Musicians, Meet Suno & Udio — AMT Lab @ CMU
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Musicians, Meet Suno & Udio

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The ever-evolving rise of AI has made its way into the music industry, with tools such as Suno and Udio emerging as the front-runners of AI-powered music generators. These platforms have received attention from musicians and producers alike by offering a new approach to composing and enhancing musical pieces. Suno and Udio are of unique value as both are accessible to creators of all skill levels and only require a simple textual prompt from users to generate an entire song. 

So, how do these tools compare to one another in terms of functionality and quality? This comparative review aims to explore the differentiating factors of the tools and how they are being utilized by professional musicians, while acknowledging the existing controversy surrounding their use. 

HOW THESE TOOLS ENHANCE THE MUSIC-MAKING PROCESS

Musicians are increasingly bringing generative AI into their creative process. Suno specializes in assisting musicians with brainstorming melodies and harmonies in a fraction of the time that it would typically take. The platform allows users to establish parameters such as mood, tempo, and genre and then generates songs that match the user’s criteria. Suno’s AI can also make suggestions for chord progressions and instrumental arrangements, making it an invaluable tool for musicians and songwriters who are seeking to expand their creative range. 

One of Suno’s primary competitors is Udio AI Music Generator. Udio has a basic feature set that is very similar to Suno’s. However, Udio also offers advanced features such as detailed remixing and song extensions, giving users the ability to refine their own music by iterating through different generations until they discover something that aligns with their tastes. 

A fascinating example of how these technologies can be utilized by artists comes from Yan Wu at the Washington Post, who interviewed “composer, computer musician, and professor at Virginia Tech” Eric Lyon. Lyon experimented with Suno to “inspire a piece he composed himself.”

His prompt was: “write the worst parody of AI-generated music about the atomic bomb.”

To everyone’s surprise, the song was very upbeat. 

“The cheerfulness of the music and text was completely incongruous for the subject of nuclear war,” said Lyon to the Washington Post. Despite this unforeseen characteristic of the song, Lyon went on to “develop a six-minute composition,” which started with a “bass solo derived from the AI song” and included additions of his own “musical layers.” His example demonstrates how composers can use the quirks of generative programs as a springboard for their creative process. Although AI-music generators will not always deliver anticipated results, the guidance of artists can allow for extraordinary developments. Overall, Suno and Udio can primarily serve as tools for inspiration by generating melodies, lyrics, or instrumental segments that musicians can build upon when songwriting and composing.

Suno and Udio Price Comparison as of April 2025

COMPARATIVE REVIEW 

To learn more about how these tools compare, samples were created using the Basic Plan for both Suno and Udio. When getting started, the initial steps are quite similar. Both platforms ask for an input, which can either be a textual prompt or an audio file and may be as vague or comprehensive as the user wishes. The following videos are generated songs, two from Suno and two from Udio, which are results from the prompt: “create a musical theater power ballad about a young girl dreaming about becoming a Broadway star.”

Udio Songs:

Ignite the Spotlight
Rising Star

Suno Songs:

Spotlight Dreams - Version 1
Spotlight Dreams - Version 2

Time to Generate & Length of Song 

Suno and Udio both very quickly generated two entire songs, with each taking less than 2 minutes. However, while Udio was faster by a few seconds, the songs that it generated were only 32 seconds while Suno impressively generated songs that were 7 times longer, being exactly 3 minutes and 33 seconds. This means that while Udio technically finished more quickly, Suno is a much more efficient program in terms of how fast it can produce music per second. 

Prompt Obedience 

Neither of the Suno songs were sung in a female voice, even though this was explicitly requested in the prompt. This may be because the ability to customize the persona of the AI vocalist is locked behind a paid subscription. Udio generated one of the two songs in a female voice, following the prompt more accurately. 

Both models did much better at complying with the specified genre than they did with the singer’s persona. Arguably, all of the songs are within the musical theater realm. The Suno songs were definitely more like ballads, while the Udio songs had more of a rock quality. Since generating a power ballad was part of the prompt, it is fair to say that Suno outperformed Udio at following the requested musical style more precisely. 

Musical Quality

There was considerable variety in the quality of orchestration, composition, and auditory synthesis between the two models. The songs generated from Suno were both sung by one AI vocalist. On the other hand, one of the Udio-generated songs included a vocal ensemble who harmonized with the lead AI vocalist and the other song was a duet with an accompanying vocal harmony. This may reflect a difference in ensemble rather than a difference in orchestration; the Udio songs had significantly less of a variety of instruments compared to the Suno songs. 

Considering the length of the Suno songs, there is a clear beginning, middle, and end to each of the ballads, giving them a strong internal structure. The songs each have slow, soft beginnings and strong melodic climaxes, but differ in their resolutions; one has a belty, hold-the-note ending and the other has a decrescendo. Contrastingly, Udio merely provides a snippet of a song, outputting a section that sounds like it could be the beginning or middle and suddenly cuts off sharply at 32 seconds. While there is a difference in scope between what each tool is designed to produce musically, Udio does very little with its short time span and is easily beaten by Suno in terms of structural complexity. 

The one area in which Udio clearly outpaces Suno is the quality of its auditory synthesis. Suno, for lack of a better phrase, sounds like AI. The voices and instruments have a vaguely uncanny quality to them, sounding as though they’ve been heavily compressed and processed with autotune. Udio does a much better job of producing a more human-sounding vocal performance, and the instruments also sound closer to real. An uninformed listener may have a much more difficult time guessing that the Udio songs were generated using AI than they would with the Suno songs. 

Suno and Udio Feature Comparison

CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THESE TOOLS

Overall, these tools are useful, convenient, and often fun to use. However, they are nonetheless surrounded by controversy due to their generative AI nature. There is a widespread concern among music industry professionals that generative AI tools might infringe upon artist copyright. Since generative AI models are trained using data that is pulled from the internet, much of both Suno and Udio’s training data more than likely comes from music that is copyrighted. Neither Suno nor Udio have taken the initiative to establish a policy of tracking the creative material they use to train their models and properly compensating the original creators. However, one notable copyright protection has been implemented by Suno, which requires users to agree not to insert lyrics from existing songs in the prompt. 

CONCLUSION

Suno and Udio are useful for generating musical ideas for artists to expand on within their creative process. There are some variations between the two tools in terms of quality and functionality, but both are worthy of attention as they allow a new way for creatives to interact with AI. The music industry is simultaneously embracing and staying cautious with the rise of AI tools, as concern about copyright infringement is extremely valid. It is important to note that while neither Suno nor Udio are perfect, they are capable of being invaluable tools to inspire musicians.