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Man Arrested for Creating Fake Bands With AI, Then Making $10 Million by Listening to Their Songs With Bots (futurism.com)

submitted 2 months ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to c/technology@lemmy.world

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The songs that the AI CEO provided to Smith originally had file names full of randomized numbers and letters such as "n_7a2b2d74-1621-4385-895d-b1e4af78d860.mp3," the DOJ noted in its detailed press release.

When uploading them to streaming platforms, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music, the man would then change the songs' names to words like "Zygotes," "Zygotic," and "Zyme Bedewing," whatever that is.

The artist naming convention also followed a somewhat similar pattern, with names ranging from the normal-sounding "Calvin Mann" to head-scratchers like "Calorie Event," "Calms Scorching," and "Calypso Xored."

To manufacture streams for these fake songs, Smith allegedly used bots that stream the songs billions of times without any real person listening. As with similar schemes, the bots' meaningless streams were ultimately converted to royalty paychecks for the people behind them.

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[–] NineMileTower@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Humble brag alert

[–] Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A little bit, for sure. Tempered harshly by the fact I've spent thousands of hours and thousands of units of cash on a hobby that paid me back $45. Good thing I don't do it for the money!

[–] NineMileTower@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I was just kidding. I'm very jealous. I've spent thousands and have nothing to show for it. Maybe a hundred bucks from live shows 20 years ago.

[–] basskitten@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

The most money I ever made in the music industry was being part of a class action lawsuit against MTV. Record sales and live shows are nothing.

[–] Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

That's more than $45!

I got free beer at a show once 20+ years ago, too.