Didja hear Zygotic Washstands by Camel Edible?
September 6, 2024 11:21 AM Subscribe
To avoid detection, Smith spread his streaming activity across numerous fake songs, never playing a single track too many times. He also generated unique names for the AI-created artists and songs, trying to blend in with the quirky names of legitimate musical acts. Smith used artist names like "Callous Post" and "Calorie Screams," while their songs included titles such as "Zygotic Washstands" and "Zymotechnical." from FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist [Ars Technica]
US Attorney's Office press release: North Carolina Musician Charged With Music Streaming Fraud Aided By Artificial Intelligence
US Attorney's Office press release: North Carolina Musician Charged With Music Streaming Fraud Aided By Artificial Intelligence
he partnered with an as-yet-unnamed AI music company CEO and a music promoter
Uh oh. Please let the promoter be DJ Khaled.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:45 AM on September 6 [5 favorites]
Uh oh. Please let the promoter be DJ Khaled.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:45 AM on September 6 [5 favorites]
Smith used artist names like "Callous Post" and "Calorie Screams," while their songs included titles such as "Zygotic Washstands" and "Zymotechnical."
::jots notes for future song titles::
posted by Foosnark at 11:46 AM on September 6 [4 favorites]
::jots notes for future song titles::
posted by Foosnark at 11:46 AM on September 6 [4 favorites]
Please let the promoter be DJ Khaled.
I don't think it's possible for DJ Khaled to go unnamed
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:49 AM on September 6 [11 favorites]
I don't think it's possible for DJ Khaled to go unnamed
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:49 AM on September 6 [11 favorites]
If I set a track to stream on repeat in my home, even when I am not home...that artist would still get paid, right? If I set up that track or playlist to stream eternally in a chain of businesses that I own, that would also not be fraud, right? If I set up a stream that played in the uninhabited desert to only a family of burrowing owls, that artist would still get paid, right? What if I chose to stream a track eternally in my home at 1% volume, so nobody can hear it, through 7 different devices in 7 different rooms? That would count, right? My weird music streaming choices are coming from me, a human, but nobody is listening. Clearly, there does not need to be a human listener to make a stream legal.
I also call shenanigans on platforms saying that multiple streams of bad music are fraud. If that's the argument, then what is their position on streams of music that nobody listens to? There's a whole category on Pandora of music that nobody has ever played even once on their platform. Like, shouldn't any single stream of amateur atonal opera or some other thing that pretty much nobody likes be flagged as fraud? What if I like Calorie Screams? What if my taste is terrible and I like to stream Calorie Screams at 1% volume in the desert on 500 modified Zunes on repeat for the owls because of the beautiful whispering sound that it makes? Is that not a choice I can make?
Also, since a human piloted the AI to make sounds, does that not count as human-authored content? I would argue that it does not, but a lot of people who like AI say it's just like using any other tool. Why is any AI content legal to make money from if this isn't?
I can see the argument that he shouldn't have made money from more than one account, but if guy can figure out how to set up a million streams of terrible music I think that's just using the system as designed. Maybe they should pay artists more to license their music and stop caring about the number of streams so much, I don't know.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:00 PM on September 6 [6 favorites]
I also call shenanigans on platforms saying that multiple streams of bad music are fraud. If that's the argument, then what is their position on streams of music that nobody listens to? There's a whole category on Pandora of music that nobody has ever played even once on their platform. Like, shouldn't any single stream of amateur atonal opera or some other thing that pretty much nobody likes be flagged as fraud? What if I like Calorie Screams? What if my taste is terrible and I like to stream Calorie Screams at 1% volume in the desert on 500 modified Zunes on repeat for the owls because of the beautiful whispering sound that it makes? Is that not a choice I can make?
Also, since a human piloted the AI to make sounds, does that not count as human-authored content? I would argue that it does not, but a lot of people who like AI say it's just like using any other tool. Why is any AI content legal to make money from if this isn't?
