A North Carolina man has been charged with orchestrating a complex fraud scheme using artificial intelligence and bots to manipulate music streaming platforms, allegedly stealing over $10 million in royalties . This case marks the first criminal investigation involving AI in music streaming fraud.
Michael Smith is accused of creating hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs under fake band names such as “Callous Post,” “Calorie Screams” and “Calvinistic Dust.”
These songs, with titles like “Zygotic Washstands” and “Zymotechnical,” were streamed billions of times on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music using bots Smith programmed, according to federal prosecutors.
Smith’s scheme, which ran from 2017 through 2024, began with him uploading his own music, but he quickly expanded by partnering with an AI music company and a promoter in 2018.
In exchange for a share of the profits, the AI company generated thousands of tracks that Smith streamed using 10,000 fake accounts he created. Prosecutors said Smith spread these streams across a vast catalog of songs to avoid detection.