AI streaming fraudster asks for no prison after $8m guilty plea
The 54-year-old musician who admitted filling streaming services with songs made by artificial intelligence is asking for no prison time.
Lawyers for Michael Smith, of Cornelius, North Carolina, made the request in a sentencing memo filed on 22 September, after federal officials recommended two years in prison. Smith, who pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, is due to be sentenced for a scheme that prosecutors valued at about $8 million in royalties. Billboard
The charge centres on an agreement to carry out fraud using electronic communications. Prosecutors describe the case as the first criminal case and the first conviction over streaming fraud, the practice of inflating play counts to claim royalty payments.
Smith was arrested in 2024 on a three-count indictment alleging a scheme that began in 2017. Prosecutors alleged he used thousands of bots, automated accounts that play tracks on repeat, to stream his songs continuously on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and YouTube Music. Billboard
At first, according to prosecutors, he used his own human-created music. He later turned to mass-produced AI tracks to feed the operation. Smith admitted generating thousands of AI songs and using the bots to play them billions of times, collecting about $8 million in royalties linked to fake streams. The Record
Court and publishing records added another detail. Hundreds of songs registered to Smith list Alex Mitchell, founder of the AI music firm Boomy, as a co-writer. Mitchell has not been charged with a crime in connection with the case.
Smith's guilty plea covered one count of conspiracy. That charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and he is expected to pay more than $8 million in connection with the fraud. The Charlotte Observer
What makes this stand out is the gap between the two sides at sentencing. Federal officials recommended two years. Smith's lawyers argued for probation, saying his conduct caused only tiny, immeasurable losses and that no individual artist suffered perceptible harm.
The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York after an investigation involving FBI agents in New York and Charlotte. The office first announced the charges in September 2024, calling the alleged conduct a scheme to steal music royalties by fraudulently inflating streams. U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York
