Man arrested for raking in copyright royalties using AI-generated music
A man living in North Carolina has been arrested for allegedly using AI to create hundreds of thousands of songs, then using bots to play them billions of times and fraudulently earning more than $10 million in royalties. The man is facing charges including wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy, and could be sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.
Southern District of New York | North Carolina Musician Charged With Music Streaming Fraud Aided By Artificial Intelligence | United States Department of Justice
Alleged fraudster got $10 million in royalties using robots to stream AI-made music
Initially, the man used software to automatically play songs on services such as YouTube and Spotify, and earned about $1,207,128 (about 170 million yen) per year by playing his songs a total of about 661,440 times per day. Since it would be suspicious if only one song was played many times, the man concealed the fraud by creating a large number of songs.
Later, the man thought, 'I need to get a larger amount of music easily,' and finally turned to AI. Around 2018, the man enlisted the help of the CEO of an AI music company and a music promoter, who began providing him with thousands of songs every week.
The man randomly created the 'artist names' and 'song titles' of the songs he obtained, making them appear to have been created by a human, not an AI. He then uploaded hundreds of thousands of songs he had prepared to various platforms, where they were played billions of times by thousands of bots, and is believed to have ultimately illegally obtained more than $10 million in royalties.
In 2024, the man was arrested by the FBI and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which also carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
'Through an audacious fraudulent scheme, these suspects stole royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders of lawfully streamed music. Thanks to the work of the FBI and career prosecutors from this office, it's time for these suspects to face the music,' said Damien Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
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