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How this musician used AI to ‘scam’ Apple, Amazon and Spotify for $10 million – Times of India

A US musician has reportedly used artificial intelligence (AI) tools to create fake songs, streamed them on services like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music through fake listeners and collected $10 million in royalties. He has now been indicted on federal charges of defrauding the streaming services.

How US musician defrauded streaming services

According to a report in The New York Times, 52-year old Michael Smith used AI to create hundreds of thousands of fake songs under fictitious band names.He then employed bots to artificially inflate the play counts of these AI-generated tracks, raking in royalties over a seven-year period.
The report says that the indictment revealed artist names such as “Callous Post,” “Calorie Screams” and “Calvinistic Dust” and song titles like “Zygotic Washstands,” “Zymotechnical” and “Zygophyllum” that were top performers on the three streaming services.
As many as 10,000 fake profiles were established with the help of co-conspirators. Smith reportedly spread the streams across many songs in a bid to avoid any unusual spikes in listenership. These fabricated creations managed to climb the charts on major streaming platforms, diverting royalties that should have gone to legitimate artists.
A US attorney condemned Smith’s actions, emphasising the harm caused to genuine musicians and songwriters who were robbed of their rightful earnings.
“Smith stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed,” the US attorney said.
Smith faces charges of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. He was arrested on Wednesday.
The indictment said that Smith was called out by a distribution company that suspected him of fraud in 2018. However, the musician denied doing anything wrong, saying: “This is absolutely wrong and crazy! … There is absolutely no fraud going on whatsoever!”

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