A North Carolina man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for collecting millions in royalties from bot streams of AI-generated songs, reports rolling stone. He is the first person to face federal charges for music streaming fraud.
From 2017 to 2024, musician Mike Smith used thousands of bots to stream his own music as well as the AI-generated songs he purchased and uploaded. Smith later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. His lawyers initially argued that he should receive probation only for the crime, while federal prosecutors sought a sentence of at least 46 months. As part of his plea deal, Smith agreed to forfeit $8 million in streaming revenue. In addition to the 18-month prison sentence, he will serve two years of supervised release.
“By flooding music streaming platforms with automated bots instead of consumers and fake songs instead of creativity, Smith stole millions in royalties from real artists and their fans,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a press release. “This Office is committed to ensuring the integrity of all markets and protecting the public from those who use super intelligence for fraudulent purposes.” (According to Reuters, the U.S. Department of Justice has asked its employees to start using the term “superintelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence,” based on a recent executive order signed by President Trump.)
Streaming fraud has long been a rallying point for smaller artists due to royalty payments by DSPs including Spotify and Apple Music, both of which are based on a pro-rata model that pays artists based on their percentage of total streams each month. In 2025, a group of musicians accused Spotify of turning a blind eye to artificial streaming after an analysis suggested Drake could have benefited from billions of fake streams.
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