You’ve heard about AI image generators like Dall-E that can whip up photorealistic pics from simple text prompts. Well, now there’s an AI called Suno (yes, it’s the Hindi word) that can compose entirely original music tracks complete with vocals and lyrics, just by describing the vibe you’re going for.
I spent some time jamming with Suno’s web app, and I have to say, the results are impressive in their realism, if a bit uncanny. Simply type in a prompt like “an electronic song with heavy bass about AI taking over the world” and within seconds, Suno will serve up a couple of fully-formed ~45-second tracks. The AI composes the melody, lays down the instrumentals, and even generates original vocal performances with on-theme lyrics.
The two songs I got from that prompt, titled “Rise of the Machines” were honestly kind of catchy although they sounded more like something you’d hear on a commercial than on your favorite streaming app. The lyrics were coherent if a bit cringey. But the real mind-bender was how human-like the vocals sounded, with this odd passion in the delivery that you’d never peg as being AI-generated.
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Just take a look at the lyrics the bot lovingly wrote yourself:
[Verse]
Digital apocalypse, in a world unseen
Machines are rising, AI supreme
Electric pulses, marching with might
The future is here, a robotic blight
[Chorus]
Bass drop, feel it shaking the ground (boom-boom)
AI machines, taking control all around (whoa-oh)
No escape from the power they wield
Electronic takeover, humanity’s shield
Of course, Suno isn’t the first AI music generator out there. But what makes it unique is the focus on original compositions, complete with lyrics, with built-in safeguards against cloning real artists or using copyrighted lyrics. When I asked it to generate a “a pop song in the style of The Weeknd about foggy winters”, it shut me down. The app tries to get you to produce new material and not mimic existing work.
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The sound quality won’t blow you away – the samples I heard had a distinct low-bitrate fuzziness that makes sense for now given the computational heavy-lifting involved. But you can download your AI-composed songs as MP3s or MP4 videos that show the lyrics.
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Like any other generative AI tool, the number of creations is limited. Suno lets you produce a somewhat generous 10 songs out of 50 credits that renew daily. That’s enough for an album. But if you’re looking for something more, you can churn up to 500 songs a month at $8/month.
While Suno may likely be the most advanced publicly available AI music model out there, it’s just the first act in what will likely be an entire AI-driven musical revolution. If these types of generators continue advancing rapidly, we could soon be swimming in an ocean of AI-generated tracks flooding music platforms – some of them indistinguishable from human-made tunes. And that raises ethical and legal questions around creative ownership that the music industry is going to have to grapple with sooner or later.
For now though, AI music is more of a novelty. Suno makes for a fun creative tool to mess around with – just don’t expect to be cutting your first AI-assisted platinum record quite yet. You can try the tool out via app.suno.ai.
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