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It's their first album since Scott Kelly quit the band and retired from music after admitting to abuse. Continue reading…

Tough choices had to be made. Continue reading…

The Pretty Reckless, Hawthorne Heights and Rise Against were among the acts announcing major tours this week. Continue reading…

A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to one of the most brazen streaming fraud cases ever prosecuted, using AI-generated artists and bot-driven fake listeners to steal more than $8 million in royalties that belonged to real musicians and songwriters.

Michael Smith, 54, of Cornelius, North Carolina, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl in the Southern District of New York, admitting to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He faces up to five years in federal prison. Sentencing is scheduled for 07/29/2026, and Smith has agreed to forfeit $8,091,843.64 in full.

The scheme was methodical. Smith used AI to generate hundreds of thousands of songs under fake artist identities, then built out thousands of bot accounts across Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music — the platforms explicitly named in the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release — and set those bots to stream his catalogue on a continuous, automated loop. To stay below the fraud-detection threshold, he deliberately spread artificial plays across his enormous library rather than hammering any single track. The result was billions of streams that looked, on paper, like genuine consumer activity.

It’s a particularly corrosive form of theft. Streaming royalties are distributed proportionally from a shared pool, which means every fake play Smith manufactured came directly out of what real artists were owed. His bot traffic not only generated money for him, but actively drained it from everyone else.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton put it plainly: “Michael Smith generated thousands of fake songs using artificial intelligence and then streamed those fake songs billions of times. Although the songs and listeners were fake, the millions of dollars Smith stole were real. Millions of dollars in royalties that Smith diverted from real, deserving artists and rights holders. Smith‘s brazen scheme is over, as he stands convicted of a federal crime for his AI-assisted fraud.”

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by the SDNY’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.

What it leaves unanswered is the larger question that Metal Injection raised: how does a scheme of this scale — hundreds of thousands of fake songs, billions of fraudulent streams — run long enough to generate over $8 million before anyone catches it? The platforms named in the indictment have the technical infrastructure to detect anomalous streaming behaviour, and the financial incentive to do so. Whether Smith‘s conviction prompts any of them to actually strengthen those safeguards, or whether this gets filed away as an isolated incident, remains to be seen. Real artists shouldn’t have to wait for the next Michael Smith to find out.

The post North Carolina Man Stole $8M From Real Artists Using Hundreds Of Thousands Of AI Songs & Billions Of Fake Streams appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

You know about 2hollis, right? He’s The Moment and all that? Perhaps you would be interested to learn that 2hollis, who is himself just 22, has a younger brother who leads a very young LA youth crew hardcore band. Angus Frazier is part of Start Today, a band who take their name from Gorilla Biscuits’…

The post Young LA Hardcore Band Start Today Release Debut Album <em>Nothing To You</em> appeared first on Stereogum.

Last Friday Yeat shared “Let King Tonka Talk,” a single featuring a beat from 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady and a few lines rapped by one Kylie Jenner, aka King Kylie. Today, the California-born rapper took a full ad spread out of the New York Times to announce his new album is arriving this Friday. It appears to be a double album called ADL (A Dangerous Lyfe / A Dangerous Love), and there are many more familiar names on its tracklist.

