Written by Lidia Vijga, Co-founder at DeckLinks
A new wave of AI-powered tools is now democratizing the music scene, allowing anyone to generate unique songs, beats, and soundtracks in seconds without any training, talent, or solfeggio, the traditional music education. In this article, I review some of the best AI music generators that offer free plans, putting these new AI tools to the test. I also sampled songs and generated AI music on each platform, evaluating the quality, customizability, and ease of use.
What is an AI music generator?
AI music generators use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and machine learning (ML) models to create melodies, harmonies, and rhythms. While human composers rely on creative input, AI music generators can autonomously produce unique songs and instrumental tracks using only text prompts.
How do AI music generators work?
AI music generators create original compositions by analyzing large datasets of existing music to learn patterns of melody, harmony, rhythm, and more. The AI models study vast amounts of musical data, absorbing the nuances of composition across different genres, moods, and styles.
Then, when given a text prompt, the AI generator utilizes this knowledge to produce new melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and lyrics that match the desired musical style.
By detecting the unique properties within the data, such as chord progressions, time signatures, and instrument usage, machine learning algorithms can generate new musical algorithms entirely from scratch. Unlike human composers who rely mainly on creativity, AI uses its learnings to produce new melodies, harmonies, and rhythms that emulate the essence of the training data, while introducing novelty and variation.
After digesting sufficient musical data, the AI has absorbed enough to compose new songs and instrumentals based on what it has learned about musical theory, structure, and composition. This allows quick generation of innovative music by tapping into algorithms crafted through machine analysis, rather than directly from human imagination.
Whether you’re a content creator looking to generate a royalty-free soundtrack for your latest video or an experienced producer seeking fresh ideas for your music production, read on as I explore the current landscape of free AI music generators and showcase what they can compose with just a few clicks, shaking up the entire music industry.
1. Soundraw – AI Music Generator for Creators and Artists
Soundraw is a powerful AI music generation platform enabling artists and creators easily generate and customize songs. Its AI music generator ingeniously combines AI-generated compositions with manual editing capabilities for efficient AI music creation.
To begin, Soundraw provides users with a wide variety of filters to choose from, such as corporate, comedy, documentary, vlogs, and many others. Users can kick off their music creation experience by first choosing a specific genre like Hip Hop or Lo-Fi, then pairing it with different moods and themes, and finally selecting the tempo and instruments.
A blend of AI creativity with human refinement
One of Soundraw’s standout features is its customization capability that allows improvising and tuning a single musical element. The platform produces original raw musical material that users can then shape into complete songs through manual editing tools. Aside from adjusting BPM, key, and instruments, users can tweak the bass, drums, melody, and other components in each section.
This fusion of AI and manual editing is an invaluable asset for today’s content creators and artists seeking to produce personalized, production-ready songs. For professionals looking for an AI tool to quickly make customized songs, Soundraw hits all the right notes.
Here is an AI soundtrack that I was able to generate and customize with Soundraw on the Free plan. Click here or on the image below to listen.
Soundraw Pricing
With the Free Plan, you can generate an unlimited number of AI-created songs and find inspiration for your next projects. You’re able to bookmark any songs you like so you can revisit them later. The free tier gives you full access to Soundraw’s music generator and catalog of original samples to get you started on your music production journey.
If you are looking for royalty free background music for your content, then you would need to upgrade to Creator Plan for $16.99 a month. This plan includes unlimited downloads and song generations for video content, games, podcasts, and radio.
For singers looking to create beats for their vocals, Soundraw offers an Artist Plan at $29.99 a month. This plan includes up to 30 downloads with distribution across all channels and platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and TikTok. In addition, Artist Plan offers unlimited music production and 100% of the recording royalties from all your streams, as long as you alter the beats created by the AI generator.
2. Mubert – AI Generated Music For video content, podcasts and apps
Mubert, one of the most powerful AI music generators, provides streamers, filmmakers, and app builders with instant access to customizable, royalty-free music. At its core, Mubert utilizes advanced generative algorithms that remix and recombine samples from a massive library to create music streams with infinitely fresh combinations.
With a massive database of pre-made tracks and real-time generative capabilities, this powerful AI music platform allows content creators to explore the full depths of their imagination. Having amassed over a million samples from 4,000 musicians, Mubert is emerging as one of the most versatile AI music generators that simplifies the music licensing processes and makes music creation available for everyone.
The Mubert platform provides users with versatile options to craft and customize AI generated music. Creators can produce original tracks, loops, mixes, or jingles in their desired duration. You can either describe the ideal sound using a text prompt or generate similar songs by tapping into Mubert’s extensive pre-existing library. With filters to search by mood, theme, instruments, BPM, or curated playlists tailored to various use cases and genres, the database makes music discovery a smooth process.
Leveraging its intuitive interface and robust catalog, Mubert empowers creators to easily generate the perfect AI soundtrack for any occasion or creative project.
