Top 6 AI music generators to try in 2025

It’s never been quicker or easier to go from an idea to a finished track. Artificial intelligence (AI) for music production has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, bringing a wave of AI music generators, music editors, and even specialized AI agents designed to support creative workflows. They’re not a replacement for real creatives, but a powerful tool nonetheless.

For musicians, content creators, hobbyists, and anyone else who wants to try their hand at creating a song, these platforms make it accessible, fast, and cost-effective. You can use them to make tunes for podcasts, videos, games, personal projects… even just for the fun of it. (I’ve used them to roast my friends.) The more you know about music production, the better you’ll be able to use them — but even total novices can get great results.

Although I’m a terrible musician, I love music — so the accessibility and ease of use of the tools really appeals to me. It’s also why I tested more than a dozen AI music generators to find the best six. Here they are.

How AI music generators work

AI music generators use powerful machine learning algorithms to turn your wildest ideas into awesome songs. In many respects, the best AI music generators work similarly to text-generating large language models (LLMs) and image generating models like DALL·E 3 — they all rely on advanced computer science concepts such as neural networks, transformers, diffusion models, and autoregression algorithms to generate whole songs from scratch.

To be able to do this, AI music generators are trained on countless hours of music. This allows them to learn the differences between genres, time signatures, moods, instruments, and all the other features that define recorded music. These models are then able to understand the subtle changes in style and composition between, say, grunge and garage rock — and then put it into action when you ask them to make a song.

The latest AI music generators can work off a couple of things:

1. They can take a text prompt, like “create a pop punk sea shanty about forgetting where you buried your treasure” or “create spooky background music for my podcast about psychic dogs,” and turn it into a track. Some AI song generators can even write and create a full set of lyrics, or you can write your own and have them put it to music.
2. They can take audio clips and edit, extend, and remix them. If you’ve recorded a vocal line, for example, they can turn it into a full song. Similarly, they can use your audio clip as a jumping-off point to create a new song in a different style or genre.

Many of the best AI music apps are also powerful music editors. While they can create tracks, they almost all allow you to edit them by adding an intro or outro as well as adjusting the tempo, instruments, mood, and other features. More advanced apps also allow you to insert new clips into the middle of a track.

Benefits of using AI music generators

AI music generators are more than a novelty — though they can certainly be fun. These kinds of tools offer big benefits to hobbyists, podcasters, musicians, YouTubers, and other creators and creatives.

Accessibility

With an AI music generator, anyone can create professional-quality music without technical expertise or access to expensive recording equipment. Of course, the more you understand about music production the better the results you’ll be able to get, but none of these apps require a deep understanding of musical theory to produce a good output. Even I was able to create some background beats and tracks I was happy with.

Time efficiency

AI music generators can take an idea and turn it into a track in just a few minutes or, in some cases, seconds. If you know what vibe you want, it’s incredibly quick to create something that meets your needs. For background music for a podcast, documentary, short film, or YouTube video, it can be a game-changer.

Cost-effectiveness

These platforms can also be an affordable (or even free) alternative to purchasing stock music or hiring a composer. This is a big benefit for hobby projects and small productions that would otherwise not be able to afford the high-quality music they’re after.

Customization

AI music makers enable a truly wild amount of creativity and customization. I was able to turn the short vocal samples I recorded on my iPhone into full tracks with a variety of different genres. I created background music that perfectly matched the mood I was trying to evoke. Instead of spending hours searching through stock libraries for something that kind of works, you can just generate whatever you need.

Versatility

Finally, these apps allow you to create music for everything from short films and podcasts to marketing campaigns and stage shows. You can even just make music for the sake of making music! This kind of flexibility is huge — especially as you don’t have to book a studio or arrange a full production every time you want to create a new track.

Top AI music generators in 2025

While AI music generators won’t be the right tool in every case, particularly if you’re trying to create original music as a music artist, they can be incredibly powerful. I tested more than a dozen apps to see how they handled creating everything from rock anthems and ballads to theme tunes and background music. Let’s look at the best six for 2025.

