AI promised to democratize music creation, flooding streaming platforms with novel sounds, but its logarithmic scale is overwhelming the industry's defenses against fraud. The ease with which AI tools churn out content has inadvertently created fertile ground for sophisticated streaming scams, leaving detection infrastructure scrambling to keep up and intensifying the debate over platform accountability.
Scale meets scam: Boomy, a platform launched in 2019 that allows users to generate and release AI-created music, found itself linked to a major alleged fraud operation, highlighting the tension between enabling creativity and preventing misuse. The company, whose users had generated over 20 million songs by late 2024 according to Musically, became entangled in a federal investigation that underscores the challenges facing the digital music supply chain.
Indictment spotlights platform link: In September 2024, reporting revealed a connection between Boomy's leadership and producer Michael Smith, who was indicted for allegedly orchestrating a streaming fraud scheme exceeding $10 million. Sharp work by Billboard, cited by Musically, uncovered that Boomy CEO Alex Mitchell was listed as a co-writer on hundreds of the thousands of songs allegedly used in the scheme. The indictment detailed Smith's alleged use of "as many as 10,000 active Bot accounts" to inflate streams for music generated via Boomy. Mitchell was not charged in the case.
A history of red flags: This connection surfaced over a year after Boomy faced a public reckoning over streaming manipulation. In May 2023, Spotify removed certain Boomy tracks and temporarily halted new uploads from the platform. A Spotify spokesperson confirmed to Music Business Worldwide at the time that the action was taken due to detected "artificial streaming," adding that such manipulation is an "industry-wide issue." Boomy stated then that it was "categorically against any type of manipulation or artificial streaming." Notably, the Smith indictment alleges that The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) had already halted royalty payments to Smith around March/April 2023 due to artificial streaming concerns, predating the public Spotify takedowns, according to Musically's reporting on the indictment.
Detection infrastructure under strain: The Boomy situation exemplifies the broader strain on the music industry's infrastructure. The sheer volume of content generated by AI tools – Boomy alone claimed its users created nearly 14% of the world's recorded music by early 2023, per Music Business Worldwide – presents a monumental challenge for detecting sophisticated manipulation tactics like coordinated bot farms.