Photo Credit: TRAG Cinema Pictures
US musician Michael Smith has been sentenced by a Manhattan federal court to 18 months in prison for using AI-generated tracks and automated bots to fraudulently obtain over $8 million in streaming royalties. The October 6 sentencing follows his March 2026 guilty plea to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Smith must also forfeit $8,091,843.64 and complete two years of supervised release.
According to the US Department of Justice, Smith created thousands of fraudulent accounts across platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music between 2017 and 2024. Operating up to 10,000 bot accounts at once, he repeatedly streamed hundreds of thousands of AI-generated tracks across a vast catalogue to artificially boost play counts, generate royalties, and evade detection. 
In April 2023, Smith’s bot accounts generated 80.9 million fraudulent streams of his AI music on YouTube Music via family plans, dwarfing Taylor Swift’s 9.3 million family-plan streams that month. Prosecutors estimate Smith earned over $14 million total, including more than $8 million in fraudulent royalties.
While AI music itself is legal, artificially inflating stream counts to collect royalties is fraudulent. Welcoming the sentence, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said it signals severe consequences for streaming fraud, pointing to its Streaming Integrity Initiative designed to detect fraudulent activity and safeguard creators, rights holders, and listeners.
