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If you’ve always wanted to try out AI-generated music, TikTok has released an AI Song feature that can generate songs from a word prompt. So, how do you access it, and more importantly, is the feature any good? Let’s find out.
How to Use TikTok’s New AI Song Feature
TikTok’s AI Song feature lets you make an original, AI-generated song and use it for your video’s soundtrack. All you need to do is type in the topic for the song and TikTok will do the rest.
At the time of writing, TikTok is still rolling out this feature to its users as an experiment. If you don’t see the AI Song feature, it may take a little while for it to arrive on your app.
To access the AI Song feature, open TikTok and press thePlusicon at the bottom of the screen to make a new video.
When the recorder opens, check above the capture button; it should sayPhotos. To record a video, tap on either10m,60s, or15s. This sets TikTok to record either a 10-minute, one-minute, or 15-second long video. The AI Song tool works on any of these options, so pick the one you want.
Now it’s time to make a video. Start by hitting the redRecordbutton. If you just want to test out the AI Song feature, record a throwaway video. If you want to set the AI Song to a scene, use this time to record what you want to set your AI-generated song to.
Once you’ve recorded a video, tap thecheckmarkicon to see your video. At the top, you’ll see the sound for your video. TikTok will sometimes automatically assign a sound to your video. If it doesn’t sayAdd Soundat the top, tap theXto the right of the sound. Then, tap onAdd Sound.
TikTok will open a library of sounds for you to try. At the top of the list, look forAI Song. If you’re able to’t see it, it’s not available for you at this time. If you do, tap on it to open the AI Song feature.
In the new window, type in what song you’d like TikTok to generate. The feature can work with whatever prompt you want to throw at it, so get imaginative. Here are examples of some prompts that work well:
AI Song is only capable of generating pop, EDM, and hip-hop songs. As such, asking it to “make a heavy metal song” or “make a song about dogs using trumpets” won’t work as well. Just focus on giving AI Song a prompt to write lyrics about and let it do the rest.
Submit your prompt and wait for TikTok to generate the song. Once it’s done, you can switch between different genres using the genre tabs. Each song genre comes with unique lyrics to better fit the song, so browse through them all to find the one you like the most.
Once you find the song you like, tapDoneto add it as a sound to your video.
Is TikTok’s AI Song Feature Any Good?
I gave the feature a try for myself and uploaded my findings above. I chose one of the recommended prompts TikTok gives you, then generated three more songs based on custom prompts. Unfortunately, the results were pretty disappointing.
When I asked it to generate a song about cats, the result felt more like lyrical word soup than an actual song. In the song inspired by Eminem, the AI seemed to fixate on the cheesy lyric “got the game on lock like a locksmith”, as it appeared in two of the song’s genres.
Across each of the prompts, the singing sounded pretty awful and robotic. This is especially apparent in the first MakeUseOf song where the AI forgets how the word “success” is pronounced. And when the AI does manage to get the words right, it’s awfully out of tune and isn’t pleasant to listen to.
Copilot’s Music Creation Tool Is Better
Compared to the songs I generated when I exploredCopilot’s music creation tool, TikTok’s songs sounded a lot more generic and the lyrics didn’t flow as well. If I had to choose between using TikTok’s AI Song tool and Copilot’s Suno-powered tool, I’d go with the latter every time.
While the new TikTok AI Song experiment makes it easy to add generated content to your media, I’d personally recommend against using it. There are plenty ofAI music generation toolsavailable that do a far better job, so check those out if you need music for your videos.
