How To Make Money With AI Music: How I Earned $793 in 2024

Last Updated on April 21, 2024 by John Cirelly

Suno AI is a groundbreaking AI tool that makes songs that sound real. Below, I’ll teach you how to make money with AI music using Suno AI, some useful prompts to get started fast, and share my personal results using the tool.

What is Suno AI?

Suno AI is a text-to-music platform, where you type in what kind of song you want to make, and it makes it. It’s run by a team of musicians, AI experts, and ex-social media employees based out of Cambridge, MA.

Suno AI allows you to specify the genre, like country or pop. If you’re not into writing lyrics, it can even generate the lyrics for you based on an idea or topic.

Making music on Suno is proving to be one of the best AI side hustles I’ve tested. Below I’ll share the steps I used to generate over 600,000 plays, and a bit of cash.

How To Make Money With AI Music

1. Sign Up To Suno

First, sign up to Suno AI and get familiar with how the platform works. You can generate three songs daily on the free version, but you’ll likely need more if you want to turn this into a side hustle.

Currently, the paid version of Suno is only $10 per month, allowing you to generate about 500 songs.

Using Suno is super simple. If you want more control over your songs, choose custom mode (which I recommend.) In custom mode, you have more control over the style of the song, but more importantly, can write your own lyrics.

Unchecking Custom Mode still allows you to pick a genre and style, but uses AI to generic the lyrics for you, which can lead to mixed results in my experience.

I made this disco song about side hustles using AI-generated lyrics in about 20 seconds.

2. Pick a Genre

To make money with Suno AI you’ll want to stick to a genre. This is important because your new songs will more likely engage positively with your followers if you keep the genre consistent.

Some genres I’ve had luck with include:

• Classic rock
• Country
• Pop punk
• Phonk
• Disco

3. Create Your Prompt and Lyrics (optional)

I highly recommend using Custom Mode and tweaking the AI-generated lyrics.

This produces more fluid results, and I found performs better. If you’re not a great writer, consider having Suno generate the lyrics, then edit them as you feel fit.

When you turn on Custom Mode in Suno you’ll see a Style of Music box. Here, you’ll put in the style of music you want your lyrics to be sung in. Be specific, as this can help you achieve the kind of sound you want.

Below are some style prompt examples:

• Upbeat country, male vocalist, traditional pop gospel
• 90s techno, 240 bpm, female vocalist
• Cinematic instrumental, violin solo, epic chorus
• Experimental Slow Soul/R&B/Funk, 1970s, P-Funk Grooves, yacht rock,

Get creative! Feel free to mix and combine different genres to get some unique results to help you stand out.

4. Adjust, Export, Refine

It’s normal to have to generate multiple variations of songs to find one that really hits. When you find a song you really like, consider making it longer by clicking on the three dots next to your song and choosing Extend.

If you’re happy with the length, just click Export.

Not every song you make will be perfect. Some might have an odd ending, or areas you’ll want to cut out.

If you want to make adjustments, I use a free tool called Audacity. If you’re doing this all from your phone, consider a free app like CapCut.

5. Create an Album Cover

Next, you’ll need an album cover. Not only for social media but for all the streaming platforms we’ll be sending the song to.

For this, I like to use Leonardo AI to generate an image, and Canva to help make the album cover.

Leonardo is only $10 per month, and allows you to make hundreds of designs.. I also prefer Leonardo because it gives you all the tools to make a cover that suits your song’s vibe easily, and that’s large enough to upload to streaming platforms.

Next, export your image. Make sure it’s at least 3000×3000 pixels. This is important when we upload to streaming platforms.

6. Upload to Streaming Platforms

The best way to get your song on all streaming platforms quickly is to use a tool called DistroKid.

DistroKid automatically shares your song to virtually every streaming platform. Your songs will earn money anytime its played.

Start by signing up for DistroKid, and upload your song, as well as the album cover you create.

You’ll need to choose an artist’s name before publishing. If you’re doing multiple vocalists, consider naming yourself ABC Records or something that signifies you’re a record company/label.

Then, sit back and relax. Your song should be on all streaming platforms within 2-5 days.

7. Share to Social Media

You can share to social media immediately, or wait until your song is on all streaming platforms. That way, you don’t miss out on any of the ad revenue.

I recommend using Adobe Premiere or CapCut to turn your song into a video. Simply use the album cover image and Auto Captions to make a lyrics video. Make sure it’s the video is verticle (9:16) for platforms like Reels, TikTok, and Shorts.

Over time you can build up followers that will want to stream and save your song, earning your passive income in ad revenue and song plays.

For instance, you can start getting paid per view on Tiktok when you reach 100,000 plays and 10,000 followers.

Other Ways To Make Money With AI Music

Outside of earning from streams, there are other ways you can make money with AI music. Below are a few of my favorites:

Sample Packs and Sound Design

If you’re good at creating unique sounds, you can make sample packs with AI and sell them to other music producers. These could be beats, sound effects, or background noises. This is popular in the music industry because producers are always looking for fresh sounds for their tracks.

Educational Products and Courses

Once you know a lot about making music with AI, you can teach others. Create online courses or write guides on how to use AI in music production. Selling these educational products can be a great way to share your knowledge and make extra money.

Customization and Personalization Services

Offer to make customized music for people’s personal needs. This could be a special song for someone’s birthday, a jingle for a business, or relaxing music for yoga. With AI, you can create these personalized tracks quickly and sell them directly to customers.

Music Production for Media

You can use AI to make music for videos, podcasts, and video games. Many content creators look for unique but affordable music to enhance their projects. By offering your AI-created tracks, you can help them while making money. You just need to market your skills on freelance platforms where people look for music creators.

Who Owns The Rights Of AI Music?

This area of the law is still evolving, but many platforms give you 100% commercial use ownership of the music you make, as long as you’re using their paid version.

For example, if you’re using the paid version of Suno, you can sell your music and earn money from streams, ads, merch, and more.

If you’re using a different tool, check the tool’s usage agreements before trying to sell your music.