Fraudster jailed for using 10K bots and AI songs to outstream Taylor Swift

Michael Smith, a 54-year-old from North Carolina, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to using artificial intelligence to generate songs for a scheme that stole millions from music streaming platforms. The US Department of Justice announced the sentence on Tuesday, noting that Smith is the first American to be criminally charged with AI-assisted streaming fraud.

Smith began the scheme in 2017, creating thousands of fraudulent accounts on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music using fake email accounts and fraudulently obtained debit cards. He then used software to direct bots to continuously stream songs he claimed to own, which the DOJ identified as AI-generated. By his arrest in 2024, he had created hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and distributed billions of automated streams across them to avoid detection by not concentrating streams on a single track.

The volume of fraudulent streams was substantial. In April 2023 alone, Smith's fake songs were streamed 80.9 million times, while Taylor Swift's entire catalog received only 9.3 million streams during the same month, according to the DOJ. The scheme ran successfully for seven years without detection before Smith was charged in 2024.

As part of the sentence, Smith must forfeit $8,091,843.64. The DOJ argued that the fraud harmed not only platforms but also genuine artists who share royalty pools, as the stolen streams reduced royalties across the board. Smith's lawyers had sought probation, citing his remorse and a job offer paying $5,000 per month in audio production, and suggested the DOJ was making an example of him. The DOJ countered that Smith used increasingly deceptive tactics, lied to investigators, and that a significant sentence was needed for deterrence.

Why it matters: This case establishes a legal precedent for treating AI-assisted streaming fraud as a serious crime, signaling to developers and platforms that automated manipulation of royalty systems can lead to federal prosecution and hefty financial penalties.