Music Streaming Fraud

Unprecedented Prosecution

On October 6, 2026, Michael Smith (a 54 year old resident of North Carolina) was sentenced to 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and a forfeiture of $8,091,843.64 for AI-assisted music streaming fraud — the first criminal prosecution of its kind in the United States. In March 2026, Smith pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to the DOJ, the scheme ran from 2017 to 2024 and involved three steps: (i) creating thousands of fake accounts on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music using fraudulent emails and debit cards, (ii) using automated software or bots to make those accounts stream hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs billions of times, and (iii) collecting royalties from the fraudulent streams, which diverted more than $8M in royalties from actual artists.

Smith spread the streams across thousands of tracks to avoid detection, and at times operated up to 10,000 bot accounts simultaneously. In April 2023 alone, his bots generated 80.9 million YouTube Music family-plan streams of AI music, compared to Taylor Swift’s catalog receiving 9.3 million in the same month.

Copyright Office Notice of Inquiry

Pursuant to a congressional request, on the day after Smith’s conviction and sentencing, the U.S. Copyright Office published a notice of inquiry (NOI) on music streaming fraud. The NOI requests public input on the prevalence of streaming fraud across streaming platforms and how it may be affecting the music industry. Initial comments  are due November 23, 2026 and reply comments are due December 21, 2026.

Joint Comments

Parties interested in a possible collaboration to prepare and file Joint Comments are urged to contact former EASL Chair Barry Skidelsky at  bskidelsky@mindspring.com or 212-832-4800.