State Champ Radio Author: djfrosty
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A few years into the debate about AI’s potential economic impact on music, the jury is still out.
AI could be great for the music business, enabling new products and creating new revenue streams for artists and songwriters. Universal Music Group (UMG) has said as much. “We believe the commercial opportunity is potentially very significant,” chief digital officer Michael Nash said during the company’s earnings call on Thursday (Oct. 30), a day after it announced a licensing deal with AI music generator Udio. “These new products and services could constitute an important source of incremental additional new future revenue for artists and songwriters.”
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Then again, AI could erode record labels and music publishers’ businesses by flooding the internet with inexpensively made music that takes some — not all — of their market share. Record labels have already lost market share to independent artists in recent years, and AI could be either a continuation or acceleration of existing trends.
Two years ago, analysts at Barclays Research were dismissive of AI-generated music’s threat to the established music business. The general population might have access to music-making tools, but, Barclays reasoned, the quality of the music was poor, and songs created by faceless software housed on computer servers couldn’t create the human connection that listeners desire. Record labels and music publishers could be hurt if social platforms pushed AI music, but the money-saving tactic could run into legal roadblocks, they said. For all the initial hoopla about AI’s ability to upset the status quo, too many questions at the time remained unanswered.
Today, though, Barclays is singing a different tune, and advancements in AI platforms have answered some of their earlier questions. Now, the analysts are more convinced of AI music’s potential to erode record labels’ market share and weaken their financial standing. The quality of music has “improved significantly,” they wrote in a Tuesday (Oct. 28) report titled “AI in Music: Danger Zone,” adding that it’s “hard to differentiate between human music and AI music.” Fans still crave connections with human artists, they wrote, but as opposed to their earlier take, they conceded that AI music represents a threat to the music establishment.
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In the Barclays analysts’ view, AI is a mixed bag of gains (such as AI-enabled superfan tiers) and losses (lower royalties from social media platforms’ adoption of cheap AI music). Overall, though, they believe the damage that AI can create will outweigh its benefits. Their bottom line: In an average scenario, UMG takes a 1% hit to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and Warner Music Group’s EBITDA drops 4%. A worst-case scenario calls for deeper losses. A best-case scenario sees AI providing a boost.
Not everybody is in the Barclays camp, however. Despite advancements in the quality of music produced by AI platforms, analysts at J.P. Morgan are sticking with their opinion from 2023 that AI will not have “a meaningful impact on industry revenues.” Analysts wrote in a note to UMG investors on Monday (Oct. 27) that AI risks have been “negated” and “controlled” by the company’s efforts in recent years to get streaming platforms to prioritize and reward professional artists over mass-produced, low-quality recordings.
Like Barclays, J.P. Morgan believes market erosion is a genuine threat to UMG’s market share. But J.P. Morgan analysts see much more upside in AI. (Notably, J.P. Morgan’s analysis was less thorough; unlike Barclays, it didn’t put a dollar value on AI’s potential impact.) They note that UMG will benefit from AI artists’ need for publishers and record labels (which jibes with Billboard’s assessment of Hallwood Media’s impact on Xania Monet’s on-demand streams). AI can also generate revenue streams from new licensing opportunities and make listening to music more enjoyable, they write.
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The major labels and publishers haven’t signed or created AI artists yet, but if they do, J.P. Morgan believes they will benefit from economics that are superior to their deals with human artists and songwriters. It’s not a stretch: To capture some of the market share that has shifted to independent artists, UMG has invested heavily in artist services by building up Virgin Music Group and attempting to acquire Downtown Music Holdings (the European Commission will announce its decision on the proposed merger in February 2026). If AI artists are to compete in the marketplace, they will need the same services that are available to human artists, such as promotion, distribution, copyright administration and public relations.
One thing is certain: Because AI music is in its infancy, trying to figure out its long-term trajectory is difficult. When the music industry began navigating the shift from physical to digital in the late ‘90s, few people could have guessed that the marketplace of 2025 would be dominated by subscription royalties and that download revenue would be almost nonexistent. When Napster launched in 1999, nearly a decade before the iPhone debuted, imagining the influence of an app like TikTok would have been nearly impossible. Music companies got to this point by enforcing the value of their intellectual property through a few decades of licensing agreements and lawsuits.
In the near term, expect more deals like UMG’s partnership with Udio. Over the long term, expect to be surprised.
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What happens when two Oscar-winning Wednesday stars join forces? They come up with a hilarious ASMR video perfectly timed to Spooky Season.
