How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Suno is the best all round AI music tool: full songs with vocals from a text prompt, a free tier of 50 credits a day, and Pro at 10 dollars a month with commercial rights.
- Soundraw and Beatoven.ai are the safe video scoring picks: instrumental tracks with clear royalty free licences on paid plans, from 16.99 and about 6 dollars a month.
- AIVA is the ownership outlier: its Pro plan assigns full copyright in your compositions to you, which no rival here matches.
- Rights decide everything in this category: free tiers are almost never licensed for commercial use, so read the licence for your exact plan before publishing or monetising anything.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Suno | Full songs with vocals | Free | Yes |
 Udio | Polished songs and remixing | Free | Yes |
 Soundraw | Royalty safe video music | $16.99 per month | No |
 Beatoven.ai | Mood based scoring to picture | $6 per month | Yes |
 AIVA | Cinematic and orchestral scores | Free | Yes |
 Mubert | Ambient and app soundtracks | $14 per month | Yes |
 Stable Audio | Instrumentals and sound design | See website | Yes |
 Loudly | Music plus distribution | $10 per month | Yes |
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Starting priceFree
Free planYes
What we like- Suno turns a prompt and optional lyrics into a complete song, vocals, arrangement, and production, at a quality that made it the category's household name. The free tier gives 50 credits a day for personal use, enough to judge it honestly, and Pro at 10 dollars a month brings 2,500 credits, commercial rights for songs created while subscribed, and stem separation, with Premier above it for heavier volume. For creators who need an actual song, nothing else is as direct.
Watch out for- Commercial rights are not retroactive, so free tier experiments cannot be monetised later by upgrading. Download allowances per month apply even on paid tiers, and its most advanced studio features sit on Premier. Suno's label settlement means its licensing terms are still evolving
- Read the current terms at each renewal if your income depends on the catalogue.
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
What we like- Udio is Suno's great rival, praised for polished, genre accurate songs built section by section, with strong vocals, remixing, and inpainting style editing that lets you rebuild a chorus without regenerating the whole track. Its free tier offers daily and monthly credits, and Standard at 10 dollars a month historically granted commercial rights, with Pro at 30 above it. Producers who like to sculpt a song in pieces often prefer its workflow.
Watch out for- Udio's position is in flux: following its label settlement, downloads of audio and stems have been restricted during its licensing rollout, and current comparisons advise verifying download availability before paying, because a song you cannot export is not a deliverable. That uncertainty is exactly why it ranks second here despite its quality. As with Suno, free output is personal use only.
Starting price$16.99 per month
Free planNo
What we like- Soundraw generates instrumental tracks you shape by mood, genre, length, and energy, and its licence is the product: paid plans grant royalty free commercial use with a lifetime licence on tracks generated while subscribed, which is what video producers actually need. Creator at 16.99 dollars a month on monthly billing, less annually, allows unlimited MP3 downloads for background use, with Artist tiers adding WAV files, stems, and streaming distribution rights. Its training data story, built in house, is designed to keep licences clean.
Watch out for- There are no vocals and no songs: it scores pictures, it does not write singles. The difference between Creator and Artist rights, especially streaming distribution, is a real trap, so match the tier to where the music will play. Some users report annual lock in friction, so start monthly.
Starting price$6 per month
Free planYes
What we like- Beatoven.ai scores to content: upload or describe a video, podcast, or game scene and it composes an instrumental track that follows the emotional arc, with stems and per section mood control. Paid plans start from about 6 dollars a month on annual terms, with commercial licences issued on qualifying downloads, making it among the cheapest legitimate routes to scored video. A limited free tier lets you hear the approach before paying.
Watch out for- Its licences cover background use
- Distributing the music as standalone tracks is prohibited, which creators occasionally miss. Download minutes cap exports on lower tiers, so a long form producer can outgrow a plan mid project. Pricing pages and plan shapes have changed repeatedly, so confirm the current licence wording at checkout.
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
What we like- AIVA composes in more than 250 styles with a film and game scoring heritage: orchestral, electronic, and hybrid pieces you can export as audio or MIDI into a digital audio workstation for real production work. The free plan allows three downloads a month for personal use, Standard at about 15 euros a month adds limited monetisation, and Pro, around 33 to 49 euros depending on billing, assigns full copyright in your compositions to you, unique in this list.
Watch out for- It writes no vocals and aims at composition rather than finished pop songs. Full ownership requires the Pro tier
- Standard's monetisation limits need careful reading. Euro pricing and plan naming vary by region, so confirm the figures in your own checkout.