I can see the argument that he shouldn't have made money from more than one account, but if guy can figure out how to set up a million streams of terrible music I think that's just using the system as designed. Maybe they should pay artists more to license their music and stop caring about the number of streams so much, I don't know.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:00 PM on September 6 [6 favorites]
::jots notes for future song titles::
::jots notes for future user names::
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:03 PM on September 6 [8 favorites]
::jots notes for future user names::
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:03 PM on September 6 [8 favorites]
I don't think the issue is whether or not the music was played in the 'right' way, but that the artist themselves was playing their own music in a way to inflate their revenue. It's like someone writing a script to click their own affiliate links a billion times.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:06 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:06 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
like someone writing a script to click their own affiliate links a billion times
I worked with someone who lost their job for "inflating engagement" to pad their reporting, this was 6 or 7 years ago.
posted by djseafood at 12:09 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
I worked with someone who lost their job for "inflating engagement" to pad their reporting, this was 6 or 7 years ago.
posted by djseafood at 12:09 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
By June 2019, Smith was earning about $110,000 monthly, sharing a portion with his co-conspirators.
Guess I should've clicked on all those "earn money while working from home" links after all.
Seriously though, the fact that he did this for 7 years and the only law he seemingly broke was generating fake listeners is terrifying. Can I opt-out of our AI-run future yet? Please?
posted by lock robster at 12:09 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
Guess I should've clicked on all those "earn money while working from home" links after all.
Seriously though, the fact that he did this for 7 years and the only law he seemingly broke was generating fake listeners is terrifying. Can I opt-out of our AI-run future yet? Please?
posted by lock robster at 12:09 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
The defendant’s alleged scheme played upon the integrity of the music industry by a concerted attempt to circumvent the streaming platforms’ policies.
Doesn’t the court have to establish that the music industry has integrity to be infringed upon first?
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:22 PM on September 6 [6 favorites]
Doesn’t the court have to establish that the music industry has integrity to be infringed upon first?
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:22 PM on September 6 [6 favorites]
I'm very curious about this part:
he partnered with an as-yet-unnamed AI music company CEO and a music promoter to create a large library of computer-generated songs. The district attorney announcement did not specify precisely what method Smith used to generate the songs.
posted by doctornemo at 12:31 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
he partnered with an as-yet-unnamed AI music company CEO and a music promoter to create a large library of computer-generated songs. The district attorney announcement did not specify precisely what method Smith used to generate the songs.
posted by doctornemo at 12:31 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
> played upon the integrity of the music industry
This must be lawyer snark. The "integrity of the music industry" could square dance on the head of a pin with a billion angels and have room to spare. If you could "play upon" it, it would be an instrument so small, it would make the legendary "world's tiniest violin" look like a Texas-sized double bass.
posted by bgribble at 12:32 PM on September 6 [5 favorites]
This must be lawyer snark. The "integrity of the music industry" could square dance on the head of a pin with a billion angels and have room to spare. If you could "play upon" it, it would be an instrument so small, it would make the legendary "world's tiniest violin" look like a Texas-sized double bass.
posted by bgribble at 12:32 PM on September 6 [5 favorites]
The AI music company is actually Guided by Voices in a robot suit
posted by credulous at 12:33 PM on September 6 [7 favorites]
posted by credulous at 12:33 PM on September 6 [7 favorites]
Life turned into a William Gibson novel so gradually, I hardly even noticed.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:53 PM on September 6 [4 favorites]
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:53 PM on September 6 [4 favorites]
The AI music company is actually Guided by Voices in a robot suit
Pretty sure Bob would have matched the AI in terms of output, and the song titles would have been equally random. Around one in five would have been a pretty decent song, too.
posted by pipeski at 12:56 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
Pretty sure Bob would have matched the AI in terms of output, and the song titles would have been equally random. Around one in five would have been a pretty decent song, too.
posted by pipeski at 12:56 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
If he's doing all the listening, he could have just used random noise. All the AI is doing is providing cover in case somebody working at one of the platforms decides to take a casual spot check, it doesn't have to actually pull any organic listens.
posted by Rhomboid at 1:18 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
posted by Rhomboid at 1:18 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
If I set a track to stream on repeat in my home, even when I am not home...that artist would still get paid, right?
