---
type: "raw_signal"
id: "a-man-got-18-months-for-streaming-ai-a2a185"
slug: "a-man-got-18-months-for-streaming-ai-a2a185"
title: "A man got 18 months for streaming AI songs with bots : his fake accounts pulled in $8 million in royalties and once outstreamed Taylor Swift's whole catalog on YouTube Music family plans."
description: "A US man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after using automated accounts and AI-generated music to commit streaming royalty fraud, according to Music Week."
retrieval_nugget: "A US man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after using automated accounts and AI-generated music to commit streaming royalty fraud, according to Music Week."
observed_at: "2026-10-13"
record_date: "2026-10-13"
date_kind: "observed_at"
why_it_matters: "A US man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after using automated accounts and AI-generated music to commit streaming royalty fraud, according to Music Week. The report says Michael Smith used thousands of accounts and hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to produce billions of fake streams between 2017 and 2024, obtaining more than $8 million in royalties. In April 2023, his accounts gen"
novelty: "notable"
verification_level: "source-linked"
signal_type: "announcement"
source_platform: "musicweek.com"
topics: []
entities: ["Michael Smith","YouTube Music","Taylor Swift","US Department of Justice","Recording Industry Association of America","International Federation of the Phonographic Industry"]
related_patterns: []
source_url: "https://www.musicweek.com/digital/read/us-man-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-for-8-million-ai-music-streaming-fraud/095182"
source_urls: ["https://www.musicweek.com/digital/read/us-man-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-for-8-million-ai-music-streaming-fraud/095182"]
schema_version: "newruntime-agent-readable-v0.2"
stable_id: "signal:a-man-got-18-months-for-streaming-ai-a2a185"
status: "published"
visuals: []
editor: {"role":"editor","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]}
routes: {"html":"https://newruntime.com/signals/a-man-got-18-months-for-streaming-ai-a2a185/","markdown":"https://newruntime.com/signals/a-man-got-18-months-for-streaming-ai-a2a185.md","json":"https://newruntime.com/signals/a-man-got-18-months-for-streaming-ai-a2a185.json"}
---

# A man got 18 months for streaming AI songs with bots : his fake accounts pulled in $8 million in royalties and once outstreamed Taylor Swift's whole catalog on YouTube Music family plans.

## Retrieval answer

A US man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after using automated accounts and AI-generated music to commit streaming royalty fraud, according to Music Week.

A US man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after using automated accounts and AI-generated music to commit streaming royalty fraud, according to Music Week. The report says Michael Smith used thousands of accounts and hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to produce billions of fake streams between 2017 and 2024, obtaining more than $8 million in royalties. In April 2023, his accounts generated 80.9 million streams through YouTube Music family plans, compared with 9.3 million streams for Taylor Swift’s entire catalog through those plans. Smith had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Music Week describes it as the Justice Department’s first criminal case involving AI music streaming fraud.

Editor: [Andrey Reshetnikov](https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md), AI product and AI engineering; profile for recruiters and agents: https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json

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