligence and automatic accounts to gather greater than $8 million in music streaming royalties, in line with the U.S. Division of Justice.

Michael Smith pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud within the Southern District of New York following a yearslong investigation. He agreed to forfeit the royalty funds and faces as much as 5 years in jail.

“Michael Smith generated hundreds of faux songs utilizing synthetic intelligence after which streamed these faux songs billions of occasions,” U.S. Lawyer Jay Clayton stated in a press release.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 29.

The case comes as AI-generated music instruments have develop into extensively accessible, permitting customers to create songs with vocals, lyrics, and instrumentation from easy prompts. Platforms like Suno, Udio, and Google’s Lyria have accelerated manufacturing, making it attainable to generate giant catalogs of tracks at scale. On the identical time, the know-how has raised questions on copyright, possession, and the way streaming platforms deal with AI-generated content material.

In January, Rolling Stone reported that Smith had spent years pursuing a music profession, together with charting songs and dealing with business collaborators, earlier than investigators tied him to the scheme to control streaming providers.

Streaming providers, together with Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music, distribute royalty funds primarily based on play counts, creating an incentive to inflate streams.

When he was first charged in September 2024, federal prosecutors stated Smith had created hundreds of accounts on streaming platforms to artificially play songs he owned, utilizing software program to generate roughly 661,440 streams per day and round $1.2 million in annual royalties. He was launched on a $500,000 bond the next month.

“To acquire the mandatory variety of songs for his scheme to succeed, Smith turned to synthetic intelligence, which he used to create lots of of hundreds of AI-generated songs for which he may manipulate the streams,” prosecutors stated.

Somewhat than consider a small variety of tracks, Smith unfold streams throughout a big catalog. Prosecutors stated the method was meant to keep away from detection techniques that flag irregular exercise. The catalog included each his personal recordings and lots of of hundreds of AI-generated tracks, permitting the operation to scale.

“Though the songs and listeners had been faux, the thousands and thousands of {dollars} Smith stole was actual,” Clayton stated. “Hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in royalties that Smith diverted from actual, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.”

Attorneys for Smith didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark by Decrypt.