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7 Apps to Put Music to Lyrics in 2026: AI or Your Own Melody

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Suno and Udio sing your lyrics with AI; Hookpad, MuseScore, GarageBand, BandLab and Zoundroom help you write the tune. Free plans, prices and rights.

A handwritten lyric sheet on a music stand, a phone beside it recording a hummed melody shown as a simple waveform, and an acoustic guitar resting on a knee in soft daylight in a small room

There are two kinds of apps that put music to lyrics. AI generators take your words and return a finished song sung by a synthetic voice: Suno is the pick if you want to hear your lyric sung today (paste it in Custom mode; free with 50 credits a day, but downloads and commercial use start with Pro at $8 a month billed yearly), while Udio keeps every song inside its own platform. Songwriting apps help you write the melody and chords yourself: Hookpad to sketch melody and chords in the browser, MuseScore Studio to place every syllable under a note for free, GarageBand (iPhone, iPad, Mac) or BandLab (Android, iPhone, browser) to sing over chords, and Zoundroom to keep the lyric and every melody take in the same note.

Choose by who should write the tune. If the AI writes it, you get a fast reference, and what you may do with it depends on the plan. If you hum it, the melody is yours. This page compares the apps; the method itself, step by step with audio examples, is in our guide on how to put music to lyrics.

Apps to put music to lyrics compared

AppWhat it does with your lyricWho writes the melodyFree planPaid fromPlatforms
SunoCustom mode turns it into a full song with vocalsThe AI50 credits a day; no song downloads, no commercial rightsPro $8/month billed yearly ($10 month to month)Web, iOS, Android
UdioGenerates songs from it that stay inside UdioThe AI10 credits a day, up to 100 a monthStandard $10/month or $96/yearWeb, iOS
ZoundroomKeeps it in a note with your sung or hummed melody takes recorded insideYou; Auralis suggests chords and structure as text2 projects and 5 itemsPro €7.99/month or €59.99/yeariOS, Android, web
HookpadPlaces the syllables under a melody you draw over chords (lyrics need Standard)You; the optional Aria add-on suggests melodiesChords and melody, guides, playback, unlimited cloud savesStandard €7.99/month or €209.99 for lifeWeb browser
MuseScore StudioPuts each syllable under its note in a scoreYouCompletely free and open sourceNothing to payWindows, macOS, Linux
GarageBandGives you chords and drums to sing over and recordYouFreeNothing to payiPhone, iPad, Mac
BandLabKeeps the lyric on screen while you record over loops and instrumentsYouFree studio with unlimited cloud projectsMembership $14.99/month (US App Store)Web, iOS, Android

What each app’s terms say about your lyric and about the result:

AppRights and ownership
SunoIts help center says you keep the rights to the original lyrics you enter. Free plan: personal, non-commercial use only. Pro and Premier: Suno assigns you its rights in the song and allows commercial use of permitted downloads, with no promise that any copyright exists. You also grant Suno a broad, perpetual license to what you submit
UdioYou may not download songs, post them on streaming or social platforms or use them commercially; sharing links on approved services is allowed. Udio may use your lyric and the output to train its models
ZoundroomNothing is generated: the lyric and the recordings are yours, and Auralis returns text only
HookpadNothing is generated unless you use Aria; the melody you enter is your own work
MuseScore StudioNothing is generated: the score holds the notes and syllables you type
GarageBandYour melody and your voice; Apple describes its Producer Pack sounds as royalty-free for your songs
BandLabYour melody, lyric and takes; its Studio guide describes BandLab Sounds as royalty-free samples

How we compared them

We checked every cell on October 2, 2026 against official sources: pricing pages, help centers, app store listings, terms of service and product documentation, all linked at the end. The criteria are the questions a songwriter asks before choosing: what happens to the lyric, who writes the melody, what you can do for free, what the first paid step costs, which devices it runs on and what the terms say about the result. We did not run listening tests or rank the quality of the generated songs. Dollar prices are US prices before tax; Hookpad showed euro prices, VAT included, from Europe. We also looked at Mureka, an AI generator whose homepage says you can import your own lyrics, but its terms page could not be read that day, so it is not in the tables.

Suno: best for hearing your lyric sung today

Suno is an AI music generator that can start from your words. Its help center explains the route: go to Create, choose Custom, and paste your lyric into the lyrics field, then describe a style. Suno returns a complete song with a melody, a voice and an arrangement, all generated by the model. The free plan gives 50 credits a day on its free models, with no monthly song downloads and no commercial rights. Pro costs $8 a month billed yearly or $10 month to month, with 2,500 credits, 20 song downloads a month and commercial use; Premier costs $24 a month billed yearly and allows 60 downloads. It runs on the web and in iOS and Android apps.

  • Choose it if: you want to hear how your lyric might sound sung, test a few styles or tempos and find which lines trip.
  • Honest limit: the tune and the voice are the model’s, not yours. On the free plan you can’t download the song or use it commercially, and paid downloads have monthly caps.
  • Terms: Suno’s terms (revised August 10, 2026, in force since September 3, 2026) assign its rights in the output to Pro and Premier subscribers and state that Suno makes no promise that copyright will vest in it.

Udio: best for exploring versions without leaving Udio

Udio also generates songs from prompts, and its terms list lyrics among the inputs you can submit; its Standard plan adds lyric editing and voice control. Since its partnership with Universal Music Group in October 2025, downloading audio, video and stems has been disabled, according to its help center (article updated February 17, 2026). The free plan gives 10 credits a day, up to 100 a month. Standard costs $10 a month or $96 a year with 2,400 monthly credits, and Pro $30 a month or $288 a year with 6,000. It works on the web and in an official iPhone app; Udio says it has no Android app.

