AI Artist Xania Monet Has Racked Up Streams. How Much Money Is That Worth? (www.billboard.com)

AI-created R&B artist Xania Monet — a persona built by Mississippi-based Talisha Jones using AI-generated imagery and music produced with Suno — has amassed nearly 17 million U.S. on-demand streams across a five-track catalog in about two months. Billboard, using Luminate and industry data, estimates the songs have generated roughly $52,000 in gross master and publishing revenue to date; Monet’s most-streamed track, “How Was I Supposed to Know?,” alone would account for about $21,800 if all royalties were paid. Jones and the project recently drew a multi-million-dollar record deal from indie Hallwood Media after a bidding war, spotlighting market appetite for commercially viable AI music. The story matters because it exposes a fast-developing tension between commercial opportunity and unsettled legal, technical and platform-policy questions. Most streaming services lack AI-specific royalty rules, the U.S. Copyright Office treats human-assisted AI works as potentially copyrightable while excluding fully AI-authored pieces, and major labels are suing AI generators like Suno and Udio for alleged unlawful training. Concerns about manipulated streaming and bot-driven popularity—raised by the Music Fights Fraud Alliance—add uncertainty to actual payout and chart legitimacy. With calls to rework royalty models for “functional”/AI music, Monet’s case demonstrates both the revenue potential and the unresolved structural risks for artists, labels and platforms.