Imagine cranking out songs faster than ever before. An AI music generator doing the heavy lifting while you focus on the creative decisions. It's already happening.

AI tools now handle songwriting, producing, mixing, and mastering. In this guide, I'll show you exactly how to use them in 2026.

Disclaimer: People think quality = success. Truth is, hits happen because the creator has a massive following OR loads of cash. AI can help you make a song that should be famous. Doesn't mean it will be famous. This is even more true now - when millions of people are able to crank out good music - you have to have some unfair advantage to standout.

The Big Three: Suno, Udio, and ElevenLabs

The AI music generation space has completely transformed since 2024. Three platforms dominate: Suno, Udio, and ElevenLabs Music.

Each has its strengths. Each has its problems. And major record labels have sued two of them for copyright infringement—though both have now entered deals with labels, which raises questions about the future of these tools. 🎵

I've tested all three extensively. Here's what actually matters in 2026.

Suno: My Go-To for 2026

I've become predominantly a Suno user. Their output quality has surpassed Udio in most genres, and more importantly—they're reliable. You know what you're getting.

Why? Simple. It gives you 50 free credits daily (that's 10 full songs). The interface doesn't make you want to throw your laptop out the window. And here's the kicker - you can export up to 12 separate instrument stems.

That stem export feature is HUGE. It means you can take the AI-generated drums, bass, vocals, whatever - and drop them straight into your DAW for real production work.

Suno is also fantastic for smoothing out rough demos, particularly janky vocals. This makes it incredibly useful for lyric swap workflows where you need to polish AI-generated or RVC-processed vocals.

 

The catch? Suno has heavy content moderation for copyright. It's really only good for lyric changes on songs it doesn't recognize—unless you get a little creative with your approach. ;)

Udio: The Former Champion (Still Great for Inpainting)

Udio used to be incredible. Like, jaw-dropping good. The team from Google DeepMind built something special back in 2024.

But something happened. Users are reporting a massive drop in quality. The vocals turn to gibberish. The music sounds generic. One user put it perfectly: "you can hear the creativity drop."

I would also argue that in most cases, Suno has surpassed Udio's lead on audio quality.

The workflow is still unique though. You build songs in 30 second or 2 minute chunks. When it works, you get incredible control. When it doesn't, you waste hours generating garbage.

Here's the thing - for one specific use case, Udio remains unbeatable: vocal inpainting. If you need to change specific sections of an existing song while keeping the melody and vibe intact, Udio's remix and inpaint features are still my top pick.

Speaking of which, if you want to experiment with lyric changes, check out ChangeLyric - my DIY tool for modifying song lyrics without content restrictions.

The big downside? Udio shot themselves in the foot by not allowing users to easily download outputs. That alone pushed many creators toward Suno.

ElevenLabs: The Premium Option That's Playing It Safe

ElevenLabs entered the game late (August 2025) but came prepared. They're the only platform that licensed their training data BEFORE launching. No lawsuits. No legal drama.

The audio quality? Pristine. Studio-grade 44.1kHz output. The vocals may be the best I've heard from any AI platform. Makes sense - they've been doing AI voice synthesis longer than anyone.

But here's the problem: it's expensive comparatively. Generate a few variations of a 3-minute track and watch your credits evaporate. 😅

In 2026, I use ElevenLabs primarily for sound effects and spoken dialog rather than full music generation. That's where they really shine.

The Industry Reality Check

Here's the uncomfortable truth about AI music in 2026: only the big companies can survive the infrastructure costs. Musicians aren't willing to pay what it actually costs to run these services.

Case in point: Weights.gg is shutting down in March 2026. Despite having a strong community for RVC voice cloning, the ML costs simply don't align with what creators will pay. It's a cautionary tale for the entire space.

Both Suno and Udio have made deals with major record labels. Labels have money, and these AI companies have no choice but to bend the knee. What this means for the future of these tools as genuinely useful creative platforms remains to be seen.

AI Songwriting: Getting Lyrics That Work

The tools for songwriting have gotten scary good. But there's still no magic button that writes a hit song from scratch.

AI Lyrics That Don't Suck

Suno's ReMi Lyric model performs much better than most of the integrated lyric writing tools in AI music platforms.

But ChatGPT or Claude remains my go-to for finalizing lyrics quickly. You can also give it custom rules to follow each time. Feed it a concept, mood, and genre. It'll generate dozens of options. Most will be trash. Some will surprise you.

Pro tip: Generate 10x more lyrics than you need. Cherry-pick the best lines. AI is a volume game - quantity leads to quality.

For melodies and chords, honestly? A lot of the time I still use my brain. Humming ideas that are original may help separate you from a crowd who's using only AI generated melodies. The creative spark still comes from humans.

Most AI music tools like Suno allow you to upload audio that it can reference (like you singing an idea) and it can turn it into a full song - often with mixed results. Want something experimental for drums and textures? Stable Audio is a solid instrumental music underdog in the AI music space.

