Michael Smith sentenced to 18 months for AI-song streaming royalty fraud

AIMichael Smith was sentenced to 18 months after prosecutors said he used bots to repeatedly stream his AI-generated music on streaming platforms. The scheme allegedly earned him as much as $8 million in royalties.

AIMichael Smith of North Carolina was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $8 million after using AI to generate hundreds of thousands of songs. Between 2017 and 2024, he uploaded the tracks to streaming platforms through thousands of fake accounts and inflated their plays with a large network of bot accounts. The scheme diverted royalties from genuine songwriters and performers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

AIMichael Smith was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $8,091,843.64 for a streaming fraud scheme that used 10,000 bots and AI-generated songs to inflate streams. The U.S. Department of Justice argued the scheme cut into the royalty pool shared by genuine artists, reducing payouts across the board. Smith's lawyers had sought probation, arguing the case was an example being made of him.

AIMichael Smith, a 54-year-old from North Carolina, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to streaming-royalty fraud using automated bots and AI-generated songs. The U.S. Justice Department also ordered him to forfeit the $8,091,843.64 he received in royalties. Prosecutors said the scheme diverted royalty payments from genuine artists.