North Carolina Musician Charged With Music Streaming Fraud Aided By Artificial Intelligence

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Christie M. Curtis, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the unsealing of a three-count criminal Indictment charging MICHAEL SMITH in connection with a scheme to create hundreds of thousands of songs with artificial intelligence and use automated programs called “bots” to stream the AI-generated songs billions of times.  SMITH fraudulently obtained more than $10 million in royalty payments through his scheme.  SMITH was arrested today and will be presented before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in North Carolina.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As alleged, Michael Smith fraudulently streamed songs created with artificial intelligence billions of times in order to steal royalties.  Through his brazen fraud scheme, Smith stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed.   Today, thanks to the work of the FBI and the career prosecutors of this Office, it’s time for Smith to face the music.”

FBI Acting Assistant Director Christie M. Curtis said: “Michael Smith allegedly produced hundreds of thousands of songs with artificial intelligence and utilized automatic features to repeatedly stream the music to generate unlawful royalties to the tune of $10 million.  The defendant’s alleged scheme played upon the integrity of the music industry by a concerted attempt to circumvent the streaming platforms’ policies.  The FBI remains dedicated to plucking out those who manipulate advanced technology to receive illicit profits and infringe on the genuine artistic talent of others.”

As alleged in the Indictment:[1]

Music can be streamed through music streaming platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music (the “Streaming Platforms”).  Each time a song is streamed through one of the Streaming Platforms, the songwriter who composed the song, the musician who performed it, and in certain cases other rights holders, are entitled to small royalty payments.  Royalty payments are made proportionately to musicians and songwriters, so that streaming fraud diverts funds from musicians and songwriters whose songs were legitimately streamed by real consumers to those who use automation to falsely create the appearance of legitimate streaming.

SMITH created thousands of accounts on the Streaming Platforms (the “Bot Accounts”) that he could use to stream songs.  He then used software to cause the Bot Accounts to continuously stream songs that he owned.  At a certain point in the charged time period, SMITH estimated that he could use the Bot Accounts to generate approximately 661,440 streams per day, yielding annual royalties of $1,207,128.

SMITH spread his automated streams across thousands of songs to avoid anomalous streaming as to any single song.  SMITH was aware that if, for example, a single song was streamed one billion times, it would raise suspicions at the Streaming Platforms and the music distribution companies that those streams were the result of streaming manipulation.  A billion fake streams spread across tens of thousands of songs, however, would be more difficult to detect, because each song would only be streamed a much smaller number of times.  As a result, SMITH repeatedly identified the need for more songs as crucial for facilitating the fraud scheme.  For example, on or about December 26, 2018, SMITH emailed two coconspirators that, “We need to get a TON of songs fast to make this work around the anti-fraud policies these guys are all using now.”

To obtain the necessary number of songs for his scheme to succeed, SMITH eventually turned to artificial intelligence.  In or about 2018, SMITH began working with the Chief Executive Officer of an AI music company (“CC-3”) and a music promoter (“CC-4”) to create hundreds of thousands of songs using artificial intelligence that SMITH could then fraudulently stream.  CC-3 soon began providing SMITH with thousands of songs each week that SMITH could upload to the Streaming Platforms and manipulate the streams for.  In a 2019 email to SMITH, CC-3 wrote: “Keep in mind what we’re doing musically here... this is not ‘music,’ it’s ‘instant music’ ;).” 

CC-3 ultimately provided SMITH with hundreds of thousands of AI songs for which he could manipulate the streams.  CC-3’s songs were typically given file names that were a randomized list of letters and numbers, such as “n_7a2b2d74-1621-4385-895d-b1e4af78d860.mp3.” 

SMITH then created randomly generated song and artist names for audio files so that they would appear to have been created by real artists rather than artificial intelligence.  For example, an alphabetically consecutive selection of 25 of the names of the AI songs SMITH used is as follows: “Zygophyceae,” “Zygophyllaceae,” “Zygophyllum,” “Zygopteraceae,” “Zygopteris,” “Zygopteron,” “Zygopterous,” “Zygosporic,” “Zygotenes,” “Zygotes,” “Zygotic,” “Zygotic Lanie,” “Zygotic Washstands,” “Zyme Bedewing,” “Zymes,” “Zymite,” “Zymo Phyte,” “Zymogenes,” “Zymogenic,” “Zymologies,” “Zymoplastic,” “Zymopure,” “Zymotechnical,” “Zymotechny,” and “Zyzomys.” 

Similarly, an alphabetically consecutive selection of 25 of the names of the “artists” of the AI songs SMITH used is as follows: “Calliope Bloom,” “Calliope Erratum,” “Callous,” “Callous Humane,” “Callous Post,” “Callousness,” “Calm Baseball,” “Calm Connected,” “Calm Force,” “Calm Identity,” “Calm Innovation,” “Calm Knuckles,” “Calm Market,” “Calm The Super,” “Calm Weary,” “Calms Scorching,” “Calorie Event,” “Calorie Screams,” “Calvin Mann,” “Calvinistic Dust,” “Calypso Xored,” “Camalus Disen,” “Camaxtli Minerva,” “Cambists Cagelings,” and “Camel Edible.”

SMITH made numerous misrepresentations to the Streaming Platforms in furtherance of the fraud scheme.  For example, SMITH repeatedly lied to the Streaming Platforms when he used false names and other information to create the Bot Accounts and when he agreed to abide by terms and conditions that prohibited streaming manipulation.  SMITH also deceived the Streaming Platforms by making it appear as if legitimate users were in control of the Bot Accounts and streaming music when, in fact, the Bot Accounts were hard coded to stream SMITH’s music billions of times.  SMITH also caused the Streaming Platforms to falsely report billions of streams of his music, even though SMITH knew that those streams were in fact caused by the Bot Accounts rather than real human listeners. 

SMITH’s hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs were streamed by his Bot Accounts billions of times, which allowed him to fraudulently obtain more than $10 million in royalties.

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SMITH, 52, of Cornelius, North Carolina, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 

The maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the FBI. 

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas W. Chiuchiolo and Kevin Mead are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.