Making music has always been considered a creative endeavor. While the music industry has been revolutionized more than once by events such as the emergence of MCs and rap in the 1970s or the popularisation of electronic music in the 1960s, AI-generated music is taking the creative process to an entirely new level. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, need some help creating a soundtrack for your video, or want to compose a new song afresh, you will find a tool to help you achieve the desired results in no time.

Nowadays, you don’t need to study an instrument or have in-depth music knowledge to produce evocative and enjoyable sounds: using AI music generators opens endless possibilities but also raises many concerns and controversies. AI-generated music has as many adversaries as it has supporters; whether we like it or not, it is here to stay. By the way, if AI-made music is your thing, you might enjoy my review of the 10 Best AI Lyric Generators.

Let’s take a closer look at the 5 best AI music generators that can help you evolve your creative process and produce unique music pieces with just a few clicks.

AI Music Generators Overview

AI Music Generators use an algorithm to develop sounds. As with any AI algorithm, these can be trained using existing music to create new compositions.

The number of AI tools that can generate royalty-free audio tracks at a small or no cost at all in 2023 has been growing at an almost alarming speed. These cost-effective products, in comparison with traditional licensing libraries, have attracted a number of digital ad creators, video and podcast producers, or anyone looking for decent and affordable commercial background music.

The more sophisticated products (usually available at a higher cost) will appeal to individual artists and producers looking for creative prompts and ways to elevate their game. These tools are based on human-machine collaboration to craft unique, high-level music and may require some basic music skills and knowledge. 

Let’s explore the 5 best tools available on the market in 2023.

AIVA Song Generator

AIVA, launched in 2016, is a relatively simple AI generator with a browser-DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Last year, I wrote about 10 Top DAWs for musicians, so if you’re into it, check out the article. AIVA offers several features to help you make music: thanks to over 30,000 authentic compositions used to train the algorithm, it is one of the most versatile music-generating tools in the market. Almost anyone can use the software, but its MIDI editor may require some basic knowledge of digital music creation. There are three ways of creating music at one’s disposal: 

  • Selecting “New generation” allows users to create their own original and customized compositions. The variables include tempo, length, key signature, emotion, harmonic repetition, and type of instrument, among others. The generations are later uploaded to the public profile library.  
  • Uploaded tracks are available for users to create new music, adopting them as a base and adjusting to their own style.
  • Finally, the platform offers a number of pre-defined style presets. The diversified options range from electronic and pop, through jazz and modern cinematic, to sea shanty or tango.

AIVA offers the option to “compose with influences,” which permits uploading a MIDI file of the user’s choice for the algorithm to get inspired by.

Their free subscription includes 3 downloads, up to 3 minutes each per month, and it doesn’t transfer the copyrights to the user. If you’re looking to use the software more regularly, you can opt for the “Standard” Plan for $16.50 per month, which offers 15 downloads of up to 5-min long tracks. The user doesn’t own the copyrights but doesn’t need to credit the website and has the possibility to monetize the songs on some social media platforms (including TikTok and YouTube). The “Pro” Plan (for $50 a month) includes 300 downloads per month, unlimited monetization, and copyrights owned by the user. There are discounts when paying annually; students and schools get 15% off a monthly subscription and 30% off a yearly one.

Soundful

Launched in 2021, Soundful has collaborated with many music professionals and artists, including Feyi, Kennedi, and Ye Ali, on a YouTube series called Soundful Collabs. The series features instructional videos describing how to use the software effectively.

Soundful is considered one of the most affordable and easy-to-use music generators, appreciated for its high-quality product and customizable tracks. It offers a considerably broader and more sophisticated selection of music genres compared to some of the competitors within the same price range.

Creating royalty-free tracks with this music generator is honestly a piece of cake. The user starts by picking a genre and subgenre (“template”), the speed, the key signature, and finally, choosing a track’s name. Once ready, creations can be downloaded from the library. Soundful is accessible through 3 subscription plans: “Standard” free subscription is designated for personal use only and includes over 25 templates, 10 downloads per month, unlimited track creation, and one stem download per month.

The “Content Creator” plan, currently available at a modest $29.99 a year, is specified for “social media creators, freelancers, businesses and agencies looking for royalty-free background music to use for-profit.” It covers commercial use and unlimited downloads. Users can publish the tracks on online and social media platforms and websites and use them for commercial ads. They only get a non-exclusive license for created tracks, which means that other subscribers can also benefit from their tracks stored in the library.

The “Music Creator Plus” is destined for “artists and producers looking to take their creativity to the next level,” and it includes 300 downloads, 10 stems per month, an exclusive license, and the possibility to purchase the copyrights. All of this, plus access to premium content and templates, for $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year (with the current offer).

Mubert

Mubert is one of the best text-to-music AI software, and it has been created with musicians and non-musicians in mind. It allows users to make complete songs for music videos and podcasts in real-time, based on written prompts provided.

The system processes a description and combines it with the selected qualities like moods, durations, and tempos. Mubert comes up with a track that results from modifying samples of human-made loops and adding a layer of sound design.