Text-to-Music AI Generator
To put this AI music generator to the test, I tried out its text-to-music feature by prompting it to create a calm, relaxing soundtrack suitable for meditation. I was amazed by how quickly it generated a tranquil, Zen-like composition that exceeded my expectations. The process was different from the other AI music generators, and I couldn’t believe that I produced such a fitting, high-quality result entirely automatically from a text prompt.
Below is a glimpse of my text-to-music generation process.
Though the UI itself did not seem to provide a way to share my AI-created track with a link, I was able to download immediately my AI-generated song in MP3 audio file.
Music generated by Mubert https://mubert.com/render
Mubert pricing
Mubert offers a few pricing plans to meet users’ needs. The Free Tier allows generating up to 25 AI-generated tracks per month. These tracks contain an audible watermark and require attribution.
For more flexibility, the Creator Plan at $11.69 a month billed annually allows up to 500 tracks without watermarks or attribution.
Users who need to create music for commercial use should consider the Pro Plan at $32.49 a month billed annually. This plan includes an Adobe Plug-In and removes limits, allowing use in client projects.
The Business Plan at $149.29 a month billed annually is ideal for agencies and app developers. It allows to generate up to 1,000 AI tracks and use them freely for client work or apps.
3. AIVA – The World’s First AI Music Composer
One of the most impressive AI music generators to emerge in recent years is AIVA (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist), founded in 2016 by researchers in collaboration with music composers. AIVA is an AI system designed to autonomously compose complex, multi-instrumental music.
To create a mathematical model representation of music, it has been analyzing a large collection of musical scores written by famous composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach. This AI model is then used by AIVA to write unique musical compositions.
Its first published work was an album titled “Genesis,” and since then it has composed soundtracks for advertisements, short films, and video games.
Unlike other AI music generators that simply generate music from datasets of existing works, AIVA utilizes deep learning and algorithms to create original compositions with multiple instrumental layers. It can be directed to compose music in specified styles and genres. With continual refinement by its creators, AIVA represents a pioneering achievement in AI’s ability to mimic human creativity in music composition.
Users have three main ways to create original AI-composed music with AIVA. They can generate music using the Profiles Library, create music based on an existing song under Influences Tab, or generate unique music from a preset style programmed by AIVA’s creators.
I used the first method where I selected a profile from AIVA’s musical library, chose a key signature, set the desired length for the AI-created piece, and specified the number of compositions to generate.
Here is the audio file of my AI creation generated from the Interstellar profile in the A# Minor Key. I’m amazed that I could produce something this impressive so easily.
AIVA gives users an impressive level of customization for AI-generated music, with granular controls like changing chords, adjusting basslines, rewriting melodies, and adding instruments. The detailed editing capabilities reminded me of advanced music production software like FL Studio, used by professional sound engineers and music producers. With AIVA, even musical novices like myself can tweak an AI-generated track to get it just right, as if I had access to a professional music workstation.
Training AI model on the existing song
One of AIVA’s most impressive capabilities is its ability to study and recreate the style of any existing songs you provide. By uploading a song, you can train AIVA’s model on unique musical qualities. AIVA will then generate new compositions that closely match the original sample track in terms of style and orchestration.
The key to this mimicking ability is how AIVA analyzes uploaded MIDI files. It detects which instruments are being played using MIDI program change events. This instrumentation recognition allows AIVA to deconstruct and learn the precise orchestration of your uploaded song. It can then autonomously recreate the original’s distinct musical arrangement in AI-generated compositions.
AIVA Pricing
For those who are just starting out and want to use AI-generated musical compositions for non-commercial purposes only, AIVA offers a Free Forever Plan. This plan allows beginners to download songs up to 3 AI-composed tracks that are up to 3 minutes long in MP3 and MIDI formats. The compositions can be used for free but credit must be given to AIVA as the copyright owner. This is a great option for amateurs who want to experiment with AI music, as long as they properly credit AIVA and do not try to profit from the compositions.
The Standard Annually Plan from AIVA is ideal for content creators who want to monetize AI-generated music compositions on the following platforms: YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram. For €11 a month, billed annually, this plan allows up to 15 downloads of original tracks up to 5 minutes long in MP3 and MIDI formats. The copyright is owned by AIVA, but creators using this plan don’t need to credit AIVA as the composer.
The Pro Annually Plan is AIVA’s premium offering for €33/month billed yearly. It is ideal for creators who want full ownership and monetization rights for AI-generated compositions. You retain the copyright of tracks downloaded through this plan and can monetize without restrictions across all platforms. Perks include 300 downloads a month of songs up to 5 minutes and 30 seconds long, with access to all music formats including high-quality WAV exports.
