A North Carolina musician was arrested and charged on Wednesday with using artificial intelligence to create hundreds of thousands of songs, which he streamed billions of times to collect over $10 million in royalty payments, authorities in New York announced.
Michael Smith, 52, from Cornelius, North Carolina, faces fraud and conspiracy charges that could result in up to 60 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams revealed in a news release that Smith’s fraudulent activities deprived legitimate musicians and songwriters of royalty money from 2017 to this year. Smith, a musician with a modest catalog of his own, leveraged artificial intelligence to generate songs that he then streamed billions of times to unlawfully claim royalties.
Efforts to reach Smith’s lawyer for comment were unsuccessful.
Christie M. Curtis, head of New York’s FBI office, stated that Smith “utilized automatic features to repeatedly stream the music to generate unlawful royalties,” emphasizing the FBI’s commitment to stopping those who exploit advanced technology for illegal gains and infringe upon the work of genuine artists.
An indictment filed in Manhattan federal court details how Smith created thousands of accounts on streaming platforms, allowing the continuous streaming of his AI-generated songs, resulting in approximately 661,000 streams per day. This scheme produced annual royalties amounting to $1.2 million.
The royalties in question were derived from a pool that streaming platforms are required to reserve for artists who stream sound recordings embodying musical compositions. The indictment outlines how Smith used artificial intelligence to produce tens of thousands of songs, ensuring that his fake streams would not raise suspicions among streaming platforms and music distribution companies.
Beginning in 2018, Smith collaborated with the chief executive of an AI music company and a music promoter to orchestrate the creation of the songs. Authorities noted that Smith boasted in an email last February of having generated over four billion streams and $12 million in royalties since 2019.
The indictment also references an incident in 2018 when a music distribution company suggested that his activities might be fraudulent. Smith vehemently denied these allegations, writing in response: “This is absolutely wrong and crazy!… There is absolutely no fraud going on whatsoever!”