This story is back in the headlines today because a Rolling Stone investigation has opened Pandora’s box: the Michael Smith case is a multi-million dollar fraud that, in my view, represents above all the failure of streaming control systems.
Smith, a producer who collaborated with the likes of Snoop Dogg and DJ Khaled, was arrested in September 2024. Now we can fully grasp the real scale of the “glitch” he exploited for 7 years.
The operation was an industrial money-making factory:
➡️ Bot Army: 10,000 accounts created by digital “strawmen” to simulate human listening and bypass initial security tests.
➡️ Instant Music: Hundreds of thousands of AI-generated tracks. “It’s not music, it’s instant music,” they wrote in emails intercepted by the FBI.
➡️ The Family Plan Trick: He used family subscriptions to link bots and slash costs, blending in with real users through VPNs.
The numbers:
➡️ Over 660,000 streams per day
➡️ $110,000 in royalties per month
➡️ Total fraud: $10 million
Today, Smith faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and money laundering.
I have stated many times that I consider AI a legitimate production tool; therefore, the key issue here is the creation of a parasitic system.
These $10 million rightfully belonged to real artists.
If an automation algorithm and a few family subscriptions can pollute the market undisturbed for 7 years, we are facing a problem that affects the entire supply chain, no one excluded.
In an industry racing toward automation, this story reminds us that technology must serve to amplify talent, not to build illegal ATMs plugged into musicians’ pockets.
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I am Andrea Corelli, Music Industry Professional and Advisor.
From Monday to Friday, I share strategies, backstage insights, or the stories behind a song on LinkedIn. On weekends, I just go with the flow.
If you need help with your artist, label, or music project, get in touch.