4. Boomy – Generative Music with Artificial Intelligence
Boomy is a relatively new music creation platform that uses artificial intelligence to generate and customize songs based on the user’s preferences. Its main goal is to give creators around the world the ability to make original music without expensive equipment or formal training.
On Boomy, users can craft an entirely original composition with customized instruments, tempo, sound effects, and mixing. When I first signed up, I started by selecting the instrumental style and subgenre. Style selection includes Rap Beats, Lo-Fi, Electronic Dance, Hip Hop, or even Relaxing Meditation.
After selecting the foundation, Boomy’s AI music generator composed the first draft which I could easily modify by changing instruments, sound effects, tempo, and density. I could also adjust the mix levels, rearrange song sections, and record or upload my own vocals. The vocals must be my original recordings to comply with Boomy’s rules. With so many options to tweak and refine, I enjoyed generating AI music, but I wasn’t able to find an option where I could change the sequence of notes, tonality, and key signature.
Click here or the image below to listen to my soundtrack that I created using this AI music generator.
AI music generator with distribution
Once you’ve brought your musical vision to life, you can submit your track for review. If it passes, Boomy will release it through its own record label onto major streaming platforms around the world.
You can upload your own cover art, that you can also create with AI art generators, or use Boomy’s AI to whip up album artwork. They might tweak things so your song follows the rules of the streaming sites, but still, making your music available to listeners is a huge perk.
While Boomy owns the copyright, you as the artist get a significant portion of any streaming royalties. So you have the potential to earn revenue as your song gets played.
Boomy pricing
Boomy has a free tier and 2 paid plans depending on how many songs you want to save and release. The basic free version lets you save 25 songs and allows 1 release with up to 3 songs for personal use. For $9,99 a month, you get 500 song saves and up to 25 songs per release under Creator Plan. Or you can go Pro for $29.99 a month which is unlimited saves, expedited release review, and up to 25 songs per release. The Pro Plan also includes commercial use in podcasts and social media advertising. For creating music that will be included in the TV ads, you will need to contact Boomy’s team.
5. Soundful – AI Music Generator for Royalty Free Background Music
As a content creator myself, I know the struggle of finding good background music that won’t get you into trouble over copyright. Whether you’re making YouTube videos, podcasts, streams, or short social media clips as I do for LinkedIn with my Sales Rush show, you need music tracks that enhance your content and don’t pose copyright infringement risks.
That’s why I was happy to discover Soundful. Their AI music generator creates completely original, royalty-free music that pairs perfectly with video content and podcasts.
A key advantage of Soundful’s AI-generated tracks is that they do not contain any sampled or replicated segments from existing songs, thereby avoiding potential copyright issues. The AI model has been trained extensively in music theory, composition techniques, and instrumentation by professional producers and audio engineers, so the end result sounds incredibly human and natural.
It’s super easy to use too. Just select a genre and customize track parameters such as tempo and key signature. Then let Soundful’s proprietary algorithms generate unique musical compositions based on your inputs.
For my test, I decided to create a techno track in the E Minor Key at 140 BPM. You can listen to the result here or by clicking on this image below.
Soundful Pricing
Soundful offers Free Plan that provides users with plenty of options for personal projects. Users get 10 free high-quality song downloads for non-profit or personal use. The plan also includes 1 customizable STEM pack and access to 25 premium templates.
The Soundful Content Creator Plan provides creators and businesses 100 downloads and 1 customizable STEM pack per each month to use royalty-free music on social media, websites, and digital ads. This annual plan costs $29.99/year after a 50% discount from $59.99. Users also gain access to premium content and over 100 music templates.
The Music Creator Plus Plan from Soundful provides artists and producers with 300 song downloads and 10 customizable STEM packs. It costs $59.99/year after a 50% discount from $119.99. This paid plan offers copyright acquisition and unlimited monetization of created tracks through exclusive licensing.
6. Loudly – AI Powered Music Platform for Creators
Loudly is an impressive new AI music generation tool that allows content creators to compose high-quality and one-of-a-kind soundtracks for any creative project. You can generate music based on genre, instruments, and energy level. Or simply select an existing tune from the library with thousands of 100% royalty-free songs and modify them based on your preferences. You can tweak the energy, instrumentation, and other elements like vocals, drums, bass, and more to create music that perfectly matches your creative vision.
The process for generating original soundtracks with this AI tool is super intuitive. Users first select a base genre, with the option to blend in a secondary genre for a unique sound. The platform provides sliders to adjust components like drums, bass, synthesizer, vocals, and sound effects. After setting the desired parameters, Loudly generates three music samples for the user to choose from.
After tinkering with this AI music generator, I was seriously impressed by how easy it was to craft customizable tracks in minutes. With just a few clicks, I was able to blend genres, customize instruments, and add vocals to craft unique tracks. I started by selecting Drum ‘n’ Bass as my base genre. From there, I had the option to mix in flavors from a second genre for a more dynamic sound. Adjusting the drums, bass, effects, and synth using Loudly’s sliders gave me granular control to shape the vibe I was going for. I was able to add vocals and pick the energy level.
