{"aiVersion":"1","content":{"id":"cmuyu0nse0004etzxwm4wotvi","slug":"ai-bots-and-streaming-royalties-the-michael-smith--20261008","title":"AI, Bots and Streaming Royalties: The Michael Smith Case","level":"HARD","publishedAt":"2026-10-08T01:02:29.255Z"},"topic":{"slug":"ai-bots-and-streaming-royalties-the-michael-smith--20261008","category":"technology"},"article":{"paragraphs":["On October 6, 2026, a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Michael Smith to 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on March 19, 2026. The conviction concluded a case that had been built from electronic records, bank transfers, and platform data, and it names Smith, a 54-year-old resident of Cornelius, North Carolina, as the central actor in a large-scale fraud.","Investigators found that, from 2017 through 2024, Smith used automated programs known as 'bots' to run thousands of streaming accounts and that he turned to advanced generative tools to produce hundreds of thousands of songs. At times he operated as many as 10,000 Bot Accounts simultaneously, and those accounts streamed his AI-generated tracks billions of times, which allowed him to claim more than eight million dollars in royalties and to move funds through debit cards tied to the operation.","In one striking example from April 2023, Smith’s Bot Accounts used family-plan streams to play his tracks 80.9 million times while another popular artist’s family-plan streams on the same service totaled 9.3 million; this pattern helped conceal the fraud by spreading plays across many tracks. \"By flooding music streaming platforms with automated bots in the place of consumers, and fake songs in the place of creativity, Smith robbed millions in royalty payments from genuine artists and their fans.\"","The court ordered Smith to forfeit $8,091,843.64 and to serve two years of supervised release after prison, and it emphasized that streaming platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music were used as the venues for the scheme. If similar automation is not detected, the fixed monthly royalty pools that pay artists could continue to be distorted, and legitimate musicians may keep losing income as a result."],"wordCount":297,"readTime":2},"vocabulary":[{"word":"generative","example":"Generative tools produced hundreds of thousands of tracks.","phonetic":"/ˈdʒɛn.ə.rə.tɪv/","definition":"Relating to systems that create new content, such as text, images, or music."},{"word":"forfeit","example":"The court ordered him to forfeit the money.","phonetic":"/ˈfɔːr.fət/","definition":"To lose or give up something as a penalty or by court order."},{"word":"anomaly","example":"Spikes in streams created an anomaly in the data.","phonetic":"/əˈnɒm.ə.li/","definition":"Something that is unusual and does not fit an expected pattern."},{"word":"pro rata","example":"Royalties were paid pro rata from the pool.","phonetic":"/proʊ ˈrɑːtə/","definition":"Distributed in proportion to each person's share."},{"word":"distort","example":"Bot streams can distort the true popularity of songs.","phonetic":"/dɪˈstɔːrt/","definition":"To change something so it no longer shows the true situation."}],"quiz":[{"answer":"2017 to 2024","question":"Between which years did the scheme run?"},{"answer":"10,000 Bot Accounts","question":"How many Bot Accounts were used at times?"},{"answer":"80.9 million times","question":"How many streams did Smith's Bot Accounts generate for his tracks in April 2023?"}],"discussion":[{"question":"Do you think automation like bots will affect the music you listen to? How?"},{"question":"Have you ever found it hard to tell a popular song from a curated fake? What gave it away?"},{"question":"What would you do if you learned an artist you liked had lost income from fraud?"},{"question":"Would you pay attention to the source or label of a playlist after reading this story?"},{"question":"How comfortable are you with AI tools being used to create art where you live?"}]}