Starting price$14 per month
Free planYes
What we like- Mubert generates royalty free background music for streams, videos, apps, and public spaces, with plan tiers that issue clear commercial certificates, and an API and streaming products for apps that need endless adaptive music. The free Ambassador tier allows about 25 generations a month, Creator starts around 14 dollars a month, and Pro at 39 adds broader rights. For a business that needs legal background music at scale, its paperwork is the appeal.
Watch out for- Standalone music releases and Content ID registration are not its model, so artists should look at Suno or Loudly instead. Quality is functional rather than memorable, by design: it is wallpaper, not a headline track. Tier rights differ enough that the certificate for your exact plan should be saved with each project.
Starting priceSee website
Free planYes
What we like- Stability AI's Stable Audio generates instrumentals, loops, and sound effects with strong prompt control, and its ecosystem now includes open weights under a community licence for organisations under one million dollars of annual revenue, which developers can self host. Downloads on its hosted plans are described as unlimited, unusual in a credit driven category. Sound designers and game developers value its effects generation beside the music tools.
Watch out for- It produces no intelligible vocals, so songwriters are in the wrong shop. Licensing splits between hosted plans, API terms, and the community licence are genuinely complex, which is why pricing here is listed as see website level
- Read the licence that matches how you will deploy it. The interface serves producers more than casual creators.
Starting price$10 per month
Free planYes
What we like- Loudly bundles generation with what creators forget until release day: a catalogue style AI music builder, samples and stems, and a distribution path to streaming platforms on its paid plans, from about 10 dollars a month. Its free tier gives daily generations for personal use, enough to test the sound. For a creator who wants one account from prompt to published track, it is the most complete pipeline here.
Watch out for- Its vocal and song depth trails Suno, and distribution terms and royalty handling need the same careful reading as any distributor agreement. Pricing pages are script heavy and plan details shift, so verify the current plan contents before subscribing. AI generated releases face platform level flagging everywhere, which no distributor can promise around.
How we chose
We compared the AI music tools that October 2026 comparisons from Avocado AI, Toolchase, SSB Crack, SimilarLabs, and Rankite rank most consistently, and verified prices and licence positions against their published surveys. We treated commercial rights as a first class criterion, not a footnote, because in this category the licence is the difference between a hobby file and a publishable asset. We noted live uncertainties plainly, especially Udio's download restrictions during its licensing rollout, rather than repeating plan marketing as settled fact.
Decide the destination before the tool. A finished song for release points to Suno, with Udio as the quality rival once its export situation settles for your account. Music under video, podcasts, and ads points to Soundraw or Beatoven, whose licences were drafted for exactly that use, with the tier matched to whether the track will also stream standalone. A score you must own outright points to AIVA Pro alone. Ambient music for an app, stream, or venue points to Mubert and its certificates.
Then protect the work like a professional. Generate commercial material only while on the paid plan that licenses it, because retroactive rights mostly do not exist. Save the licence page, your plan receipt, and the generation date for every published track, since terms change and platforms retire catalogues. Read the distribution clauses for Content ID and streaming before your first release, and assume AI detection on major platforms will label or limit the track; plan promotion accordingly. Finally, remember the human layer: a vocalist, a mix engineer, or your own arrangement pass over AI output is what separates a release from a demo, and it also strengthens your creative claim to the result.
Frequently asked questions
Can I legally sell music I make with these tools?
Usually yes on the right paid plan, with conditions. Suno and Udio grant commercial rights on paid tiers for work made while subscribed, Soundraw and Beatoven license background use, and AIVA Pro assigns copyright to you. Free tiers are personal use only almost everywhere. The exact scope lives in each licence, so read yours before release.
Who owns the copyright in AI generated music?
It is unsettled. Many copyright offices treat purely AI generated material as lacking a human author, which limits protection, while your lyrics, arrangement, and editing add protectable human authorship. AIVA Pro contractually assigns its rights to you, which is the strongest position available here. Either way, commercial licences from the platform are separate from copyright and are what let you publish.
Which tool is best for YouTube background music?
Soundraw for unlimited downloads and a lifetime licence on generated tracks, or Beatoven.ai for scoring that follows your video's mood at a lower entry price. Match the tier to your use: a monetised channel is commercial use, and streaming the same track as a standalone release can require a higher tier than video background use.
What happened with Suno, Udio, and the record labels?
Both companies were sued by major labels over training data and both settled. The settlements brought licensing arrangements and changed product terms, including Udio download restrictions during its rollout. The practical lesson for users is to verify current export and licence terms inside the product, because they are still moving in 2026.
Can I put AI music on Spotify?
Distributors such as Loudly will deliver it, and paid plans on several tools permit streaming, but platforms increasingly detect, label, or demote AI generated audio, and some distributor terms restrict it. Check both your generator licence and your distributor's AI policy before release, and keep your generation records with the track.
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Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.