Michael Smith AI music streaming fraud sentence

A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced Michael Smith to 18 months in prison on October 6 for a music streaming fraud scheme involving automated plays and AI-generated songs, Rolling Stone reported from the hearing. The sentence includes two years of supervised release. Smith pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and previously agreed to forfeit $8 million. Prosecutors said bots repeatedly played music he controlled to obtain royalties that should not have been paid to him. The criminal conduct was manipulation of streaming payouts; the ruling was not a ban on creating music with AI.