The bands were fake, and so were the fans. But the scammer was real: Michael Smith was arrested on Wednesday, September 4, the American federal justice system announced the same day. As the New York Timesthis American citizen is accused of having deposited hundreds of thousands of tracks made by Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Spotify, Apple Music and other music platforms, then of having created an army of fake accounts responsible for listening to them on repeat. This scam would have allowed him to collect at least 10 million dollars (9 million euros) in royalties. A sum which should have benefited “musicians, composers, or holders of legitimate rights to songs”indignantly protests American prosecutor Damian Williams in a press release.
According to the court’s findings, Smith subcontracted most of the tasks required to build the complex fraud scheme, as can be read in the indictment file. Partners – a music promoter and the head of an AI music creation service, whose names were not given by the court – helped him produce thousands of tracks per week. The fraudster then used software to compose fake track names before posting them online.
The other side of the scam remained to be built: the network of fake accounts. According to the indictment, Michael Smith bought thousands of email addresses, which he then entrusted to small hands based partly abroad. Their role: to create thousands of listener accounts on various music platforms. These were then used to automatically play the tracks posted by Michael Smith. Coupled with the use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), which gave the impression that users were connecting from different countries, these automatons allowed him to generate a large number of listens.
Up to twenty years in prison
The investment was worth it. In 2017, Michael Smith emailed himself an estimate of his expected revenue: with 52 hosts, each hosting 20 robots, each playing 636 songs per day, he hoped to exceed $1.2 million annually in royalties, or just under €1.1 million. A pessimistic estimate, since in 2024, the man estimated his revenue at $12 million (nearly €11 million) in five years.
According to the courts, the fraudster lied repeatedly to music platforms and music distributors. In 2018, one of these actors warned him that after multiple reports of abuse, his songs would be removed from all platforms. Accusations that he vigorously defended himself against: “This is absolutely false and insane! … There is absolutely no fraud whatsoever! How can I appeal?”
A musician himself, the man had a credible enough profile to deny the accusations for many years. But not forever. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the charges against him carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
