‘A Billion Streams and No Fans’: Inside a $10 Million AI Music Fraud Case
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Summary
Michael Smith and Jonathan Hay were once a music duo known as SMH Records.
In 2017, the pair released an album called Jazz but it did not chart well.
They tried to troubleshoot where they were going wrong and spotted that Smith, who owned a string of medical clinics, had instructed his staff to continually play the album on Spotify to arbitrarily increase their number of plays and therefore royalties.
Smith was later accused of doing the same thing with AI-generated music, earning him upwards of $10 million.
He was indicted by the FBI in September 2022 for wire fraud and pleaded not guilty, with his trial pending.
SMH Records has since closed down.
Other musicians have used AUGMENTED and virtual reality to create music, but this is the first time AI has been used to generate music.
It’s not illegal to upload AI-generated music to streaming sites but Smith’s actions have been described as a “supercharged” form of stealing.
