MusicGenerate

AI Music Models

The best music model changes every few weeks, so being locked to one is a bad position to be in. These are the 28 models we track — what each is genuinely good at, where it falls down, and what its licence lets you do with the output.

Read the licence before the benchmark

Two of the best-known open models cannot be used to make anything you sell. MusicGen is CC BY-NC — the restriction attaches to the output, so self-hosting it changes nothing — and Stable Audio Open ships under a community licence that is not a general commercial grant. Teams find this out late, after building on them. ACE-Step and YuE are Apache 2.0, which is a different situation. Model licence and training-data provenance are separate questions, and none of this is legal advice.

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Suno v5Suno

The vocal benchmark every other song model gets measured against.

Licence: Per Suno plan terms

Output
Full song with vocals
Base length
~4 min, extendable
Sample rate
44.1 kHz (48 kHz on top tier)
Weights
Closed
  • Most convincing vocal performance available
  • Genuine song structure, not looped sections
  • Very strong first-take hit rate
Full breakdown of Suno v5

How we use this

MusicGenerate is built to route between models rather than bet on one. The catalogue above is what we track and evaluate; which models are wired into the product at any moment is a separate question, and the answer changes as the field does. Figures on each page carry the date they were verified, because a benchmark in this category is stale within a quarter.

Inside

The models and platforms we track

Compared on what they output, how much you steer, and what the licence allows.

Full songs with vocals

Models that write, arrange and perform in one pass — the category most people mean by "AI music".

1 / 5

Why this exists

Read the licence before the benchmark

Output quality is easy to hear. The terms are what actually decide whether you can ship.

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  • Commercial rights are the real differentiator

    Two models can sound alike and differ completely in whether you may publish the result. That is the first question, not the last.

  • Open weights are not the same as open licence

    A downloadable model can still carry a non-commercial clause. Self-hosting does not change what the licence permits.

  • Specs move faster than articles

    Every entry carries the date its facts were checked, because a page that looks current and is not is worse than one that admits its age.

  • We publish limitations

    A model page with no limitations section is a brochure. The limits are the part people search for.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI music model?

It depends on the job. Suno leads on vocal realism, Udio on editing after generation, ElevenLabs on structural control, Stable Audio on instrumental texture and self-hosting, and AIVA on editable MIDI.

Which AI music models can I run locally?

Stable Audio Open, ACE-Step, YuE, MusicGen, MAGNeT and DiffRhythm all ship open weights. Their licences differ sharply — ACE-Step and YuE are Apache 2.0, while others restrict commercial deployment.

What is the difference between a model and a platform?

A model is the system that generates audio; a platform is the product wrapped around one. Suno and Udio are platforms with closed models; MusicGen is a model you can run yourself.

Do open-weight music models allow commercial use?

Only some. Apache 2.0 models permit it outright; several research licences do not. The licence covers the weights and says nothing about the data they were trained on, which is a separate risk.

Which model has the most realistic AI vocals?

Suno v5 currently sets the benchmark — breath, vibrato and dynamic phrasing are performed rather than approximated, and it is the clearest single advantage any model in this directory holds.

How often is this directory updated?

Each entry carries the date its facts were last verified. The field moves quickly, so treat any specification older than a few months as worth re-checking against the vendor.

AI Music Models

Describe what you want — we handle which model runs.