Before you start
You need:
- An account (free tier is fine)
- At least 50 credits. New free accounts start with 0 credits but can earn up to 80 from the gift-box quests in your header (10 each for following us on social). Bundles from $4.99 (500 credits) or subscriptions from $4.99/mo (800 credits) also work.
- A rough idea of what you want to hear
The 60-second path
- Open Music Studio from the main nav.
- Pick a model. If you are unsure, start with Suno v4.5 - best quality-to-cost ratio right now.
- Type a style prompt: genre, mood, era, instrumentation. Example:
"90s trip-hop, smoky female vocals, dusty breakbeats, minor key". - Write lyrics in the lyrics field, or leave it empty for instrumental, or click Generate Lyrics to have AI draft them from your style prompt.
- Click Generate. A full song comes back in 60-120 seconds.
Anatomy of a good prompt
Do:
- Name genres and sub-genres:
dream pop,boom bap,post-punk,neo-soul - Describe the vocal:
breathy female alto,gruff male tenor,robotic vocoder - Mention an era:
late 80s,mid-2000s emo,current indie - Include tempo cues:
slow burn,driving four-on-the-floor,half-time
Do not:
- Name real artists or songs - the model will reject it and it breaks copyright anyway
- Stack a dozen genres. Three or four descriptors is the sweet spot.
- Write lyrics in the style prompt - use the lyrics field
Picking a model
| Model | Best for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Suno v4.5 | Everything. Full songs with vocals, wide genre range. | Medium |
| Suno v4 | Legacy tracks that matched a specific vibe, fallback | Medium |
| Riffusion | Instrumental loops, experimental textures | Lower |
| Mureka | Alternative engine, sometimes better for niche genres | Medium |
See the full pricing breakdown in models-and-pricing.
What to do with your result
Generated tracks show up in the Results area but are NOT saved automatically. Click Save to Gallery on a track to keep it. Anything you don't save is lost when you leave the page or start a new generation. Once saved to your Gallery, you can:
- Download the full MP3 (uses our blob download, your session stays intact)
- Cover it with a different vocal or style - see cover-from-upload
- Send to Soul Forge to forge a band identity around the track
- Add to a Radio station to broadcast it 24/7
- Share to the community feed
Common first-time mistakes
- Prompt too specific. Saying "Taylor Swift's Midnights but darker" will produce something weirdly generic. Describe the sound, not the reference.
- Lyrics too long. 3 verses + chorus + bridge is the sweet spot. Longer lyrics get truncated.
- Expecting radio-quality mixing. Generated audio is good but not mastered. Run it through the mastering guide if you want release quality.
Next steps
- Upload an existing track and generate a cover version: cover-from-upload
- Turn your song into an artist identity with Soul Forge: band-creation
- Get your music on the radio: create-station