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If you’re thinking about making some awful AI-generated music and trying to cash in on it via streaming services, look no further than a 52-year-old North Carolina man named Michael Smith. Smith created a whole boatload of AI-generated music, got a bunch of fraudulent streams that earned him in the realm of $10 million, and is now facing some very serious jail time.
According to a report by Futurism by way of an indictment, Smith has been arrested and is currently facing three counts involving money laundering and wire fraud, which carry a maximum of 20 years behind bars per charge. Smith allegedly worked with an unnamed music promoter and the CEO of an AI music firm on the seven year scam to create “hundreds of thousands of songs” that were then fraudulently streamed.
“We need to get a TON of songs fast, to make this work around the anti-fraud policies these guys are all using now” wrote Smith to his accused co-conspirators in late 2018.
The AI songs were named things like “Zyme Bedewing” and “Zygotes” by artists named Calvin Mann, Calypso Xored, Calorie Event, and way more. So y’know, the usual weird rabbit-hole-sounding names you come across when you get a little too deep into a streaming service. The songs were uploaded to services like Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music and generated quite the paycheck.
In what genuinely sounds like a joke but isn’t, Smith has since commented on his legal situation to the New York Times, saying (and this is serious): “This is absolutely wrong and crazy!. There is absolutely no fraud going on whatsoever! How can I appeal this?”
And you might be asking yourself what the hell this has to do with metal. First and foremost is that it’s a problem the genre is currently facing. Second, it’s one that every single person who loves music should care about – your favorite artists aren’t making shit off streaming services (for the most part), but dudes like this are out there eating up all the digital real estate and cashing in big time… until they’re found out, anyway.