The software offers 5 main tools for creators, producers, and casual listeners:

  • Mubert Render has been introduced to address the needs of content creators. It generates perfected pieces for podcasts, videos, apps, and radio stations.
  • Mubert Studio works as a form of a marketplace designed for artists aiming to monetize their tracks, samples, and loops. Uploaded music is arranged by the algorithm into new compositions, and artists get paid when their music is streamed or downloaded.  
  • Mubert API offers a solution for brands and developers to make unique, royalty-free tracks for their products. The software allows integration into apps or games and creates soundtracks that enhance the audience’s personalized audio experience.
  • Mubert Play is a tool for listeners who want to achieve a unique music experience that suits their tastes and moods. It produces an infinite flow of custom-made sound based on the user’s preference. 
  • Mubert Extension for content creators has just been introduced on the website. Its primary purpose is to create music within After Effects and Premiere.

Mubert has both free and paid subscription plans, and each product, with its rich array of features, has a separate payment plan. For each of them, Mubert offers a free version, and the pro plans for businesses oscillate between $149-199 up to $1000 a month, depending on the product, which means that licensing costs around $19-499 per track for a 45-second track.

Boomy

One of the easiest to use and most popular AI generators on the market, it functions as a music community where users create an original track with just a few simple steps. After choosing the “Create song” option and selecting the style of your song, the software will come up with countless tracks that you can either accept, customize, or refuse. Boomy has 3 subscription plans: the “Free” plan allows up to 25 saves and 1 release with up to 3 songs.

The “Creator” plan costs $5.99 a month and offers 500 song saves and 3 releases per month with up to 25 pieces each. The “Pro” plan gives users unlimited song saves and up to 10 monthly releases. This plan also supports submitting songs to earn revenue from social platforms like YouTube or TikTok, ads, and podcasts.

According to the company’s founders, until May 2023, over 14.4 million songs had been created with Boomy. This is supposed to be around 14% of “the world’s recorded music.” The company went under fire this year as several songs created through the app were deleted from Spotify under the suspicion of “stream manipulations.”

Ecrett Music

This is another popular AI music generator that offers excellent value for money for anyone who wants to create a royalty-free song. Ecrett Music was founded by a group of music professionals, developers, and dancers who want to “add music into the contents (game/video/podcast), and (songs are) NOT meant to be edited or distributed just as music files.”

The simplified version of its “bigger brother,” SOUNDRAW, produces one-of-a-kind tracks by utilizing a combination of generative adversarial networks (GANs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs). Additionally, it can learn from thousands of pieces of pre-existing music to produce fresh compositions that match the user’s preferences.

The creative process is simplified by its user-friendly interface. Users can select options like “Scene,” “Mood,” and “Genre” before processing to create a song. The software comes up with a different piece every time without the need to change the settings. Produced tracks can be customized by modifying instruments and structure settings.

Ecrett Music offers 3 payment plans:

  • The “Free” plan, purposed to try the tool, permits the user to save and manage created music and download preview music.
  • The “Individual” Plan costs $7.99 a month or $4.99 a month billed annually. It offers unlimited downloads of royalty-free tracks and the possibility of using the tracks for commercial projects as well as monetizing songs on YouTube and individual licenses.
  • The “Business” Plan, for $24.99 a month or $14.99 if you pay yearly, includes everything offered in the “Individual” plan plus a license applied to the company.

WavTool

WavTool is an innovative AI-DAW that incorporates an AI-powered GPT-4 music production assistant. Users can request the AI-Conductor to create beats, add complex effects, suggest chords, and compose MIDI with this feature.

AI-Conductor can make suggestions, explain ideas, and provide support through the music-making process to help you produce the best-sounding music. It works better when given detailed instructions and can encounter issues with more abstract prompts. The tool can help you record, mix, compose, master, and export music only within the browser.

The pricing offer includes 2 options:

  • The “Basic” free version has a limited number of tracks with lengths of up to 384 beats, 5 prompts per 8 hours, and 1 plugin per project.
  • The “Pro” plan, at $20 a month, offers unlimited tracks, prompts, and plugins. On top of the wav files, it includes mp3 exports. 

Final Thoughts

AI Music Generators have become an excellent tool for music professionals and amateurs looking to create commercial background music, produce unique songs, or boost their creativity.

However, there has been increasing worry about the legal implications of utilizing AI music creators. In an infamous case, Universal Music Group has taken legal action against an AI-generated composition of renowned rapper Drake. This has led to the song’s removal from multiple streaming platforms due to copyright infringement. The music and legal industry has been divided over the case, with some professionals, like Karl Fowlkes at The Fowlkes Firm, claiming that AI-generated music should be “explicitly banned” to protect “original art.”

It’s not as simple as that. While site owners can apply tools preventing some “search engine crawlers” from accessing their websites, it doesn’t completely block access.

Meanwhile, artists, including DJ and producer David Guetta, are reconsidering the meaning of being an artist in the new era. The Grammy-winning French producer demonstrated what can be accomplished with AI technology when, at a show in February this year, he played a rap song with a vocal that sounded explicitly like Eminem and was created in less than an hour.

The tools presented in this review vary from simple commercial track generators to more advanced AI-DAWs based on human-machine interactions to create new music. While the use of the former stirs up a discussion around the quality and uniqueness of the songs and the competitiveness of their low-cost services becoming a threat to audio libraries bringing profit to real artists, the latter is slowly becoming a first-choice tool for musicians looking to level up their creative output.