NewzMichael Smith, a 54-year-old man from North Carolina, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to orchestrating a sophisticated streaming fraud scheme. Using artificial intelligence to generate songs and deploying a network of 10,000 automated bots, Smith continuously played the tracks across major music streaming platforms.
The fraudulent operation generated billions of artificial streams, allowing Smith to steal millions of dollars in streaming royalties that otherwise would have gone to legitimate artists, including high-profile musicians such as Taylor Swift.
The case culminated following a Department of Justice investigation, resulting in Tuesday's sentencing announcement regarding the multi-million dollar streaming manipulation scheme.
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