AI Artist Signs $3M Record Deal, Industry Reacts

What Xania Monet’s rise means for musicians and creators navigating the AI wave.

Author

Aaron Wu
September 29, 2025

Hey there! It’s Aaron.

An AI artist just signed a $3M record deal. Human musicians are furious, labels are writing checks, and the lesson for creators? The market just voted.

Here's the quick remix:

📌TL;DR

  • Xania Monet: AI artist lands a $3M deal after Billboard chart success — a sign AI is taking center stage.

  • OpenAI Pulse: ChatGPT now delivers personalized daily briefings while you sleep.

  • Epidemic Adapt: Edit licensed tracks with AI while keeping artists paid.

  • More AI news…

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes.

CATCH OF THE DAY

Xania Monet: The $3M AI Artist

What happens when a poet, an AI tool, and Timbaland walk into a studio? You get Xania Monet, an AI-generated R&B persona that just signed a $3 million record deal.

Talisha Jones, a Mississippi poet, stitched together Monet’s voice and identity using Suno (the AI music platform currently caught up in copyright fights). Her track Let Go, Let God didn’t just rack up streams — it climbed Billboard’s Emerging Talents chart and hit No. 21 on Hot Gospel Songs.

That was enough to spark a bidding war among labels, with Hallwood Media closing the deal.

Not bad for someone who doesn’t technically exist.

The Backlash

Of course, this isn’t playing on repeat for everyone.

Kehlani called it “IT, not she”, pointing out that an AI persona built from other people’s data feels less like artistry and more like an intrusion.

@pigsandplans

@Kehlani took to TikTok to express her disturbance at the AI "artist" who just signed a $3 million record deal:⁠ ⁠ “There is an AI R&B art... See more

SZA didn’t hold back either: “Hey, I hate AI. If you f-ck w me PLEASE don’t make any AI images of me or songs.”

And honestly, can you blame them?

If you’ve spent years honing your craft only to see an AI persona leapfrog onto Billboard, the frustration is real. This isn’t just about music industry drama, it’s about the same anxiety creators across fields feel when AI suddenly shows up in their lane.

The Creator’s Angle

Here’s the twist: Jones didn’t just let Suno spit out a track and call it a day. She wrote the lyrics, layered in live elements, and built a persona fans actually connected with.

AI wasn’t the artist, it was the amplifier.

That’s the tension every creator is feeling right now. Where do you add your human touch? Where do you let AI carry the load? And at what point does that balance shift from collaboration to competition?

Beyond the Charts

But here’s what makes this bigger than music industry politics. It’s tempting to brush Xania off as a novelty. But when a label writes a check for $3 million, that’s not novelty… that’s market validation.

Today it’s gospel tracks on Billboard. Tomorrow it could be custom soundtracks for your online course, branded jingles for your side hustle, or a faceless virtual influencer climbing Spotify playlists.

The takeaway isn’t “be the next Xania.” It’s this: AI creations are no longer background noise. They’re being treated as the main act.

The Final Byte

Xania Monet isn’t proof that AI will replace human artists. She’s proof that audiences — and investors — are willing to embrace something that blurs the line.

For creators, the challenge stays the same: make work that feels human, memorable, and worth paying attention to. If AI helps you get there faster or at a scale you couldn’t manage before, use it.

Because whether you’re writing songs, producing videos, or designing courses, one thing is clear: the market is ready for AI. The question is… are you?

See you in the next one,

BYTE-SIZED BUZZ

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s making waves in the AI world this week.

📧 Perplexity launches Email Assistant
Perplexity added an AI helper for Gmail and Outlook that can draft replies, schedule meetings, and auto-label emails, available now for Max users.

The Big Deal: Inbox chaos meets its match — giving creators back precious hours for content instead of admin.

📺 Google Gemini comes to TVs
Google is rolling out Gemini across 300M+ Google TVs and Android TV OS devices, bringing AI recommendations and interactive features to the big screen.

The Big Deal: AI isn’t just in your pocket anymore — it’s creeping onto your living room screen, changing how audiences consume content.

🎶 Suno v5 hits new highs
Suno dropped version 5 of its music model, boasting state-of-the-art performance with sharper audio upgrades and more creative control.

The Big Deal: AI music tools are leveling up fast — empowering creators to produce pro-grade soundtracks with fewer limitations.

📚 Oboe launches AI education app
Ex-Spotify founders unveiled Oboe, an app that generates personalized courses from search results, chatbots, and videos to democratize learning.

The Big Deal: Learning design just got AI-assisted — educators and creators can piece together courses in minutes, not months.

💻 Microsoft lets Claude into 365 Copilot
For the first time, Microsoft users can switch between OpenAI’s models and Anthropic’s Claude inside Office apps via the Researcher agent.

The Big Deal: The AI model wars have entered your Word doc — giving you choice, flexibility, and better fits for different tasks.

🗞️ OpenAI debuts ChatGPT Pulse
A new preview feature delivers personalized daily briefings while you sleep, pulling insights from chat history, Gmail, and Google Calendar.

The Big Deal: AI is moving from reactive to proactive — Pulse could become the morning paper for the AI generation.

🎼 Epidemic Sound introduces Adapt
The new AI tool lets creators reshape licensed tracks by extending, rearranging, or removing instruments — while keeping artist royalties intact.

The Big Deal: Finally, music editing that respects creators on both sides — flexible for you, fair for artists.

WEEKLY CREATOR LOADOUT 🐾

  • Studio 3.0 (ElevenLabs)*: Edit and sync AI voiceovers with video support, making it easier to produce polished content for podcasts, courses, and creators.

  • Suno v5: Generate state-of-the-art music with sharper audio, richer creative control, and fewer limitations. Ideal for intros, jingles, and content soundtracks.

  • Ray3 (Luma AI): Create HDR, studio-quality videos with reasoning-powered refinement for professional-grade outputs.

  • Email Assistant (Perplexity): Automate Gmail/Outlook with drafts, scheduling, and labeling, giving creators back hours otherwise lost in inbox chaos.

  • ChatGPT Pulse: Receive proactive daily briefings customized from your chats, apps, and data. Your new AI-powered morning paper.

  • Qwen-Image-Edit: Edit multiple images with enhanced consistency and precision, giving creators more flexibility for posts, thumbnails, and branded visuals.

    *Affiliate Disclaimer: If you sign up for a paid subscription through my affiliate link, I earn a small commission—think of it as a high-five ✋🏼that helps keep this content rolling.

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