Production, Mixing, and Mastering

No AI can turn a melody into a radio-ready production automatically. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. But honestly - it's getting pretty close. And - in many cases like comedy - production quality does not matter as much.

AI Vocals That Sound Human

For creating vocals from scratch, you have two powerhouse options. Synthesizer V has been around longer and is rock-solid. Import MIDI, assign pronunciation, export. Simple.

The newer player is ACE Studio. They offer 80+ royalty-free AI singers, MIDI-to-vocal conversion, and even an AI violin model. Their VST plugin integration is smoother than Synthesizer V, which matters if you live in your DAW. 🎤

Both tools let you control everything - pitch, emotion, vibrato, breathing. The level of detail is INSANE.

I don't use them personally - because they are very time consuming to program and I'd rather just sing it or use the vocals generated by something like Suno.

Mixing and Mastering

Quick reality check: good mixing won't save a bad song. Neither will mastering.

That said, iZotope remains the best AI-assisted option for polishing AI outputs. Their Neutron plugin analyzes your track and suggests EQ, compression, and other settings. Not perfect, but a solid starting point.

For mastering, iZotope's Ozone is my pick. The AI gives you a baseline master that you can tweak. Way more control than fully automated services like LANDR.

LANDR works if you have zero mastering knowledge or just need something quick. But you're stuck with whatever it gives you. No tweaking. No adjustments.

Actually Using These Tools: Real Workflows

Theory is nice. Practice is what matters. Here's how to actually make music with these tools.

The Suno Speed Run

1. Type a prompt like "energetic punk rock anthem about corporate burnout"
2. Hit create. Get two full songs in 30 seconds
3. Pick the better one
4. Use Custom Mode for more control - add your own lyrics with tags like [Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge]
5. Export stems if you want to polish in your DAW

That's it. You have a song. Is it perfect? No. Is it usable? ABSOLUTELY.

The Hybrid Approach (My Favorite)

1. Generate ideas in Suno (fast and reliable)
2. Export the best stems
3. Import into your DAW
4. Replace weak elements with your own recordings
5. Mix properly
6. Master with iZotope

This combines AI efficiency with human creativity. Best of both worlds.

Sometimes I will combine multiple ideas from Suno in my DAW, export them as a Frankenstein take, then upload that back into Suno. THEN I will use their Cover feature to get a final smoothed-out result. Then export stems that can be mixed.

The Lyric Swap Workflow

For changing lyrics on existing songs, there are two main strategies:

Strategy 1: Pure AI - Works best for smaller changes where most original lyrics stay intact. Use ChangeLyric first to get a rough track without content restrictions, then do an additional smoothing pass in Suno. Suno is heavily moderated for copyright though—it really only works on songs it doesn't recognize.

Strategy 2: RVC Conversion - Better when almost all lyrics are changed. Hire a singer or sing it yourself, then use RVC conversion (via Applio through Dione) to make the vocal sound like the original singer. I've found that using Suno is a good way to smooth out and improve RVC outputs. But generally, you can skip the RVC pass entirely if you can use Suno personas—assuming the song isn't blocked by copyright moderation.

Cover Art and Visuals

Your song needs artwork. Midjourney is still an awesome choice for album covers and promotional art.

Prompt example: "dark atmospheric album cover, red undertones, abstract war imagery, oil painting style"

Generate 10+ variations. Pick the best. Need to edit or refine the image? Google's Imagen and Nano Banana are great tools for AI-powered image editing. 🎨

Edit final touches in Photopea (free Photoshop alternative). Upscale to 3000x3000 for streaming platforms.

One warning: AI still sucks at text sometimes.

The Legal B.S.

Major record labels sued Suno and Udio for copyright infringement. They allegedly trained on copyrighted music without permission. Both have now entered deals with labels—which may limit what these tools can do going forward.

ElevenLabs avoided this by licensing everything upfront. Costs more, but zero legal risk.

If you're making music for fun? Use whatever. If you're building a business? Consider ElevenLabs or wait to see how the label deals shake out.

The Trend Toward Simplicity

One positive note for 2026: things are becoming less technical. You no longer need deep audio engineering knowledge to get good results. In many cases, you can skip complex workflows like RVC vocal cloning entirely and still get professional-sounding results.

The barrier to entry keeps dropping. That's good for creators.

Time to Make Some Music

AI music generation in 2026 isn't perfect. But it's good enough to be useful. Really useful.

Want to experiment with changing song lyrics and vocals using AI? Check out ChangeLyric - my DIY tool for modifying existing songs with new lyrics or voices, with no content moderation restrictions.

Don't want to deal with any of this yourself? I'll handle everything. My lyric changing service at Music Made Pro takes your concept and delivers a finished track.

The tools exist. The quality is there. Stop reading about it and start creating.

Making music has never been easier.