If you look closely at the illustration above, generated by the prompt you read in the box around this text, you’ll see that it wasn’t as sudden as you thought: the signs have been coming for some time. But 2025 ends with the sense that, suddenly, in the space of a year, much of what was once science fiction for music has actually happened, as this report shows, the first in a series in which GLOBO addresses the changes that artificial intelligence has already brought and can still bring to contemporary artistic production.
The healthy rotation of rock sensations – ranging from the Beatles to the Geese – was shaken in 2025 by the arrival of Velvet Sundown, a group which describes itself on its Spotify profile as “a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, but composed, performed and visualized with the help of artificial intelligence”.
Also in 2025, Xania Monet became the first AI artist to get enough radio plays of her songs to debut on the Billboard charts. Created by poet Talisha Jones using the Suno app, the virtual singer has signed a $3 million deal with production company Hallwood Media.
But it wasn’t fair. AI is also behind viral streaming hits, such as the band Breaking Rust (which reached number nine on the Billboard Emerging Artists chart and number one on the Country Digital Song Sales chart), or the song “We are Charlie Kirk,” by gospel project Spalexma, which became a popular meme on TikTok and reached the top of Spotify’s Viral 50 list in the United States. All this, not to mention the flood of pornographic country music that has invaded TikTok, all produced by machines.
“For older, less connected people, this may be their first experience with fully AI-generated music, and it’s a little scary how many don’t seem to realize that what they’re hearing isn’t human,” wrote American journalist Kieran Press-Reynolds on the Pitchfork website.
A success even in Brazil, notably with producers Blow Records (who broke through this year with “Predador de perereca,” a version of a recent funk song by MC Jhey, performed as if it were a pop song from 1982), AI music applications, like Suno and Udio, quickly raised alarms in the industry. After all, to do what they do, they were trained from a vast catalog of music owned by major record labels. The Recording Industry Association of the United States (RIAA) even filed a lawsuit against AI companies for copyright infringement, in an effort to put an end to the party.
But this year, everything changed: the industry not only resolved the issue amicably, but Universal Music entered into a partnership with Udio and Warner Music with Udio and Suno. These record labels also struck a deal with a new AI company, Klay, which became the first to gain support from all three of the world’s recorded music giants, also striking a deal with Sony Music (talks with independent record labels are ongoing).
“Music has become a commodity”
Defining itself as “liberated music,” Klay presents itself as a holistic platform “that expands artistic possibilities and preserves the value of music.” The official launch will take place in the coming months, she promises in this coach speech: “Within the Klay system, fans can shape their musical journey in new ways, ensuring that participating artists and songwriters are recognized and rewarded appropriately. »
For award-winning composer and producer Felipe Vassão (known for his videos on Instagram and TikTok in which he comments on aspects of music production), 2026 will be the year the music market goes even further “to normalize AI as a palatable product.”
— We are entering a world where it is finally admitted, with all the words, that music has become a commodity, where the great interest is to make as much money as possible from musical consumption and not from creativity — he accuses. — The two most important ends of our ecosystem, those who make music and those who consume it, are treated like trash. I even see alternatives in streaming, which need to be taken more seriously creatively, but in the mainstream I think what’s going to happen is the manufacturing of AI music relevance as usual. They’re going to push the boundaries to really have an AI artist at the top of the charts.
However, there is no shortage of defenders of AI as a tool for musical creation. They are Neil Jacobson, CEO of Hallwood Media (who signed Xania Monet), producer Timbaland (a beat genius who has worked with Madonna and Justin Timberlake, who this year launched his own AI artist, TaTa Taktumi) and former Atlantic Records general manager Paul Sinclair, who in 2025 became musical director of Suno. For others, like Tom Poleman, director of programming at iHeartRadio, and Aurélien Hérault, director of innovation at Deezer, it is time to act to prevent the uncontrolled proliferation of AI on platforms.
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