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.
My understanding is that the contractual agreement with advertisers is that they pay to reach ears. The ads did not reach any ears as promised which could be equated to fraud.
So are we committing fraud if we turn on Spotify and leave it playing in an empty, sound-proof room??
That contractual agreement has nothing to do with the user or artist, its between advertisers and the platform. That can’t be what they got this guy for.
Not sure how all that can be separated out meaningfully as it is the platform being used and advertisers have expectations based on whatever agreement has been struck between them. Maybe I misunderstood. Perhaps the difference in your example is a user acting versus a bot? Intent probably comes up somewhere as well, but I am not a lawologist. 🤷♂️