One Man Scammed Spotify, Apple Music for 5 years with 4 BILLION Streams. How Artists Are Earning Millions Illegally?

The music streaming industry is one of the largest revenue-generating platforms for artists and labels. Streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and others pay royalties to artists based on the number of times their songs are played. However, what if these streaming numbers are not genuine?

Between 2018 and 2023, Michael Smith masterminded an elaborate scheme to inflate the streaming numbers of music tracks, raking in millions of dollars in fraudulent royalties. Smith’s operation resulted in 4 billion fake streams over the course of five years. This article dives deep into how this scam was orchestrated and how the manipulation of music streaming platforms can distort the industry.

The Scheme at a Glance

Smith’s fraud involved three key stages:

1. Creation of fake bot accounts on streaming platforms.
2. Manipulation of streaming numbers to make music tracks appear more popular.
3. Collecting fraudulent royalty payments based on the inflated stream numbers.

Through these steps, Smith and his team were able to trick music streaming platforms and rights organizations into paying royalties for streams that didn’t come from real listeners.

Stage 1: Creation of Bot Accounts

Smith’s scheme began with the creation of thousands of fake streaming accounts. These accounts, called “Bot Accounts,” were registered using fake email addresses.

• How It Worked: Smith created thousands of fake email accounts and used them to register on streaming platforms like Spotify. These accounts were used exclusively to stream certain tracks repeatedly.
• The Numbers: At one point, Smith had over 10,000 bot accounts actively streaming his tracks. The process was so labor-intensive that Smith hired others to help maintain these accounts.
• Avoiding Detection: By using proxy servers and VPNs, Smith was able to make it appear as though these accounts were spread across the globe, making it harder for streaming platforms to detect the fraudulent activity.

Stage 2: Manipulation of Streaming Numbers

Once the fake accounts were set up, Smith used them to repeatedly stream specific songs, inflating their play counts artificially. These streams were then recorded by the platforms as legitimate plays, creating the illusion that these tracks were incredibly popular.In Michael Smith’s scheme to manipulate streaming numbers, the manipulation of streaming plays was likely done using a combination of automated bots and possibly multiple devices. While the specific tools and methods Smith used were not fully detailed in the document, based on typical fraudulent streaming schemes, here’s how it likely worked:

Methods for Manipulating Streaming Numbers

1. Bot Networks

The primary method Smith used to inflate streaming numbers was through the creation of bot accounts. These bots were likely automated programs or scripts designed to simulate the behavior of real users, constantly playing specific songs on the streaming platforms.

• Automated scripts or programs: Bots were programmed to play music repeatedly without human intervention. These scripts or bots would log into the streaming platform using fake accounts (Bot Accounts) and stream the targeted music continuously.
• Simulated user behavior: These bots may have been programmed to mimic real users by randomizing listening habits (like skipping tracks, changing songs, or playing tracks on shuffle) to avoid detection. This creates the illusion that the streams came from legitimate listeners.

2. Multiple Devices or Virtual Machines

Smith likely used multiple devices or virtual environments to scale up the number of streams. Here are two potential ways:

• Multiple computers or servers: Smith could have used physical computers or rented cloud-based servers, each running multiple instances of bots to increase the total number of streams. Each machine or virtual machine could simulate multiple accounts at once.
• Virtual Machines (VMs): VMs allow a single computer to run multiple virtual systems, each acting as an independent device. By running many VMs, Smith could have used a single server to generate numerous streams at the same time, with each VM running different bot accounts.

3. Mobile Phones or Emulators

In some streaming fraud schemes, people use mobile phones or emulators (software that mimics a mobile phone environment) to inflate streams. Here’s how this could have been done:

• Mobile phones: Smith or his team could have set up racks of mobile phones, each logged into different bot accounts. These phones would stream the tracks repeatedly, creating fake streams on a large scale.
• Mobile emulators: Instead of using physical phones, emulators are software applications that can replicate the behavior of mobile devices on a computer. Using emulators, Smith could have simulated hundreds or thousands of phones on a single machine, each running separate instances of the streaming app, logged into different bot accounts, and streaming songs in parallel.

4. Dual Apps and Multiple Instances on the Same Device

It’s also possible that Smith used techniques like multiple instances of apps or dual apps on mobile devices:

• Dual Apps: Some mobile operating systems allow users to run multiple instances of the same app on one device (often used for managing multiple accounts). Smith could have used this feature to log into different bot accounts on the same device, simultaneously streaming the music on each instance.
• App cloners: There are third-party tools and apps that allow you to clone apps and run multiple instances of them on a single device. This could have been used to multiply the number of streams from a single phone or computer.

5. Proxies and VPNs to Avoid Detection

Smith would have needed to avoid detection from the streaming platforms, which are constantly monitoring for suspicious activity. To do this:

IP rotation: Proxies could also have been used to rotate IP addresses for each stream, making it appear as if the streams were coming from thousands of unique users rather than being concentrated in a single place.

Proxies or VPNs: Smith likely used proxy servers or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to hide the real location of the bot accounts. By cycling through different IP addresses, it would appear as if the streams were coming from different locations around the world, making it harder for the streaming platforms to identify the fraudulent activity.