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Nov 10, 2025 - First Virtual Artist Appears On Billboard Airplay Chart

• The first AI-powered virtual artist has appeared on a Billboard airplay chart. Virtual artists Xania Monet's hit “How Was I Supposed to Know?” appeared on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart in 30th place on November 1. Telisha Nikki Jones, the creator of Monet, told CBS that she takes lines from her poems and puts them into an AI music generator app, then adds prompts to create the songs. Bill Werde, a former editorial director of Billboard, said that he doubts that virtual artists will replace human artists in significant numbers anytime soon, however. AI has been affecting Japan. It’s been affecting Korea a couple of years ahead of us, Werde said. You have artists that have charted in these countries, and it hasn’t turned into this, you know, sort of groundswell of suddenly everyone is an AI artist. It remains more of a curiosity, and I think that’s what you’re going to see in the States as well.
• National Public Radio (NPR) CEO Katherine Maher announced plans to cut the network’s expenses by $8 million to provide relief to member stations hit hardest by a federal law that claws back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting through fiscal year 2027. The adjustment may not fully offset the financial challenges facing the network and its 246 member stations, however. Maher has warned that as many as 70 to 80 stations could face closure.

• Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr has launched what the Federal Communications Commission says is a “massive” new deregulatory initiative, according to Inside Radio. The goal is to eliminate any rules or policies that have prevented businesses from investing in modernizing their technology, according to a recent Commission rulemaking proposal. Carr says that the effort is needed to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens and fulfill President Trump’s pledge to unleash a new wave of economic opportunity for US business by ending what President Trump views as regulatory onslaught from Washington.
• Radio industry employment decreased slightly and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first seven months of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Radio stations moderately increased their prices significantly during the first eight months of 2025, according to the BLS. Radio station sales are forecast to grow at a 4.36% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, comparable to the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.