Artists don't get paid on a per-play/per-stream basis to begin with, but they also have algorithms to detect those very simplistic attempted end runs.
posted by mykescipark at 1:20 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]
Artists don't get paid on a per-play/per-stream basis to begin with, but they also have algorithms to detect those very simplistic attempted end runs.
posted by mykescipark at 1:20 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]
Life turned into a William Gibson novel so gradually, I hardly even noticed.
Good news, everyone! The future is evenly distributed now!
posted by oulipian at 1:30 PM on September 6 [6 favorites]
Good news, everyone! The future is evenly distributed now!
posted by oulipian at 1:30 PM on September 6 [6 favorites]
Aw man, Calm Baseball is fake?? I love that song!
posted by Clustercuss at 2:08 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
posted by Clustercuss at 2:08 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
Life turned into a William Gibson novel so gradually, I hardly even noticed.
You never noted the color of the sky?
posted by Thorzdad at 2:41 PM on September 6 [4 favorites]
You never noted the color of the sky?
posted by Thorzdad at 2:41 PM on September 6 [4 favorites]
Well this is a helluva way to find out I'm just an AI creation.
> Life turned into a William Gibson novel so gradually, I hardly even noticed.
What a rip off. I never even got my wired reflexes. :(
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 2:54 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
> Life turned into a William Gibson novel so gradually, I hardly even noticed.
What a rip off. I never even got my wired reflexes. :(
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 2:54 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
We THOUGHT he meant that the sky would be static noise, but what he really meant was the "dead channel" color will become just a blue screen.
posted by symbioid at 3:02 PM on September 6 [4 favorites]
posted by symbioid at 3:02 PM on September 6 [4 favorites]
> played in the uninhabited desert to only a family of burrowing owls
Dude. Please don't do that to the owls. Human music for humans, pitiful squeaks of dying rodents for owls.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 3:23 PM on September 6 [5 favorites]
Dude. Please don't do that to the owls. Human music for humans, pitiful squeaks of dying rodents for owls.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 3:23 PM on September 6 [5 favorites]
Gibson? More like Philip K. Dick, from what I've observed.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 3:23 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
posted by The Half Language Plant at 3:23 PM on September 6 [2 favorites]
FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist" was absolutely not on my 2024 News Events bingo card
the only part of this that I find surprising is “FBI [or anybody] busts,” to be honest
posted by atoxyl at 3:30 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]
the only part of this that I find surprising is “FBI [or anybody] busts,” to be honest
posted by atoxyl at 3:30 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]
".. trying to blend in quirky names of legitimate musical acts" he stole from the fabulous Gorky's Zygotic Mynci? Bastard.
posted by elmono at 3:33 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]
posted by elmono at 3:33 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]
🎵 Calm Baseball / No one's keeping score / Calm Baseball / The mound ain't bare / there's dandelions there
[brief, pretty mandolin riff]
Let's play Calm Baseball / there's barely teams / every throw is underhand / and hangs lazy in the sky
make a wish and let it bounce / the hustle's just a dance
It's Calm Baseball [whoo hoo hoo]
Calm Baseball [oooh oooh oooh]
Calm Baseball [do we even have a bat?]
Calm Baseball [whoo hoo hoo]
[fade out] 🎵
posted by phooky at 3:35 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
[brief, pretty mandolin riff]
Let's play Calm Baseball / there's barely teams / every throw is underhand / and hangs lazy in the sky
make a wish and let it bounce / the hustle's just a dance
It's Calm Baseball [whoo hoo hoo]
Calm Baseball [oooh oooh oooh]
Calm Baseball [do we even have a bat?]
Calm Baseball [whoo hoo hoo]
[fade out] 🎵
posted by phooky at 3:35 PM on September 6 [3 favorites]
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