Kory Grow
Contact Kory Grow on X View all posts by Kory Grow March 19, 2026
Mike Smith in 2016. Bennett Raglin/Getty Images Michael Smith, a 54-year-old North Carolina man whom federal prosecutors accused of defrauding music streaming services with AI-generated songs, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Thursday before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Smith agreed to pay $8,091,843.64 in forfeiture. Judge Koeltl will sentence Smith in full this summer.
In the plea, Smith admitted to creating hundreds of thousands of songs using AI and, in turn, using thousands of bots to stream the songs billions of times, the way average consumers would, to make an income. By spreading the streams across thousands of accounts, he was able to evade detection by streaming services such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music. Ultimately, Smith acquired more than $8 million in royalties.
“Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times,” Jay Clayton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole was real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith’s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.” (An attorney for Smith, Noell Tin, declined to comment.)
