Created songs with AI and made $10 million - musician faces 60 years in prison

Musician Michael Smith has been arrested in New York (USA) for fraud involving the use of AI to create songs. He faces up to 60 years in prison for illegally obtaining $10 million in royalties from streaming services.

Prosecutors claim that Smith generated "hundreds of thousands" of songs using AI and uploaded them to popular music platforms including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. The musician allegedly collaborated with the CEO of an unnamed company specializing in AI-generated music, along with other accomplices in the US and abroad.

According to the investigation, Smith managed a network of over 10,000 bot accounts on streaming services. He hired individuals to register these accounts using fictitious names and addresses. To maximize profits, Smith purchased "family plans" on streaming platforms, which allowed him to create multiple accounts at a reduced cost.

To conceal his activities, Smith utilized fake email addresses and VPN services. He instructed his accomplices to remain "invisible" while artificially boosting streams. In letters from 2018, Smith emphasized the need for rapid production of a large number of songs to circumvent new anti-fraud policies on the platforms.

Smith's collaboration with the AI company began around 2018. According to the prosecution, this company supplied him with between 1,000 to 10,000 songs monthly. Smith received full rights to these works in exchange for a share of the profits and metadata.

Smith's scheme attracted the attention of various stakeholders in the music market. In 2023, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC)The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) is a nonprofit organization in the U.S. that licenses music for digital platforms. It collects funds from streaming services and distributes them to songwriters, composers, and music publishers. MLC also maintains a database of musical works and their owners to streamline the licensing process and ensure fair payment for music usage online. halted royalty payments to Smith and launched an investigation. In response, Smith and his representatives have repeatedly denied the fraud allegations.

Fraudulent schemes in the digital realm are taking on various forms, impacting not only the music industry. Recently in Ukraine, another case of technology abuse was uncovered. An IT specialist from Transcarpathia was selling local IP addresses to Russians, allowing them to pose as Ukrainians and spread pro-Russian propaganda online.

Source: Billboard