Key Takeaways Song Maker GPT is a mentor for music composition, not a song-generating powerhouse like Udio and Suno. Song Maker GPT helps with creating melodies, chords, lyrics, and album covers, with limitations in data usage. Unlike Udio and Suno, Song Maker is best suited for collaborative song creation rather than full song generation.
The AI music scene just got a new contender. OpenAI's Song Maker GPT can craft entire songs from a text prompt, but can it dethrone the reigning music composition duo, Udio and Suno, known for their ease of use in crafting catchy tunes?
What Is Song Maker GPT?
Song Maker GPT is a versatile music composition AI, developed by CustomizedGPTs for the OpenAI GPT marketplace, designed to help you create music regardless of your experience level and natural aptitude. The AI combines basic musical theory and suggestions to help you write more compelling tunes, develop chord progressions, brainstorm lyrics, and even generate album covers (though you will need a ChatGPT-Plus subscription for the latter).
What Can Song Maker Do?
The Song Maker GPT offers a variety of features and tools for you to use. If you want to compose MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) tunes directly on your laptop, tell the AI, "Open Song Maker's Beta MIDI Player" and the system will generate a hyperlink that opens to the MIDI editor (below) where you can lay out melodies manually. Song Maker GPT can also provide feedback to existing songs -- you can upload an audio clip to the AI and ask it to "analyze this song and offer potential ways to improve it."
You can also ask Song Maker to just write the whole song for you. When I asked for the AI to "make a glam rock anthem about cyborg polar bears fighting space pirates," Song Maker not only generated the lyrics and chords but also determined the song structure, suggested instrument arrangements, and provided note motif ideas. The AI went on to create ABC notation (a shorthand form of musical notation for computers) for the harmonic instruments before generating downloadable MIDI and MusicXML files based on that notation.
Song Maker is not without its limitations. Having the AI analyze existing audio clips or generate songs from a text prompt will quickly deplete your ChatGPT account's data allotment and result in you being locked out from using the GPT for a few hours. I've found I can have the AI fully generate roughly one song per chat session before I hit the account limit. You can increase that data limit by subscribing to OpenAI's $20/month ChatGPT Plus service.
How Does Song Maker Compare to Suno and Udio?
For as handy as Song Maker is at answering questions about musical theory and providing constructive feedback about the songs you write, it is no Udio, and can't hold a candle to Suno. Both of these generative music AI platforms enable you, as a user, to generate fully realized, high-fidelity songs that include both instrumentals and vocals (as well as cover art) within 2-3 minutes.
I asked each for a "powerful, soulful classic country song about finding a stray dog on the side of the road." Suno delivered a 3:42-long acoustic ballad that wouldn't sound out too of place on my local country radio station, while Udio returned a 32-second diddy that could be downloaded as an MP3 or WAV. What's more, each offers you enough daily credits to generate nearly a dozen unique songs.
Is Switching to Song Maker Worth the Effort?
In short, no. Song Maker is a powerful chat AI, but it is designed more as a collaborator and mentor to help you, the user, create more melodious music. It is not meant to churn out entire songs wholesale as Udio and Suno are able to. Still, whether you're an aspiring musician or already established, Song Maker GPT can provide insight and advice into the music-making process. All you have to do is ask it.