On Halloween (Oct. 31), Netflix took to X to share a silly ASMR video clip featuring Lady Gaga and Catherine Zeta-Jones trying their hand at the viral content style. Set in a Wednesday-esque room, complete with moody lighting and adorned with props including dead roses, a gold candelabra, a black violin and faux poison, Gaga and Zeta-Jones sit behind a table and whisper into a microphone, aiming to help viewers relax.
“I think because this is Wednesday, we should say dark words like ‘death,’ ‘coffin,’ ‘cemetery,’” Gaga said while rubbing dead rose petals into the microphone, before Zeta-Jones added “Pugsley,” referring to Wednesday’s brother in the series.
While Gaga earned her Academy Award for best original song for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born, Zeta-Jones earned her statuette for best supporting actress thanks to her work in 2002’s Chicago. The “Abracadabra” singer referenced the latter film in the ASMR clip, joking, “Snap! Pop!” after plucking a petal off the rose. Once Zeta-Jones joined in with “Six,” the two stars finished the iconic opening lines of “Cell Block Tango,” a standout number from the six-time Oscar-winning film.
Outside of their Oscars and affinity for musicals, Gaga and Zeta-Jones also bonded over their same-named husbands in the Halloween ASMR clip. After mentioning that her fiancé (and Mayhem co-writer) Michael Polansky was from Minnesota, Zeta-Jones responded, “My Michael’s from Hollywood,” speaking of her husband Michael Douglas. “Your Michael is so sexy,” Gaga quipped, with Zeta-Jones replying, “I’d love to meet your Michael; I’m sure he’s just as sexy as my Michael.” Always one to laud a fellow powerful woman, Gaga said, “He would love to meet you. He may never come back!”
The duo’s Halloween ASMR clip arrives the month after the conclusion of Wednesday season 2. After scoring a surprise viral hit with “Bloody Mary” thanks to the Netflix series’ first season, Gaga appeared in the second season as Rosaline Rotwood, which gave way to “The Dead Dance,” he most recent Billboard Hot 100 entry (No. 40). As Zeta-Jones is prepping upcoming films like Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, in which she’s set to star alongside Charli xcx and Jenna Ortega, Gaga is wrapping up the European leg of her Mayhem Ball Tour.
Watch Lady Gaga and Catherine Zeta-Jones try their hands at ASMR below.
Trending on Billboard Taylor Swift fans are a powerful bunch. And in a situation where millions of Americans risked going hungry with the potential halt of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the group is using that power for good. On Friday (Oct. 31), the Swifties for Hope account on X shared an announcement encouraging […]
Trending on Billboard NLE Choppa, who’s now going by NLE the Great, came out guns blazing on Halloween with his bristling “KO” diss track, and it appears he’s looking to make things spooky for NBA YoungBoy. Explore See latest videos, charts and news Choppa released an accompanying video that’s equally inspired by 2Pac and Michael […]
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A judge has rejected Tory Lanez’s latest attempt to avoid sitting for a deposition in litigation stemming from his alleged shooting of Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.
Lanez (Daystar Peterson), who’s serving a 10-year prison sentence for allegedly shooting Megan in the foot during a drunken argument, is a begrudging witness in her civil defamation lawsuit against gossip blogger Milagro Gramz. The Houston rapper (Megan Pete) claims Lanez is paying Gramz (Milagro Cooper) to spread falsehoods about the incident and the 2022 trial.
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Lanez’s lawyers claim deposition testimony could hurt the Canadian rapper’s ongoing appeal of his criminal shooting conviction. But Judge Lisette M. Reid says in a Thursday (Oct. 30) order that it’s “unclear” how that’s possible.
“The focus of Mr. Peterson’s deposition is his relationship with defendant Cooper, not with plaintiff,” writes the judge. “Thus, the court does not see how testimony regarding Mr. Peterson’s communications and relationship with defendant would serve to prejudice his criminal appeal.”
Judge Reid says Lanez must be deposed, and he can assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination “on a question-by-question basis, the propriety of which will be decided by the undersigned who will be supervising the deposition.”
Reps for Megan and Lanez did not return requests for comment on Friday (Oct. 31).
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Megan’s attorneys have been attempting to depose Lanez for months. Lanez’s first deposition was held at the jail in April, but he was so uncooperative that the questioning had to be stopped after just 44 minutes.
