Lesson 6 of 6
Making music with AI
5 min read
You've seen each piece — writing a song, splitting its stems, forging sounds, and clearing the rights. Put them in order and you've got a real workflow. So what does making a finished, publishable track look like start to finish?
The whole workflow, end to end
Here's how the pieces fit. Brief the song: describe a style and hand over (or generate) lyrics, and a tool like Suno or Udio arranges and sings a full track. Produce it: pull the stems, regenerate the parts that fall flat, and reshape the structure until it lands. Add sound: generate any sound effects or a voice-over you need. Clear it: before you publish, make sure you're on a plan that grants commercial rights and you haven't leaned on a real artist or an uncleared sample.
The loop is: brief → produce → add sound → clear the rights. The first three are creative; the last one is what keeps you safe to publish.
There's no single best tool
The tools split by job, and they change fast. Suno and Udio lead on full songs. ElevenLabs is the go-to for voice-over and sound effects. Google's Lyria, Stable Audio, Soundraw, and Mubert target creators who want quick, license-friendly background music. Don't memorise a ranking — name what the job needs (a sung song? a narrator? cleared background music?) and pick the tool built for it.
These tools leapfrog each other every few months. Learn the questions — song or sound? your own lyrics? do you need commercial rights? — and the right tool follows from the job, not from habit.
The gist
- —The workflow is brief → produce (stems, regenerate) → add sound (SFX, voice-over) → clear the rights
- —Match the tool to the job: Suno/Udio for songs, ElevenLabs for voice and SFX, Lyria/Stable Audio/Soundraw/Mubert for background music
- —The creative steps are fast; the rights check is what makes a track safe to publish
You've made an AI song for a client's paid ad. Walk through it: which step is the one that keeps you out of trouble?
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