1. Suno: Best AI music generator for most people

Suno (along with Udio at number two) is one of the top AI music generators. In my testing, it reliably produced great results for every prompt I gave it. I typically had to tweak the wording a few times to dial in exactly the sound that I wanted (which I think says more about my music knowledge than Suno’s abilities!), but Suno made it really easy.

I was particularly impressed with how Suno was able to rework a badly recorded ditty I wrote about my dog into both folk rock and reggaeton. (Sample lyric: He’s big, he’s brown, he sometimes lets us down.)

• Developer: Suno, Inc.
• Key features: Create songs from text prompts and audio clips, remix and edit songs, split songs into constituent parts
• Pros: Quickly creates full songs with lyrics, creator and editor are extremely easy to use, results are among the best of any apps I tested
• Cons: Most editing features aren’t available for free users
• Plans/pricing: Free version (50 credits per day (enough for 10 songs), basic editing features, and no commercial use); paid plan is $10 per month (2,500 credits (enough for 500 songs), advanced editing features, more advanced models, and commercial use)

2. Udio: Best AI music generator for creatives

Udio is the other top AI audio generator. Unlike Suno, it generates 30-second clips rather than full songs from your prompt. This is great when you want more creative control as it allows you to shape the track you’re generating from the off, but it makes the whole process a bit slower. You’re likely to get better results, yet it can take more effort. If that sounds like a positive, then Udio is probably the app for you — otherwise, you might prefer Suno.

I spent most of my time testing Udio by creating a theme song for a friend. I was really able to dial in the 80s-kids-TV-show-theme-song vibe that I wanted, including a serious guitar solo.

• Developer: Udio
• Key features: Generate songs from text prompt and audio samples; remix, edit, and extend tracks
• Pros: Powerful creator and editor allow you to fine-tune each track you generate, generating in stages gives you more creative control, incredible results with great vocals, commercial use on free plan
• Cons: You can only generate audio in 30-second intervals, uploading audio and some editing features aren’t available to free users
• Plans/pricing: Free version (10 credits per day (enough for ten 30-second clips) and 100 additional credits per month (enough for 100 30-second clips), basic editing); paid plan is $10 per month (1,200 credits per month, advanced editing features)

3. Soundraw: Best AI music generator for instrumental background tracks

Soundraw excels at creating background music for YouTube videos, short films, documentaries, podcasts, and the like. You select a mix of genres, moods, instruments, and the feel you’re going for, and it creates a rough draft. You can then bring up or down the intensity of the individual components with a few clicks, so it’s super simple to have something build to a crescendo or make a dramatic entrance before fading gently into the background.

I’m not a documentary maker, so I used Soundraw to soundtrack some overly dramatic dog videos. If you want to make standalone songs, it’s not the app for you. But for background tracks, it’s great.

• Developer: Soundraw
• Key features: Generate instrumental background tracks by selecting genres, moods, and styles; quickly and easily edit tracks to match your voiceover or video clip; video preview lets you see each track against your footage
• Pros: Editor and video preview make it easy to create background tracks that match your footage, quick and easy to use even for beginners
• Cons: Not as powerful or varied as some apps, really is just for background music
• Plans/pricing: 14-day free trial; paid plans include Creator at $12.99 per month (unlimited background music) and Artist Starter at $25.99 per month (includes a license to directly monetize tracks through streaming services)

4. Sonauto: Best free AI music generator

Sonauto is the best free AI music generator because all its creation and editing features are available with no credit card required. You can even split tracks into their constituent parts. Really — no matter what you try to do in Sonauto, you won’t hit a popup saying you need to upgrade.

The downside of this is that I found Sonauto a touch harder to use than Suno or Udio, and I wasn’t as happy with the results. They were still great, but if you’re prepared to pay (or work within the limits of the free plans), the other apps give better results.

