The ceremony and the winners
The first U.S. edition of the AI Music Awards was held on November 13 in Los Angeles, an event dedicated to musicians who use artificial intelligence in creating tracks. IT之家 reports this, citing a Reuters service. According to the source, the ceremony presented awards to those who use AI tools to compose and produce music.
The virtual Xania Monet won the three main awards of the evening: AI Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year. The track that brought her to prominence, "How Was I Supposed to Know?", is according to Billboard the first work by an AI artist to enter the radio airplay chart. Behind the project is Trisha "Nikki" Jones, who explained that she personally wrote the lyrics of the song and then used AI to compose its music.
“A New Genre”: The Musicians’ Position
During the evening, the professionals present argued that AI-generated music should be considered a musical genre in its own right. According to the source's account, creating a track with these tools requires not only artistic talent but also hours of work refining prompts until the desired result is achieved.
Producer Drake Murphy, speaking at the presentation of the Best AI-Made Hip-Hop Song award, said that in an era when many regard AI as synonymous with fake, the authors behind these tools are real people. Several finalists said they had stories to tell but did not possess all the skills to turn them into songs, and that they had found in AI a way to realize their musical idea. Competitor J. Frequency said that the behind-the-scenes work is very demanding and that it is another art form.
Context and open questions
The awards were decided by a vote of the AI-artist members of the Sonic Intelligence Academy, which according to the source has developed a ranking dedicated to AI music and tools for recognizing artificially generated tracks. The sector remains contested, however: the article recalls that AI music is the subject of controversy and also legal action, despite millions of listens on streaming platforms and its presence in music charts.
The case raises questions that the material does not allow to resolve. It is unclear, for example, how the awards were judged on an artistic level, nor what criteria distinguish human contribution from that of the machine in the different categories. Also still to be verified are the actual impact of the phenomenon on the charts, the demands made in the cited lawsuits, and the stance of the platforms. According to the source, the ceremony is aimed above all at showing the public that behind AI music there are people who dedicate work to it.