Lanez was held in contempt for this behavior and ordered to sit for a second deposition, this time under a judge’s supervision. He showed up to the courthouse on Sept. 15 with a new lawyer, Crystal Morgan, who this time asserted that Lanez wouldn’t answer any questions at all due to concerns about the appeal.
A third attempt at Lanez’s deposition will be held “at a date agreed upon by all parties,” wrote Judge Reid, who says she may order Lanez to repay Megan’s lawyers for the time they’ve expended on the back and forth.
The deposition battle comes as a Nov. 17 trial date is fast approaching in Megan’s lawsuit against Gramz. The rapper says Gramz has been posting lies about Lanez’s shooting trial, including false information that the gun in question went “missing,” to undermine the guilty verdict and ruin her reputation. Gramz denies any wrongdoing and says all of her social media activity is First Amendment-protected free speech.
Lanez hasn’t been the only difficult witness in the case. Two of his close allies — legal advocate Ceasar McDowell and blogger DJ Akademiks — have also been accused of derailing their depositions with disruptive behavior.
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Coco Jones and Paris Hilton may have drawn inspiration from iconic music videos and Broadway musicals for their costumes this year, but Halloween weekend 2025 is also about new music.
Florence + The Machine returned with its first new album in three years, the aptly titled Everybody Scream, which features production from Aaron Dessner and Mark Bowen. Offset also shared his surprise new spooky season-themed Haunted by Fame project, while Mass Appeal unveiled its highly anticipated posthumous Big L album.
Hailing from Harlem, the late rapper, who was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in 1999, released only one album during his lifetime, but his impact and influence still live on in hip-hop today. A part of Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It… album series, Big L’s Harlem’s Finest: Return of the King features unreleased remastered tracks and rare freestyles, including collaborations with Jay-Z, Nas and Joe Budden.
This year, Halloweekend also brought a new OutKast re-release. The ATL rap duo shared a 25th anniversary edition of their classic Stankonia album, complete with previously unreleased tracks and new remixes. The world of hip-hop also spun out new projects from Westside Gunn (Heels Have Eyes 3), Armani White (There’s A Ghost In My House), Kodak Black (Just Getting Started), Saba (Coffee!) and Icewear Vezzo (Purple Passion).
New singles also arrived from Brent Faiyaz (“Have To”), Tyler, The Creator (“Mother”), Omarion (“For War”), Rosalía (“Berghain”), Russell Dickerson and Jonas Brothers (“Happen to Me”), and Lee Brice (“Killed the Man”). In addition to Taylor Swift‘s new “Alone In My Tower” version of “The Fate of Ophelia,” we also got new Halloweekend singles from Jai’Len Josey, Lola Brooke, Lil Baby, The Chainsmokers, and Jessie J.
London indie pop singer Cat Burns also released her How to Be Human LP, and Pentatonix shared their latest holiday album, Christmas in the City, which features collaborations with Jojo and Frank Sinatra.
There’s a lot of new music to squeeze into your Halloween playlists, but Billboard still wants to know which new release you can’t take off repeat. Tell us by casting your vote in the poll below.
Source: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty
Nicki Minaj is loved worldwide, but seeing Donald Trump’s granddaughter as a fan? That’s pretty random.
Kai Trump recently was doing a TikTok trend that had the Queens ‘ “Beez In The Trap” song. Trump’s granddaughter, alongside her friend Emma Markin, was rapping their hearts out to Nicki’s chorus. An online user reposted the video on X and tagged Nicki Minaj. This is where the legendary female rapper saw the video. Sending Kai and Emma a heart emoji for supporting the song.
This is not the first time Minaj showed the Trump family love, as she shouted out the president earlier in the month, “Flattering photos are allowed to be posted of me again. Thanks, POTUS. Epiphany had politicians thinking she would lead them to victory. Had Live Nation thinking she knew her sh*t. How much money did VP Harris have stacked up for her campaign, again? Yikes.”
In other news, the Starships rapper has been beefing with Jay-Z, which resulted in her putting new music on ice. She alleged that Hov and Roc Nation have allegedly tried to blackball her. Also adding a jab at Jay’s failed attempt at getting a Casino in NY, “They came BEGGING the QUEEN for a tour & album & I said NOPE!!!!! LMFAO. Wanted to patch it up. They needed help from the QUEEN & the BARBZ. I called the Barbz on the secret BARB phone & it was resounding NOOOOOOOO. Just like the casinoooooooooo”.