• Developer: Sonauto
• Key features: Generate full tracks from text prompts and uploaded audio; edit, extend, and remix tracks; application programming interface (API) for developers
• Pros: All Sonauto’s features are available on its free plan, editor is easy to use, generates vocals
• Cons: Doesn’t work great with custom vocals, editing features aren’t as powerful as some other apps
• Plans/pricing: Free to generate songs using the website; API Starter plan is $11 per month for 20,000 credits (enough for 200 songs)

5. LANDR: Best AI music app for musicians

Unlike the other apps on this list, LANDR doesn’t take a prompt and generate a track. Instead, it takes a track you’ve created elsewhere and uses AI to master it (in non-music production speech, it balances everything) so that it’s ready for release. It also includes millions of professional samples you can use in your production, plugins for major music production apps that automatically suggest matching samples, and tools so you can release your music on streaming services.

And that’s just scratching the surface. LANDR is a powerful AI platform for musicians. It’s far from the easiest way to generate a track, but if you want to create your own music, it’s a tool worth adding to your workflow.

• Developer: MixGenius
• Key features: AI automatically masters your tracks, plugins for all major digital audio workstations that use AI to suggest samples, can release your music on streaming services
• Pros: Enables hobbyist and professional musicians to perfect and release their work, countless professional samples to use
• Cons: Not a quick and easy way to generate a track
• Plans/pricing: Free trial; paid plan is $19.99 per month and includes unlimited MP3 AI mastering, 150 samples credits, and music distribution

6. AIVA: Best AI music generator for advanced editing

AIVA has been around since 2016, so it’s among the more mature AI music generators. This means it has one of the most customizable creation workflows as well as a really powerful editor, though it can’t yet generate lyrics. I presume this is because it still uses older AI technology, but the results are still great.

I really liked AIVA for generating background music, and if you put a bit of effort into using the editor you can get exactly the results you want. It’s not as flashy as some of the tools that can generate full vocals, but it certainly gives professional results.

• Developer: SACEM
• Key features: Generate tracks from styles, chord progressions, and audio files; advanced editor allows for more control; can create reusable styles for consistency across different generated tracks
• Pros: Multiple ways to generate tracks, the editor is among the most advanced, great results, very customizable
• Cons: Can’t generate lyrics, though you can upload your own; copyright owned by AIVA on most affordable plans
• Plans/pricing: Free version (three non-commercial downloads per month); paid plans include Standard at €15 per month (15 downloads that can be used for YouTube and social media, though AIVA keeps the copyright) and Pro at €49 per month (300 downloads and full copyright)

How to choose the right AI music generator

AI music generators are powerful tools, but which one is right for you depends on a few factors.

• What are you trying to do? Different tools have different feature sets. The best AI song generator (at least if you want vocals) is Suno or Udio, but they aren’t necessarily the right tools for creating background music for YouTube videos or podcasts. In this case, the best AI music maker might be an app like Soundraw or AIVA, which makes it easier to sync the music with your work.
• How much can you spend? There are some great free AI music generators, but you often have to subscribe to a paid plan if you want advanced editing features. One thing to consider here is what kind of license you need. If you need a full commercial license, you’re likely to have to spend more than if you just want tracks for personal projects.
• What features do you need? Are you trying to create tracks from text prompts, rework your own music, or a mix of the two? What your workflow looks like has a huge impact on what AI music generator is the best fit for you.
• How much music production experience do you have? Some AI music generators are incredibly easy to use while others have more advanced features that require a bit of music production knowledge (or at least the willingness to learn it). With all these tools, the more musical understanding you have the more you’ll be able to get out of them — but beginners should avoid apps that require advanced editors to get the best results.

The good news is that all six apps in this list have a free trial at the very least, and many also have a free plan. That means the best way to find the right AI music generator for you is to try a few out. Once you’ve created a couple of tracks and seen (or heard) what they can do, you’ll be in a better position to decide which app to sign up for.

AI music production is here to stay

AI is already transforming the music industry. LANDR launched in 2014 and AIVA has been around since 2016 — so although the best AI models are a lot more powerful than they were a decade ago, the idea of AI in music-making is far from new.

Now, though, the top AI tools are making music creation much more accessible. My friend who’s a great musician was able to quickly produce some incredibly cool songs with these apps, but even a terrible musician like me was able to have some fun creating tracks.

These apps aren’t designed to replace artists, but enable them to work faster and smarter and in entirely new ways. I think they’re going to kick off a fresh wave of creativity.