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Opinion
Xania Monet and the $3 Million Record Deal
AI in Music: What Xania Monet’s $3 Million Deal Reveals About the Future of Art
Poet-songwriter Telisha Nikki Jones, creator of the AI recording artist Xania Monet, recently secured a $3 million recording deal. In a televised interview with Gayle King of CBS, Jones introduced herself and described her creative process. She explained that she writes her own lyrics and uses the AI music platform Suno (with prompts) to produce her songs.
King asked how Jones felt about the success of Xania Monet, noting that many listeners believed Xania was a “real person.” Jones replied, “Xania is an extension of me, so I look at her as a real person.” King then pushed back: “But you can’t sing.”
The Artist vs. the Algorithm
As someone who has both heard Xania Monet’s music and used Suno to sing a hook I wrote for one of my own songs, I can honestly say the results are mesmerizing — and as a result, you’d be foolish not to include some form of AI in your workflow.
That said, the $3 million gain that Telisha Jones made by feeding prompts into Suno has triggered, in my view, an exponentially larger loss to the thousands of creatives — past, present, and future — whose recordings were uploaded into Suno without their permission, allowing the founder and a small group of stakeholders to profit handsomely. I’ll admit that things look grim for artists, but we here at Pedestal are optimistic. More on that later.
The Imitation Problem
It’s my wager that Jones will be one of the fortunate few who achieve a $3 million deal. During the interview, she walked King through the Suno prompt process. Similarly to King’s question: what’s to stop me or you from going into Suno right now and prompting a song by Xania Monet?
As a joke, I’ll probably write her in as a feature on my album to boost streams. Why not?
AI, Capitalism, and the Human Condition
I accept that AI is here to stay and that these tools are simply tools. The problem is that we live in a capitalist society that demands quality while incentivizing “efficiencies” that produce faster and cheaper outputs.
The human condition is fundamentally inefficient — capitalism is inherently exploitative — and these AI companies are not developing these tools out of the kindness of their hearts. As Telisha Jones feeds her poetry into Suno, Suno is learning how to replace Telisha. Sure, Telisha is going to land safely via a golden parachute while the vast majority of artists crash-land — and I hope it’s a crash-land.
The Generational Fallout
All of this is happening during a time when older business owners don’t understand why Gen Z isn’t motivated to go “above and beyond” as employees. Late-stage capitalism tore up the social contract that guaranteed the “American Dream.” AI is perfecting the shredder.
The generational sentiment of Millennials and Gen Z is: “What’s the point?” — a far cry from “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
Artists use tools like SUNO and Spotify to create and distribute their music. Spotify and Suno train their LLMs and algorithms on the music and lyrics uploaded, and in turn, lessening the need for the very same artists who upload their music. In sum, artists should not feed into the instrument of their demise.
What Do We Do About This?
Complexity is the Key
AI is really good at replicating very simple flat file formats: JPEGs, PNGs, WAVs, MP3s, TEXT — but not full-blown experiences. Both video games and movies as experiences have become increasingly complex over the years.
As a result, today it’s impossible to create AAA games or blockbuster films purely via prompts — and this will remain true for a while. “Vibe coding” is a thing, but it’s better suited for smaller projects with simpler code bases. Unfortunately, the way we listen to music hasn’t changed in over 30 years. By 2025 standards, albums are not experiences; they’re merely collections of simple audio files.
The Pedestal Approach
Pedestal is a high-end album distribution platform that increases the complexity of albums by consolidating video, social, music, and access into one decisive drop.
The platform features a 4-track stem player, an episodic video player, liner notes, and an in-album social module led, moderated, and controlled by the artist and their team.
The platform requires more from artists — and in turn, allows them to create better projects and ask for exponentially more. In this capitalist world, artists lack a core product. Pedestal’s mission is to bring value and appreciation back to artists and arm them with the tools to stay competitive.
In short, Pedestal turns albums into an experience worthy of purchase. We are selective about who gets on our platform, and by design, both signed and unsigned artists are central to the experience.
Redefining Art in the Age of AI
Pedestal is the antithesis of streaming, and we’re proud of that. Our response to AI making music is simple: keep it — we’ve got something better.
We define Art as the celebration and acknowledgment of human effort — and we want to see artists win. As a platform, we plan to develop and utilize AI tools for the benefit of the artist.
Unlike Most Technologies…
Unlike most technologies, AI is a product that most people never asked for. The ones most excited about it are investors and corporations — the presumed winners of the AI boom. Over the past few years, the biggest tech companies haven’t delivered truly innovative products or services for consumers. Instead, they’ve increased profits by cutting jobs.
Pedestal stands as the antithesis of streaming — a celebration of human effort and creativity. Our response to AI-generated music is simple: keep it — we’ve got something better.