The post Yeat’s New Album <em>ADL (A Dangerous Lyfe / A Dangerous Love)</em> Features Elton John, Grimes, 070 Shake, & Many More appeared first on Stereogum.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
VAJRA WALKED THROUGH THE RUINS OF POMPEII. WHAT THEY BROUGHT BACK WILL STOP YOU COLD.
“SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN (POMPEII REIMAGINING)” — OUT NOW
New York, NY — Progressive metal/art rock band Vajra has released their haunting reinterpretation of Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” available now on all major platforms. Arriving as a Pompeii Reimagining , the track stands as something rare: a piece of music that earns the weight it carries.
This is not a cover. It’s a continuation.
Originally sparked by the practical need to extend a live set, the song evolved into something far more immersive. Inspired by the stark, elemental atmosphere of Live at Pompeii , Vajra spent years living inside the composition before recording it. Replicating it would have been easy. That was never the goal.
“The song feels alive… like a portal. It asked something of us. We realized that to carry it forward, we had to enter its heat.”
Pilgrimage
Vocalist Annamaria Pinna and guitarist Dave Sussman traveled to Pompeii and Herculaneum, walking the same streets, standing in the amphitheater where the original performance was filmed. They studied Pliny the Younger’s firsthand account alongside archaeological and volcanological records of the eruption’s final hours.
“My family is from that region. Maybe they were there, or knew of it when it happened. I don’t know. But I feel that story in my cells. If we were going to reinterpret this song, we had to honor the people of Pompeii as fully and honestly as we could.”
The Music Video
The accompanying video was written, shot, edited, and produced entirely by Pinna and Sussman. Blending original footage captured in Pompeii and Herculaneum with AI-assisted visuals, it reconstructs the city’s final 24 hours through a first-person lens. What begins as an ordinary day quickly turns catastrophic.
It doesn’t just tell the story. It puts you inside it.
Echoes Through Time
More than five decades after its creation, the original composition still resonates. Vajra expands its architecture into something heavier, slower, and more cinematic. Pinna’s ethereal vocals drift through the mix like smoke through stone, while the hypnotic pulse remains intact.
The ritual is still there. The tension builds differently. The silence at the end lingers longer.
“We feel that the song is sacred, and it is still echoing. So are the images. There’s something unfinished in it. Something still moving.”
Why This Song. Why Now.
Pompeii didn’t fade away. It vanished in less than a day. An ordinary morning turned into total destruction with no warning.
That idea doesn’t feel distant anymore.
“There are forces that can reroute our lives overnight. What feels stable can shift instantly. Our time here is brief. That awareness changes everything, including how you create.”
Released on the Spring Equinox, a moment of balance between darkness and light, this reimagining stands as both remembrance and a wake-up call.
The song is out now. The video is out now.
Listen. Watch. Then sit with it.



Lineup:
Annamaria Pinna — Vocals
Dave Sussman — Guitar
Sahaj Ticotin — Bass
Jimmy DeMarco — Drums
Mixed by Dave Sussman & Sahaj Ticotin
Mastered by Howie Weinberg
Music video written, shot, edited, and produced by Annamaria Pinna & Dave Sussman
Featuring original footage from Pompeii and Herculaneum, reconstructed with AI tools


Stream Now:
Spotify: https://show.co/tbEhjOH
All Platforms: https://found.ee/vajra-set-the-controls
Bandcamp: https://vajraofficial.bandcamp.com/


About Vajra
Vajra is a New York-based progressive metal/art rock band blending cinematic soundscapes, ritualistic intensity, and philosophical depth. Previous singles include “Truth Has Many Lies,” which premiered on Revolver and charted #2 on Mediabase Activator, “Love Is a Battlefield,” featured on MTV Live’s Metal Thrashing Madness , and “Crown or Crucify,” which reached the Top 40 on the Mediabase Active Rock Chart and #7 on Billboard’s New & Active Rock Chart.
Fans of Tool, Pink Floyd, and A Perfect Circle will feel right at home in Vajra’s immersive, hypnotic world.

Connect:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2GZkiezbrxn2yCuBfRgS6y
https://www.facebook.com/vajratemple
https://instagram.com/vajra_music_official
https://youtube.com/VajraOfficial
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/vajra/80747373
https://vajraofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/1070584
Contact: vajratemple@gmail.com

The encounter, which took place in Brazil, has kicked up hot debate online.

The concept-driven record surrounding an impending dystopia, Planned Obsolescence, by Only Human is due out at the end of the week.

The post ONLY HUMAN To Release New Record At The End Of The Week appeared first on Metal Injection.

With less than three months to go until we all descend upon the hallowed turf of Donington Park, the folks at Download Festival have finally let the cat out of the bag regarding this year’s District X line-up. If you thought the main arena was packed, the after-hours entertainment is looking equally mental for 2026. … Continue reading Five, Electric Six and acoustic All-American Rejects lead Download’s District X line-up