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Music Artists Coalition (MAC), a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for music creators, has responded to Universal Music Group’s new AI deal with Udio, asking questions about how artists will be compensated. “We’re cautiously optimistic but insistent on details,” said Jordan Bromley, leader at Manatt Entertainment and board member of MAC, in a press release put out by MAC on Friday (Oct. 31).
The UMG-Udio deal, which was announced Wednesday night (Oct. 29), is multifaceted. First, it involves a “compensatory” legal settlement for UMG, which sued Udio last summer, along with the other major music companies, for copyright infringement of their sound recordings during Udio’s training process. (Sony and Warner’s lawsuit against Udio is ongoing.)
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It also provides go-forward licensing agreements for UMG’s recorded music and publishing assets, which is said to open up a new revenue stream for the company and its signees who decide to opt in. Those artists and songwriters who participate will be compensated for both the training process of the AI model and for its outputs, according to a source close to the deal.
As part of the agreement, Udio plans to pivot its offerings significantly. In 2026, the company will launch a new platform “powered by new cutting-edge generative AI technology that will be trained on authorized and licensed music. The new subscription service will transform the user engagement experience, creating a licensed and protected environment to customize, stream and share music responsibly, on the Udio platform.” This will include new tools that let fans remix, mashup and create songs in the style of participating UMG artists. It will also allow fans to use UMG artist voice models.
Opting into the Udio deal is not a one-size-fits-all approach. According to a recent interview with Udio CEO Andrew Sanchez about the deal, the company “[has] built and invested an absolutely enormous amount into controls. Controls over how artists’ songs can be used, how their styles can be used, really granular controls…One of the things that you’ll see is we’re going to launch with a set of features that has a spectrum of freedom that the artist can control.”
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One area that Sanchez and UMG’s announcement about the deal did not provide clarity on was how exactly participating artists will be compensated. This is why MAC put out a press release on Friday (Oct. 31) asking exactly what is going on — and noting the organization is only “cautiously optimistic” about the agreement.
As Irving Azoff, top artist manager, entrepreneur, board member and founder of MAC, put it in the announcement: “Every technological advance offers opportunity, but we have to make sure it doesn’t come at the expense of the people who actually create the music — artists and songwriters. We’ve seen this before — everyone talks about ‘partnership,’ but artists end up on the sidelines with scraps. Artists must have creative control, fair compensation and clarity about deals being done based on their catalogs.”
The press release goes on to say that while MAC appreciates that the deal is “opt-in” and with “granular control,” the organization still has questions, which are quoted below:
“Meaningful consent: How do artists actually control what uses they authorize? What happens when multiple songwriters or performers on a single song disagree about participation?”
“Revenue splits: What percentage of revenue goes to artists versus the label versus the AI company when their music is used to train models or generate new works?”
“Data and deal transparency: Was settlement money paid? How will that be distributed to artists? Will artists’ pay-outs for a new revenue stream just be applied to old unrecouped balances? Will artists see exactly how their work is being used within the AI system and have ongoing visibility into its use?”
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“Artist opt-in sounds promising, but participation without fair compensation isn’t partnership; it’s just permission,” said Ron Gubitz, MAC’s executive director, in the press release. “Artists create the work that makes these AI systems possible. They deserve both control over how their work is used and appropriate compensation for its value generation. It’s the three C’s: consent, compensation, and clarity.”
“The music industry is at a crossroads,” Gubitz added. “The decisions being made right now will shape how music gets created, distributed, and monetized for decades to come. That’s exactly why MAC exists — to ensure artists have a seat at the table when those decisions are made.”
Bromley added: “True partnership requires appropriate oversight and remuneration for all involved parties. The industry needs to get this right — for artists, for fans, and for the future of music itself.”
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As you put the final touches on your Halloween costumes for tonight, why not listen to some new music from your favorite queer artists? Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ+ artists.
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From Tyler the Creator’s latest track to Reneé Rap’s victory lap, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below:
Tyler, the Creator, “MOTHER”
With his deluxe edition of Chromakopia, Tyler, the Creator only added one new song — but it’s a track that he called the “grounding piece” to the album. Throughout “Mother,” a nearly-5-minute track filled with sonic and lyrical switch-ups, Tyler manages not only to flex his dexterity as an artist, but the true excellence of his writing. Dedicated to his mom Bonita Smith and the various lessons she taught him growing up, “Mother” sounds like Tyler’s entire Chromakopia run bundled into one glorious, messy, all-encompassing new track.
