We're entering a world Beethoven wouldn't have dreamed of. A trip where beep-boop-ass computers can make music out of words.

You can now turn your beautifully written poems, your late-night ramblings, or even your shopping list into a song relatively easily. Welcome to the wonderful world of text to music AI.

2024 EDIT: UDIO IS MY TOP TEXT-TO-MUSIC PICK.

AI Text To Music Can't Do Everything

Even though AI has made crazy progress, no tool can yet make a full Grammy-winning song from just text.

And... even if AI could write Grammy hits by itself... that would mean any person could do it. And when everyone can make a hit song it's not really noteworthy anymore. To quote Syndrome from the Incredibles...

AI is insanely good at musical ideas, but it needs help from its human friends to create good final results. As an example, most music idea generators output low audio quality that you would not hear on the radio.

Or, they make sections way too long. Like when ChatGPT takes 500 words to say something that could've been said in 10 words.

No one wants to hear this: but sometimes making something ACTUALLY GOOD takes human time or money.

For the record, my affordable song creation service can give you a good result that mixes AI and human quality assurance. Don't feel like you have to, but it's worth a shot!

AI Tools That Add Music To Text

Now let's look around the music pit and meet the hottest AI conductors.

VOICEMOD - Pretty okay

🎵 Voicemod: Offers a Text to Song AI music generator, which transforms lyrics into a passable song. Good for memes... but pretty far away from studio quality.

New songs and instrumentals are constantly added, allowing for a variety of music genres. As of June 2023, the tool includes seven different AI singers for users to choose from, each with a distinct voice.

Plus, the platform provides an array of instrumentals from genres like Pop, Trap, Hip Hop, Classical and more.

MUSICLM - Good for ideas

MusicLM: This free text-to-music AI tool from Google's AI Test Kitchen does a pretty good job of turning your words into beats.

We talk about it more in this article, but all you do is write a prompt with your song concept and the tool attempts to produce a music track.

Google's AI turns text into music and rhythm that sometimes makes you want to tap your feet.

JUKEBOX - Best for people with some tech experience

Jukebox: Want to make beats and melodies that sound like your favorite act or genre?

Well, your best friend is Jukebox.ai. It's like having your favorite musicians come up with music ideas for your text.

You can can provide lyrics so it can try writing a melody. And you can even give it audio as a starting point and it will continue the song from where you leave off. Pretty insane. Try it with this Google Collab Notebook.

MELODYSTUDIO - Best for songwriters

MelodyStudio: Want to set your words to a melody? MelodyStudio is the place to go.

It's an AI that takes your words and turns them into music by adding notes to them. And it gives you multiple idea at a time.

It starts by recommending chord progressions. And then it builds the melody overtop the chords based on your words.

It's usually a good idea to sing notes that live within the same key, after all!

 

STABLE AUDIO - Best for producers who need stem layers

Stable Audio is the best "Midjourney of Music" I've found so far. You describe what you want, and it generates audio snippets up to 90 seconds long. While it's not great for crafting full songs, it excels in creating individual stems, particularly percussive elements.

In your prompt, you can also include the BPM (tempo) you want your song speed to be.

I've used this for acoustic drums, violins, banjos, risers, and pretty much anything that isn't a main featured instrument that I need full control over. 

Read more about Stable Audio here.

SUNO.AI - Best attempt at doing everything for you

Suno is a comprehensive AI music generator, ideal for those eager to experiment with AI-assisted music creation. It's definitely not chart-topping material yet, but it is impressive when you consider that it's songwriting and producing a song with nothing but a lyric input.

Like most AI music tools, it seems to be stronger at creating electronic music and hip-hop beats.

Would I listen to any of the songs in the gym or in my car? Definitely not. But I could see that changing in the next 5 to 10 years.

Tools For Writing Text Lyrics

So, your AI music producers are all set up, but what about the text? Here are some of the best tools you can use for brainstorming lyrics:

Your Brain - Best for creativity

It's true, look it up: your brain was the first free text-to-music intelligence. It's a mix of logic and imagination that no AI can beat (yet!).

Whether it's a poem you wrote from the heart or fantastical story, your brain is capable of generating amazing text.

ChatGPT-4 - Best for quick lyrical ideas

Your own personal lyrical talent. It was made by the tech giants at OpenAI and it can help you write, edit, and come up with ideas for your song's lyrics.

Note: I said GPT4, because it is significantly better than earlier versions at writing lyrics.

It's like carrying Bob Dylan in your pocket. All you have to do is provide it with a prompt like "I want to write a song for my mom who likes painting." When writing prompts, try to be as specific as you can!

Important note: without a lot of direction and rules the results will generally not be super good. It's still helpful to have human songwriters working with AI for the best results.

AI Text To Music Is Cool, But What's Next?

Well, our trip through the world of text-to-music AI tools has come to an end. We've looked at some of the sickest tools available.

But keep in mind that as cool as AI text to music producers are, they still have their limits. They can't turn words into a song that tops the charts... yet. But they're great for sparking ideas and making a song that's all your own.

Try out my AI-assisted Custom Song service. And if you want something more professional or unique, I am ready to help you make a custom backing track.

So, get your lyrics, polish your text, and let AI music generation crank out some tunes. Who knows, your name might be on the next Grammy!