AI artist Xania Monet signs multimillion-dollar record deal

[Teletubby 151,119]

 

Last week, a team of record-label executives took a Zoom meeting with a little-known R&B artist releasing music under the name Xania Monet, whose album has been climbing fast up the charts, drawing interest and potential bidders from around the music business.

But it quickly became clear that this was no ordinary rising star when she joined the call without video, explaining she wasn’t “camera ready” and declining to sing.

That’s because the artist, a poet whose real name is Telisha Jones and who goes by Nikki, has used AI to craft her image and Suno to craft her music. Given her use of Suno, which was sued for copyright infringement by the major record companies last year, labels backed by the majors abstained from making offers, though one major label put a top offer on the table anyway. The bidding reached $3 million to sign her, sources say, and Hallwood Media, the entertainment company led by former Interscope executive Neil Jacobson, ultimately added her to its roster with a multimillion-dollar agreement.

Xania is the brainchild of 31-year-old Jones, who owns a design studio and lives in OIive Branch, Miss. She comes from humble beginnings, says her manager Romel Murphy, a veteran music marketing executive who has worked with gospel acts like Cheneta Jones and K. Michelle as well as Memphis newcomer IME Casino and considers Jones family.  

“She’s been writing poetry for a long time,” Murphy tells Billboard, noting that 90% of her lyrics are her own true stories, and the other 10% are inspired by the stories of her friends and community. What’s making the songs catch is “not a hook and a bridge and a catchy chant — It’s just the lyrics, and they are pure.”

While Jones grew up singing herself in church, she’s not the “vocal beast” that Xania is, Murphy says. Jones used a combination of Suno’s platform and live elements to create her album, and claims full ownership of the songwriting and production credits, he says, but she plans to work with additional human producers on her upcoming project. Murphy says he’s now fielding publishing deal offers, and is in the midst of planning Xania’s first live performance.

Notably, Monet appeared on the Billboard charts for this first time this week (dated Sept. 20, 2025), debuting at No. 25 on the Emerging Artists tally and at No. 21 on Hot Gospel Songs with “Let Go, Let God.” Additionally, her song “How Was I Supposed to Know” hit No. 1 on R&B Digital Song Sales, No. 3 on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales and No. 22 on Digital Song Sales. Her catalog has earned 9.8 million on-demand official U.S. streams, 5.4 million of those in the most recent tracking week (Sept. 5-11), according to Luminate.

 

[NUTELLA 11,964]

edit- nvmd 🤖

Edited Sunday at 02:38 AM by NUTELLA

[TheMontebello 585]

Wow that sucks

[gothicdream 39,613]

Barf

[Lord Mayhem 1,215]

Its annoying af to the ear...so high pitch 

[steven 6,046]

My poor ears

[Bobina 3,008]

I mean, it's AI, so obligatory tomatoes, but why does the quality also sound like 💩

[hELXIG 43,344]

And so it begins 

 

The era of artists being reduced to 'prompt writers' for a generator

You know that now labels can see they don't have to pay for studio time, or wait for artists to have brilliant creative ideas, and don't have to wait for recordings to be finished and mastered and perfected, they're gonna be rubbing their hands together like greedy flies who found their latest plate of sh.it to eat and cheering like their team just won the victory at the superbowl.

Edited Sunday at 05:24 AM by hELXIG

[River 117,901]

4 hours ago, Lord Mayhem said:

Its annoying af to the ear...so high pitch 

like katy perry trying to hit a note 

[robotvoiceinalice 1,705]

49 minutes ago, River said:

like katy perry trying to hit a note 

katy can actually sing sometimes tho

[robotvoiceinalice 1,705]

this sounds terrible 

[FfFfFfFF 56,335]

[Killa 17,660]

Sad that a Song like that would be Amazing in Someone's real voice but no label would invest on It but for some ai joke theres and investment. 

Ai Is very useful resource but ofc not like this. Whats even the point. At least try to make something unrealistic. This makes no sense tò me. Its Just tò try and capitalize on the virality of the Moment 

[SimonBaetens 8,804]

Beyoncé should sue, they clearly used her voice for reference

[hamartia 1,450]

Love that these avatars are always a woc 

Also love how obvious it is that these models were trained on sooooo much p*rn lmao. Any clip of a woman longer than 2 seconds will have her caressing her boobs

Edited Sunday at 03:04 PM by hamartia