ChatGPT, AI slops, Michael Jackson turning to different ethnicities… AI has finally eroded into larger and closer parts of our lives. Music is no exception. AI singers are filling up playlists and making it into charts. What does this do to real musicians, and to us?
by Kiho Oshima
Xania Monet is an AI singer created with an AI system by Telisha “Nikki” Jones. Jones says she writes lyrics herself and generates music with Suno, the most well-known and controversial AI music generator. Xania’s “How Was I Supposed to Know?” became the first “substantially” AI-generated song to enter a Billboard radio airplay chart, peaking on Adult R&B Airplay at 30, and number 3 on the Hot Gospel Songs. After the Zoom meeting with multiple labels’ executives, Jones, the director of AI singer, signed a $3 million deal with record label Hallwood Media in September, 2025, only one month after Xania’s first release in August, 2025.
As observed from Xania Monet’s deal, AI singers, as well as AI-generated music, take away resources from artists who are working their way up to gain interest from record labels and listeners. Because AI fastens the process of music making, it also rushes artists who prefer not to use AI in music to produce music faster, demotivating them from taking enough time to enjoy the process and creativity, and to produce music in peace.
Emotionless AI “singers” threatening real musicians
Grammy-winning singer, SZA, commented that she feels like she’s “at war because of AI”, in an interview with i.d.. She noted, “I’m not up against the pop girls. I’m not up against the R&B girls. I’m up against anti-intellectualism and doing things easily. The type of blend of information my human experience provides, AI can’t even be prompted to f–k with. I want to just let this angst drive me into bizarre directions.” AI coming into the music industry threatens even the generations’ favorite, making her frown at how AI makes the process so effortless and disconnected from the “human artist”, while AI, an emotionless being, tries to take advantage of the human struggles and stories, especially the ones of systematically vulnerable. She also emphasized the impact on the new musicians by commenting, “Why am I hearing AI covers of Olivia Dean, when Olivia Dean just came the f–k out? She can’t even collect the streams. I’m also really offended by the type of Black music that’s coming out of AI. Weird, stereotypical struggle music.”
Detecting AI in music: close to impossible
The fact that AI is stealing away streaming numbers, listeners’ attention, and even record labels’ interests is disturbing and alarming. Especially considering that AI music is only becoming more and more realistic feeding off of the data people provide around the world. Musicians are not the only ones who are influenced by AI-generated music. Now, many people are confused and afraid of not being aware of AI-generated music and AI musicians. Many listeners of Xania Monet commented on the Instagram reel post that they had no idea Monet was an AI singer and had been listening to her songs thinking it was a human singer. Despite people’s concerns, it is unfortunately expected that detecting AI-generated music will be, at some point, impossible, regarding the nature of AI which will learn and improve as more people start to use and provide data. Moreover, now that a great variety of AI services are available, and AI is starting to intertwine with people’s lives, the use of AI in the music industry will also become more fragmented. Some might use it by asking for synonyms when writing lyrics, or by humming a melody into AI and asking to generate the rest of the song. It would become more and more difficult and complex to define which music was AI-generated and which was not.
Consequences are needed for the unregulated music stealing
Besides the difficulty of detecting AI in music production, AI raises concerns of music copyrights as well. Suno Inc., is being sued for using copyright-protected musical works to train their musical tool system and profit without having obtained licenses and without financially compensating the original artists. This case suggests a countermeasure to musicians and corporations with AI-driven system compensation. And, maybe even a slight hope to musicians who’s at wits’ end by the society that disregards artists and glorifies things generated by AI in the name of “innovation” and “evolution”. At the same time, however,
following these complex processes requires much resources, energy and time, when most musicians are already struggling just to make their ends meet.
What is, then, now important for the music industry is to organize the environment for musicians to be educated about how to protect copyrights of their own from AI and how to not to accidentally steal someone’s music by using AI. We need accessible educational resources, such as online videos, which musicians can easily reach to understand the AI usage in music and its risks for themselves and for others in the industry.
Tidal launching “AI Policy” to protect musicians
Music streaming service, Tidal took an initiative to incorporate “AI Policy” that aims to protect artists and their work, and to keep listeners informed. According to their policy, published on 29th of June, 2026, music which was wholly or substantially created with AI will be labeled as “AI” on their app, and artists will not be able to profit from this music. Moreover, AI-generated content that includes fraudulent and deceiving components will be banned from the app. Users are also welcomed to block AI-generated music easily on the app, and even to report songs or artists if they suspect they are generated by AI using their support form. What seems to be, though, a concern for both users and Tidal is more granular and layered use of AI and its detection. On social media, there are discussions about their policy, asking “What if 99% of music is generated by AI and 1% is human-made?”. Tidal kindly answers in their policy that “some partially AI-generated content may remain unlabeled on Tidal”, which they continued by saying, “Our AI Policy is a living document and may evolve as technology advances”.
Their stance is to keep their countermeasures updated and adjusted just as AI will be continuously advanced. While this seems to be a minimal effort any streaming services can put into, other streaming services lack any actions and contributions at this moment. Music streaming services can reflect their business model to Tidal’s effort in respecting the art of music and the artists. Social media platforms are regulated to label AI-generated content. Music streaming services should not be the exception. Listeners should be promised the right to be aware of AI use in music, and should be able to enjoy music without feeling scammed by smart machines.
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