Reneé Rapp, “Lucky”
For her next trick, Reneé Rapp is turning a one-off song for the soundtrack of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t into a genuine pop-rock banger. “Lucky,” featuring credits from pop songwriting royalty like Ryan Tedder and Omer Fedi, sees Rapp strutting out a victory lap from her Bite Me era with a cheeky new single. As she flexes her accolades and taunts her haters, the singer comes to a simple conclusion with the track’s bridge: “Okay, got my way/ It’s almost like I’m Reneé.”
Orville Peck, “Drift Away”
After taking a light detour by starring in a Broadway show, Orville Peck is back in his full cowboy glory on “Drift Away,” the first single off his upcoming new album Appaloosa. Lamenting the state of life in a post-pandemic world, Peck offers an alternative to the dismay and disconnection of modernity with a dreamy, escapist country melody that offers to make like the title and simply float off into the distance.
Cat Burns, How to Be Human
She may be in the midst of a lying streak on The Celebrity Traitors in the UK, but Cat Burns is nothing but radically honest on her latest album How to Be Human. Throughout the magnificent new record, the singer-songwriter recounts in often excruciating detail how she got through a particularly trying period of her life. With raw lyrics, inventive production and Burns’ best vocal performance to date, How to Be Human is a must-listen for any music fans out there.
MIKA, “Modern Times”
As life in our current era gets more complicated and chaotic, pop singer MIKA is here to try and make a little sense out of “Modern Times.” On his first single in two years, MIKA takes an avant garde, dance-pop approach to the constantly-moving changes of the world today, all while constructing the kind of soaring melodies that made him a star in the first place. With new production flourishes bolstering his already well-established vocal talent, MIKA makes his comeback feel all the more glorious with “Modern Times.”
Check out all of our picks on Billboard’s Queer Jams of the Week playlist below:
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To open its career on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, The Pretty Reckless rattled off four No. 1s in a row. Nearly a decade later, the Taylor Momsen-led band has done it again.
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“For I Am Death,” The Pretty Reckless’ first new music since its 2021 album Death by Rock and Roll, climbs to No. 1 on the ranking dated Nov. 8. It’s the band’s eighth leader and fourth straight, a streak that dates to 2020, when “Death by Rock and Roll” led for three weeks, followed by reigns for “And So It Went” and “Only Love Can Save Me Now” in 2021.
In 2013, The Pretty Reckless made its maiden appearance on the tally with “Heaven Knows,” a song that ended up reigning for four weeks beginning in March 2014. That kicked off a streak of four consecutive No. 1s, with “Heaven Knows” followed by “Messed Up World” (2014), “Follow Me Down” (2015) and “Take Me Down” (2016).
In fact, 80% of the band’s charted titles have reached No. 1, while 90% have been in the top two. Easy math there, as The Pretty Reckless has charted 10 entries on Mainstream Rock Airplay; its non-No. 1s are the No. 2-peaking “Oh My God” and the band’s only song to peak outside the top two, “Back to the River,” a No. 12 hit, both in 2017.
With eight No. 1s, The Pretty Reckless solely boasts the most by a woman-fronted group (or, for that matter, women soloists) in the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart’s 44-year history. Previously, the band was tied with Halestorm, which notched its seventh in 2024. (Of note: Linkin Park, currently co-led by Emily Armstrong, has 13 No. 1s, but only three since she joined.)
Concurrently, “For I Am Death” ranks at No. 7 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 3.2 million in audience in the week ending Oct. 30, up 12%, according to Luminate. That’s a new weekly high in impressions for the song, although its chart-position best so far remains No. 5, achieved on the Nov. 1 tally. It’s The Pretty Reckless’ top-performing song on the survey, surpassing a pair of No. 6 peaks via “Death by Rock and Roll” and “Only Love Can Save Me Now.”
On the most recently published, multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated Nov. 1, reflecting data Oct. 17-23), “For I Am Death” debuted at No. 23. In addition to its radio airplay, the tune drew 240,000 official U.S. streams.
Although The Pretty Reckless hasn’t yet announced a proper follow-up to 2021’s Death by Rock and Roll, Oct. 31 brings the release of a new holiday EP, Taylor Momsen’s Pretty Reckless Christmas, with Momsen reprising her vocal on “Where Are You Christmas?” from the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in which she portrayed Cindy Lou Who. The Mariah Carey co-write has become a perennial holiday hit for Faith Hill since 2000.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 8 will update Tuesday, Nov. 4, on Billboard.com.
