How to Make a Song with AI (Step by Step)

To make a song with AI, describe what you want in plain words (or paste your own lyrics), pick a genre, mood, voice and language, and generate. With SongAI you get two full versions of the song, with vocals and cover art, usually in about a minute. This guide walks through each step and shows how to get from a first draft to a song you actually want to keep.

Step 1: Pick a mode — Simple or Custom

The Create page has two modes, and the right one depends on how much you want to control.

• Simple mode is for when you have an idea but no lyrics. You write one description of up to 3,000 characters — who the song is about, what happens, how it should feel — and the AI writes the lyrics and the music for you.
• Custom mode is for when you already have words, or want control over every line. You give the song a title (up to 80 characters), a style description (up to 200 characters) and your own lyrics (up to 5,000 characters), organised with section tags like [Verse], [Chorus], [Bridge] and [Outro].

If you are not sure, start with Simple mode. You can always copy the lyrics it produced into Custom mode later and rewrite the parts you don't like. If you have a poem or finished lyrics already, go straight to lyrics to song.

Step 2: Write a description that gives the AI something to work with

In Simple mode, the description is everything. A vague prompt like "a happy song" gives you a generic result. A specific one gives you a song that feels like yours.

Good descriptions usually include:

1. A subject — a person, a place, a moment. "My sister moving to Lisbon" beats "a song about change".
2. A detail or two — a name, an object, a line someone always says.
3. The feeling — bittersweet, triumphant, lazy-Sunday calm.
4. Sound hints — instruments, tempo, energy ("slow acoustic guitar, builds into a big final chorus").

An upbeat indie-pop song about my sister Deniz moving to Lisbon. Mention the yellow trams, her terrible parallel parking and the night we stayed up packing boxes. Bittersweet but hopeful, jangly guitars, handclaps, a chorus everyone can sing along to.

For a deeper look at prompt writing, read how to write AI music prompts that work.

Step 3: Choose genre, mood, voice and language

These settings shape the arrangement and the performance.

• Genre: there are 22 to choose from, from Pop, Rock and Hip-Hop to Lo-Fi, Synthwave, Phonk and Classical. Browse them on the genres page if you want to hear what each one tends to sound like.
• Mood: 16 moods, such as happy, nostalgic, epic, dreamy or melancholic. Mood changes things like chord colour, tempo and how the vocal is delivered. The moods page has examples.
• Voice: auto, male or female. "Auto" lets the AI pick what suits the style.
• Language: vocals can be sung in 25 languages, including English, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. The AI writes Simple-mode lyrics in the language you choose.
• Instrumental: switch it on to remove vocals entirely — handy for background music, studying or video. See instrumental music.

A useful rule: let genre and mood carry the broad strokes, and use your description for the specifics. You don't need to write "sad pop song" in the prompt if you already picked Pop and melancholic.

Step 4: Generate and review the two versions

Each generation uses 1 credit and returns two versions of the song. They share your lyrics and settings but differ in melody, arrangement and vocal delivery — sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

When you review them, listen for:

• The chorus. Is it memorable after one listen? The chorus is usually what decides whether a song works.
• Lyric clarity. Are names and key words sung clearly? If a name is mispronounced, you can fix that on the next try (spell it phonetically).
• Energy curve. Does the song build, or does it stay flat from start to finish?
• Fit. Would you play this for the person or moment it's for?

Often one version is clearly stronger. Sometimes you'll like the verse of one and the chorus of the other — that's a signal for what to change in your next attempt.

Step 5: Iterate with small, deliberate changes

The fastest way to a great song is to change one thing at a time, so you know what made the difference.

• Wrong vibe? Keep the description, change the mood or genre.
• Lyrics too generic? Add more concrete details — names, places, objects — or switch to Custom mode and rewrite the weak lines yourself.
• Want a stronger structure? In Custom mode, add a [Pre-Chorus] or a [Bridge]. Our guide to song structure explains what each section does.
• Stuck on words? The free AI lyricist (for signed-in users) turns a short idea into structured lyrics you can edit before generating. It's also on the lyrics generator page.

A good workflow: generate once in Simple mode, take the best version's lyrics into Custom mode, tighten them, and generate again. Two or three rounds is usually enough.

Step 6: Save, share and keep it

Your songs land in your library, where you can favourite them and build playlists. You can share a song with a public link and turn sharing off again whenever you like. Pro and Studio plans can download songs, and Studio adds WAV files.

Songs are licensed for personal, non-commercial use: listen, keep, and share with friends or on personal social media without monetization. Commercial licensing — monetized videos, ads, client work or streaming releases — is not offered yet. See the terms for details.

A few things are off-limits by design: real artist names and well-known copyrighted lyrics are blocked, and voice cloning isn't available. If a request is rejected, the credit is refunded.

Try it

New accounts get 1 free credit, which is enough for one song in two versions. Open the AI song generator, describe your idea, and hear the first draft in about a minute.