The dark side of music streaming

In September last year, musician Michael Smith of North Carolina was charged with stealing millions from music streaming services. The US Department of Justice has accused him of using artificial intelligence tools and thousands of bots to fraudulently stream songs billions of times - taking millions of dollars of royalties which otherwise would have been paid to real artists.
The case has been labeled as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘the first of its kind’. But could fraud on music streaming services actually be much more prevalent than any of the platforms let on?
BBC Trending speaks to music industry insiders, and those fighting back against streaming fraud.

Reporter and producer: Beth Godwin
Editor: Flora Carmichael
Credits:The opening sequence contains an excerpt from a news report by WBTV Charlotte (USA). We also include a trailer for the show ‘One Shot’ from Black Entertainment Television (BET)