One of the most popular tools that I share with audiences is Suno.com, a site that helps you create professional-ish songs with just a prompt. Today I revisited a few of the top tools of 2026 to experiment with the latest features. And for the next three hours, I have been lost in delightful AI music deep dives.

The three tools I used for this post are Suno (my favorite by far), Gemini and Udio. ChatGPT and Claude don’t have audio generation, but I used them for lyrics and advice.

I did a lot of experimentation, but the bottom line is that Udio and Gemini couldn’t hold a candle to Suno. It’s just awesome.

Free Song Tools

Both Udio and Suno have pretty good free versions that let you use the mid-level AI versions to generate full songs. And they both give you 30 seconds of an advanced level. Gemini is the weakest link throughout the song-creation battle, but on the free version, you can do 30 seconds.

I never really got Gemini to produce anything solid, but the sound is overall ok, even in the 30-second clip.

Udio’s best version gave me this:

Suno did a great job with the free version. If you’re a musician, I’m sure you can hear the difference in quality. But to my low-quality ears, everything is great.

Using My Own Voice

I have the first paid level of Suno because I use it all the time. A new feature for paid levels is that they say they can clone your voice for a song. I had to try this one.

Suno asks you to upload 10+ seconds of you singing something, then asks you to read something to verify your voice. I enlisted a special guest star to record myself. This is my original video:

I uploaded it to Suno and asked for a song about the joys of Zoom video meetings. I don’t think it sounds much like me, do you?

Creating Lyrics First

For all of the above videos, I simply wrote prompts such as “Write a funny song about the problems of Zoom video meetings.” I wanted to give ChatGPT and Claude a chance to show some musical talent, even though neither can generate music. So I turned to them to create full lyrics that I could paste into the music tools (Ok, just Suno) to generate the full song. First up was ChatGPT with this prompt:

Write a funny song about treating AI like a human with please and thank you and casual chatting, etc. Do it in a classic country diva song style.

Suno did a great job with the song, though I tried to apply my voice again and it just sounds “female country lead,” not “Beth Z,” except perhaps for the sigh at the beginning.

I asked Claude for this:

Epic rap battle between your old John Deere lawn mower and the new Navimow robot mower. As a reminder, a rap battle is competitive contest using lyrical insults and wordplay, distinguishing between on-beat and acapella types. Keep it clean but very funny. Do it in the style of Hamilton’s Cabinet Battle #1

It came up with a hilarious song, but I couldn’t get any of the AI song tools to create three voices consistently. So the song itself was a fail, but the lyrics are epic.

[Verse]
Ladies and gentlemen
You could be mowin’ anywhere tonight
But you’re in this garage with us
So let’s settle it right
One quarter-acre
Two machines
The keys are up for war
Old reliable versus new arrival
Deere
You’ve got the floor

[Verse 2]
Let me lay it out plain
Son
I been cuttin’ these blades
Since your circuit boards were beach sand
And your software unmade
Green and yellow
Leaping stag
A true American crest
Three generations of grass stains pressed deep in my chest
You roll out like a hockey puck the neighbor’s dog’ll wreck
A Roomba with anxiety
Sit down
I’m cuttin’ next

[Chorus]
I announce myself with thunder
Leave stripes you’d wanna frame
You leave a half-charged circle and a crash report to blame
Nothing runs like a Deere
That’s a fact
Son
Not a flex
So roll back to your charging dock
You overpriced reject

[Verse 3]
Cute story
Grandpa
Now let’s talk about your day
A pull cord and a prayer and a cloud of gas-blue spray
You announce yourself with thunder? That’s a noise complaint
My guy
You wake the whole subdivision just to trim a strip of rye
GPS to the centimeter
RTK on lock
No sweaty human draggin’ me groanin’ ’round the block

[Chorus]
You burn a fossil fuel to fight a thing that grows from sun
A dinosaur that’s huffin’ dinosaurs to get the mowin’ done
Spark plugs
Oil
And ethanol that gums up in your tank?
I just dock myself and charge
You’re a chore
I’m a bank
I mow while you’re asleep
You leak oil where you roll
And call it character
You leak a puddle
Call it soul

[Verse 4]
A Segway built you? Bro
That’s the thing they had to recall
The scooter that flipped a mall cop in the middle of the mall
One twig in the fescue and you spin out in distress
Please update my firmware
Can’t cut without Wi-Fi access

Copyright Infringement Attempts

All the above-board music-generating tools have pretty strong copyright infringement guidelines. I poked and prodded to try to trick Suno into creating a song about having to be your family’s IT department when you are home for the holidays to the tune of The Beatles’ “Help!” (I need somebody…).

Using the band name got an immediate rejection. So I tried to get ChatGPT and Gemini to write a prompt that would lead Suno to create the same sound and style. ChatGPT took the high road and said, “I can’t create anything to try to get around copyright laws” even though I swore that it was just for an experiment. Gemini took a swing at it with this description:

Musical Style & Arrangement Prompt
Genre & Era: Mid-1960s British Invasion pop-rock, energetic Merseybeat, early folk-rock fusion.

Tempo & Rhythm: Fast-paced, driving 4/4 time signature with a frantic, urgent cadence. Driven by a bright, incessantly strummed acoustic rhythm guitar and a crisp, steady drumbeat featuring a prominent tambourine and an open, sizzling hi-hat.

Instrumentation: Jangling, chiming clean electric guitar fills that mimic the vocal hooks, backed by a melodic, walking bassline and a highly energetic acoustic guitar foundation that never slows down.

Vocal Structure & Arrangement (Crucial for this specific track):

The Intro: Begins abruptly with a dramatic, bursting vocal hook featuring an anxious, descending melodic line delivered by the entire group in unison before dropping into the verse.

The Verses: An urgent, melodic male lead vocal delivered with high emotional energy but a sunny pop sensibility.

The Harmonies: Distinctive, close three-part male vocal harmonies executing a tight, overlapping call-and-response format. The backing vocalists frequently anticipate and shadow the lead singer’s phrases, singing the counter-melody a split second before or right after the lead line.

Overall Vibe: A stark juxtaposition of an anxious, pleading lyrical delivery paired with an infectious, wildly upbeat, and sunny major-key pop melody.

But that didn’t get us anywhere. Here is the best of the results, and it sounds nothing like the original song.

Fun Genres

I finished the “experiments” with a fun dive into different song types. If you don’t give these tools direction about the style, they all end up sounding like pop songs you’d change the station on. So I tried things like…

Broadway Musical Ensemble about losing your phone

Irish Pub Drinking Song about the dangers of Internet rabbit holes

An Opera Duet about a couple who broke up because of incompatible smart phones

That’s all for now

Y’all, I could do this all week. But I have to stop somewhere. If you have made songs you love, leave them below.