AI Music Generators: Free vs. Paid Options Compared
AI music generators can be used to create music or samples fitting any style, style, or instruments. There’s an increase in AI music generators on streaming platforms, as well as more sightings of AI-generated music in movies and video games.
An AI music generator can be used for fun, but music generators can also have many professional applications. Sound engineers, artists, and creators can all use AI music generators for their content or advertising.
However, what’s the difference between free and paid AI music generators?
Free and paid music generators can have huge differences. These differences can mean that professionals are more likely to side with paid tools than free ones.
There are hundreds of free AI music generators out there, but only a handful of recommended paid options. While free options are great for fun and learning, paid options gives professionals and indie creators access to better functionalities and quality.
Here’s how to make an informed decision about what type of AI music tool you’re going to need—free or paid.
Free AI Music Generators Explained
Free AI music generators require simple input, and can create anything from beats to 4-minute songs. A free AI music generator is usually free because they’re running advertisements, and because functionalities are limited in terms of quality and ability.
Free AI music generators are great for getting to know AI in general. Free tools are room to experiment with what you could get out of basic AI tools—but without having to pay a lot of money for software licenses or royalty-free work.
Most free tools are great for learning and experimenting with AI.
However, functionalities fall short when users want to use AI-generated music (limited copyrights), or produce studio-quality beats or samples (limited export quality).
“Free” AI music generators are designed for mostly fun, which means that they’re cutting corners professionals might need. That’s fine for when you’re just creating something fun, but the quality difference between free and paid music generators is clear for professional use.
A free AI music generator is likely to sound choppier than paid software, or have access to a smaller data set than servers you’re paying for.
Paid Music Generators Explored
Paid music generators offer higher-quality audio output, and usually access to a larger data set from which the AI learns how to create music or individual elements like beats.
A paid AI music generator is likely to have royalty-free results. For creators and producers, this means that AI-generated music under this license can be freely used without copyright claims. Free AI tools don’t give the same guarantee.
Free tools are more likely to create misdirected prompts. Paid music generators for professional or indie creator use pays more careful attention to prompts—and takes its knowledge from a much larger, faster data set.
If you’re a professional artist or producer, you’ll side with paid AI music generating tools once you’ve gotten the chance to try once. Free tools offer intentional limitations and restrictions, because they’re never intended to be for professional use.
Free vs Paid AI Music Generators
Any casual listener who has listened to AI-generated music on Apple Music, Spotify, or YouTube Music would have noticed that some songs sound better than others. Quality is clearer, and some sound exactly right, whereas others might have distortion or sound somewhat robotic or manipulated.
That’s often the difference in sound quality between free and paid AI music generators.
This isn’t limited to only AI music generators, but can also be said about most other types of music production software.
A free DAW like LMMS might be a fantastic way for new producers to learn, but once you’re past the basics, you’ll crave the extra functionality and ease of use that paid and
professional tools come to offer.
Paid music generators are always superior in terms of functionality, licensing, and cost.
While “free” AI music generators might appear totally free to use, they’re often harvesting background data for advertising that pays for their servers. With paid software, you’re cutting out any overloaded advertising or spam, too.
Free Tools for Learning
Free DAWs and AI music generators produce basic results, but with intentional limitations that restrict the user from creating professional quality end-results. Copyright, costs, and machine learning servers are part of the reasons why free tools can’t always be as good as their paid counterparts.
Free AI-generated music has copyright limitations, and often restrictions on the final input quality or available data (like style and genres) used when composing its final results.
Professionals pay for high-quality, paid AI-generated music because it’s a shortcut to higher-quality output, better data, and superior results.
The Advantages of Paid Music Generators
There’s a good reason why you won’t see Dr Dre using free, open source sample packs. When he’s making his own beats, he’s starting from scratch with a deck that costs more than the whole studio building—that’s what professionals and creators should do for their art.
Paid AI music generators and other sound production tools are always superior to free comparisons. This is because paid tools have access to larger servers, and can create high-quality often royalty-free output.
SOUNDRAW is a paid AI music generator that provides professional-quality beats and music customization tools. Compared to free AI tools, there’s more customization room—and for professionals, this means more freedom. Its music is also royalty-free, which means professionals are welcome to use samples without concerns over copyright issues.
Why Professionals Need Paid Music Generators
There’s a point where every professional producer or creator realizes they’ve got to upgrade their equipment. Creators should be able to produce the best content for their audience—but you can only do this without copyright or software limitations that are often imposed on free AI music generators.
As a musician, it’s perfectly fine to love and grow attached to your very first guitar... But will you eventually upgrade everything from the pickups to the neck until almost nothing of the original stays?
Software is much like instruments, and there’s a lot of value in paid services for serious music production.
Why not get started with one of the best AI music generators on the market?