Below is one of the soundtracks that Loudly’s AI generator composed based on my customizations and preferences. You can click here to listen.
The samples Loudly produced are impressively polished right out of the box. I’d estimate 9 out of the 12 songs that I’ve created with Loudly could be dropped into a video without any further editing. That ready-to-go factor is a game changer for YouTubers, podcasters, or anyone creating content without access to recording equipment or audio engineering skills.
Music discovery based on text prompts
One of the standout features of Loudly is its ability to recommend music based on text prompts. Simply describe your video concept or desired musical vibe, and Loudly will provide tailored song recommendations to fit your creative projects.
Loudly Pricing
Loudly allows unlimited AI music creation on their Free Plan, and up to 5 catalog downloads per each month in MP3 files. The license under the freemium plan covers all social media and you have access to the Loudly mobile app.
With the Personal Plan at $7.99 a month, if paid annually, you can download high-quality music in WAV and you get 5 STEM packs per each month. The license under the Personal Plan covers all social media, live streams, and podcasts. With this plan, you can also monetize all your channels including Youtube.
The Pro Plan is $14.99 a month if paid annually and it allows 10 STEM packs with uncapped high-quality monthly downloads. It comes with an extended license that covers the use of generated music for paid ads, client work, Indie games, VR/AR, Metaverse, and other applications.
7. Beatoven AI – Royalty-Free, AI Music Generator
Beatoven AI is an innovative platform that makes composing unique, copyright-free music for your content incredibly easy. It utilizes advanced artificial intelligence to take care of the complicated music theory and production work, allowing anyone to create quality, customized soundtracks to elevate their content.
The magic of Beatoven AI lies in its intelligent composition engine. All you need to do is start by uploading a video or podcast episode or beginning with an initial track. Then, choose one of 8 different music genres and styles to match the tone of your content. The platform allows you to make multiple mood-based cuts throughout the track, selecting from 16 distinct mood options that I’m showing below. This ensures that the dynamic shifts in the feeling of your content are reflected in the AI-generated music.
Then all you have to do is press hit the compose button and Beatoven AI will produce an original, royalty-free music track to elevate your video, podcast, or other media. This AI music generator handles all the complexity of chord progressions, instrumentation, melody creation, and more to output a seamless musical composition personalized to your content.
To test out Beatoven’s AI music generation capabilities, I uploaded a video ad made by Cinemads. I chose the “Indie” genre as the base and “Dreamy” for the mood, figuring that would be an interesting combination.
The AI has generated a surprisingly good track that aligned well with the tone I was going for. However, I wasn’t able to download or share the final composition due to the limitations of the free plan. But I was able to grab a screenshot midway through the process, which you can see here.
The intuitive interface made it easy for me to create customized soundtracks without needing any technical music skills. And with just a few simple clicks, this music generator leveraged AI to craft a unique royalty-free song that matched the vibe of my content.
Beatoven AI Pricing
The free trial for Beatoven AI is ideal for individuals who want to test out the platform’s music generation capabilities before committing. It provides unlimited access to all of the product’s key features, including instrument selection, volume dynamics controls, a full range of genres, tempos, and emotions to customize tracks, and the ability to create multiple emotion shifts within a single composition. Users can experiment with crafting as many AI-generated songs as they want to get a feel for how Beatoven AI’s intelligent composing engine works.
The Beatoven AI Pro Plan is ideal for content creators who publish 2 or more videos per month and want expanded access to royalty-free AI-generated music. For just $3/month, Pro users can download songs and get all the features of the free version plus 15 minutes of monthly downloads, licensing for downloaded tracks, and access to STEM file downloads for more editing flexibility. Creators must give attribution to Beatoven.ai in their video descriptions but own the rights to use the music. The Pro plan also provides early access to new music creation features as they are developed.
For high-volume creators publishing 5 or more videos per month, Beatoven AI offers a Pro Plan with expanded benefits for $10/month. This includes all the capabilities of the free version plus 30 minutes of monthly music downloads that can be used across projects. Downloaded tracks are licensed for use in monetized videos without needing to attribute Beatoven AI. Users that create 10 or more videos a month can upgrade to a $20/month plan and have access to 60 minutes of monthly downloads.
When it comes to creating music and the music industry as a whole, it’s an exciting time – we’re no longer limited to just human creativity. AI-generated music has endless possibilities, and with the right tools, anyone can tap into their inner musical genius. As these algorithms keep improving, we can expect even more customization and higher-quality sounds. I’m excited to follow where these AI music generators go next and how they’ll continue to empower creators to bring their ideas to life. The future is wide open for blending human and AI musical creativity in new ways we can’t even imagine yet.
