Almost no one hits it big in music. The odds are so bad it’s criminal. But on a late spring evening in Louisville, Kentucky, Mike Smith and Jonathan Hay were having that rare golden moment when ...

Our outlook for Spotify is bright, due mainly to the opportunity we see for the global music streaming market to expand and the moat we think the firm has to keep its edge over competitors.

A U.S. grand jury has formally charged 52-year-old Michael Smith with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering after allegedly buying AI-generated music, posting them on ...

Michael Smith allegedly received over $10 million in royalties from Apple Music, Spotify, and others by posting AI-created songs and using automated bots to stream the tunes.

Streaming fraud is unquestionably a serious and pressing issue. France’s National Music Centre estimates that between 2021 and 2024, streaming platforms received anywhere between 1 and 3 billion ...

A North Carolina musician was indicted over claims that he used bots and AI-generated songs to fraudulently earn millions in streaming royalties.

Michael Smith, 52, was arrested by federal authorities for allegedly orchestrating an AI-aided music streaming fraud scheme from 2017 to 2024 that made him $10 million in royalties. Jonathan Limehouse ...

An AI-generated music scam led to a musician's arrest for using bots to get billions of streams, earning $10 million unlawfully, prosecutors said.

By manipulating streaming data, Smith fraudulently collected more than $10 million in royalty payments after his bots streamed hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs billions of times.

Federal prosecutors charged a North Carolina musician with gaming the system to win royalties from streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

Charlie Kaplan is the streaming service Audiomack‘s VP of product. Variety welcomes responsible commentary — reach out to music@variety.com if interested. Streaming is the dominant way artists ...

He proceeded to scam platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, ultimately resulting in charges of fraud and money laundering conspiracy. He now faces a possible 20-year prison sentence.