FBI arrests American musician who used Bot streams to generate $10M in royalties

The Federal Bureau of Intelligence arrested Michael Smith who earned millions of dollars in royalties through Bot streams.

In a news that circulated on September 5, 2024, the North Carolina musician Michael Smith was arrested by the FBI after he was indicted for garnering over $10M in royalties through BOT streams.

According to reports, Smith used automated programs to stream AI generated billions of times to generate millions of dollars in royalties.

In the charges brought against the Smith, between 2017 and up until his arrest in 2024, he used his fraudulent means to garner up to 661,000 daily streams across multiple AI-generated songs using up to 10,000 fake profiles which earned him up to $1 million in annual royalties.

Smith is accused of teaming up with the CEO of an unnamed AI music company and a music promoter to generate the volume of songs needed to make his scheme work.

Arrested by the FBI at his residence in North Carolina, the musician is facing charges of wire fraud and money laundering which can get him up to 60 years in prison if found guilty.

Micheal Smith's story is the latest in the problem of streaming manipulations confronting the music industry.

In Nigeria, streaming manipulations commonly called stream farming have also become a problem with DSPs cracking down on the trend that has been described as a criminal attempt to get illegal revenue and undue commercial advantage.