Musician sent to prison for $10 million streaming fraud using AI bots

A North Carolina musician was sentenced to 18 months in prison for collecting more than $10 million in royalties from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music in a massive streaming royalty fraud scheme. 54-year-old Michael Smith pleaded guilty in March after being indicted in September 2024 for fraudulently inflating his songs' listening stats between 2017 and 2024. According to cour