  • Choose it if: you want to play with versions of your lyric and share links with friends, not files.
  • Honest limit: you can’t download the result, publish it on streaming or social platforms, or use it commercially.
  • Terms: last revised November 12, 2025. They also say Udio may use your input, lyrics included, and the output to train its models.

Zoundroom: best for keeping the lyric and your melody takes together

You write the lyric, and the melody arrives as a hum or over a guitar: in Zoundroom both stay in the same note. Put the lyric in a note, place the cursor under a line, tap the microphone (Record on the web) and sing it: the take is inserted right there, so each melody attempt sits under the words it belongs to, and pressing play runs the note’s takes in order. Each song is a project with its takes, lyrics, notes and files, on iOS, Android and the web. When you want chords under the tune, Auralis, the assistant inside the note, writes two progressions with chord symbols with «Chord Progression» and suggests a shape for the song with «Song Structure», as text you can save to the note. Next step: open a note with your lyric, place the cursor under the first line and record three different ways to sing it.

Pro matters here because every take counts: Free holds 2 projects and 5 items, so a lyric and a few melody attempts fill it, while Pro holds up to 1,000 projects and 10,000 items, notes of up to 10,000 characters and PDF chord sheets next to the lyric. Pro is 7 days free on iPhone and on the web: spend them on one lyric, with three takes for each line. Plan details are on the pricing page.

  • Choose it if: you find melodies by humming or with a guitar and keep losing which voice memo goes with which lyric.
  • Honest limit: to hear chords under your voice, loop the free chord progression player or use GarageBand or BandLab.

Hookpad: best for sketching melody and chords without reading music

Hookpad, from Hooktheory, is songwriting software built on music theory that runs in the browser. You enter chords and a melody on a color-coded grid that shows how each note relates to the key, and you hear it back on piano at your tempo, in a loop. The free version includes chords and melody, guides, transposition, tempo and looping, piano previews and unlimited cloud saves, with no credit card required. Standard costs €7.99 a month or €209.99 for life and adds lyrics, 500+ instruments, MIDI and MP3 export, sheet music, recording and audio import. Aria, a generative AI add-on for €15.99 a month, can suggest chords, melodies or both.

  • Choose it if: you don’t play an instrument but want to see and hear your melody against the chords, note by note.
  • Honest limit: typing the lyric under the melody needs Standard, and you still have to sing it to know whether the words fit. Browser only.

MuseScore Studio: best for a score with the lyric under the melody

MuseScore Studio is free, open-source notation software for Windows, macOS and Linux; version 4.7.5 came out on September 8, 2026. It is the classic way to write a melody down with its words. Its handbook explains the lyric entry: select the first note, press Ctrl+L (Cmd+L on a Mac) and type the syllable; a hyphen moves to the next note within the same word, Space starts a new word, and an underscore extends a syllable held over several notes. You play the melody back and hear where a word lands on the wrong beat.

  • Choose it if: you read a little notation, or you want a clean lead sheet with melody, chords and lyric to send to a singer or a co-writer.
  • Honest limit: computer only, and entering notes one by one is slower than humming. Nothing suggests a melody for you.

GarageBand: best for singing over chords on iPhone, iPad or Mac

GarageBand is Apple’s free studio for iPhone, iPad and Mac; the iPhone and iPad app requires iOS or iPadOS 26 or later. For putting music to a lyric, the useful parts are the Smart Instruments with Chord Strips, which Apple presents as a way for anyone to play chords, even without having played a note before, and Drummer, a virtual session drummer. Loop four chords, sing your lyric over them and record the vocal on its own track.

  • Choose it if: you have an iPhone or a Mac and want chords and a beat to sing over, then a demo with your voice.
  • Honest limit: no Android or Windows version. It is a full studio, so there is more to learn than you need for a first melody, and Apple’s pages don’t describe a lyric editor, so keep the words in another app.

BandLab: best free option on Android and in the browser

BandLab is a free studio on the web, iOS and Android, with unlimited project storage synced to the cloud. It has a Lyrics tab next to your tracks: on mobile, the pen icon lets you read and write the lyric while you record, and collaborators see the same text. BandLab Sounds offers more than 100,000 royalty-free samples to build a loop, and SongStarter, its AI idea generator, can give you a starting point. BandLab Membership costs $14.99 a month as an in-app purchase on the US App Store.

  • Choose it if: you use Android or a shared computer and want the lyric on screen while you record takes over a loop.
  • Honest limit: it is a production studio and a social network at once, so it takes time to learn, and you build the chords yourself from loops or instruments.

Which one should you choose?

  • You write the melody yourself, by humming or with a guitar: Zoundroom, with the lyric and every take in one note.
  • You want to hear your lyric sung in minutes: Suno. Treat the result as a reference unless you are on a paid plan and have read the terms.
  • You want to stay inside one platform and share links: Udio, knowing nothing leaves it.
  • You can’t play an instrument but want to write the melody: Hookpad, or the free chord player plus your voice.
  • You read notation or need a lead sheet: MuseScore Studio.
  • You have an iPhone or a Mac: GarageBand. Android or a browser: BandLab.

For lyric-writing apps, with or without AI, see the best apps for writing lyrics. For AI tools that generate whole songs from a prompt, see our comparison of AI apps that create songs.

Put music to your lyric yourself in 15 minutes with free tools

You don’t need any of the paid plans above to get a first melody. Take one verse or the chorus and follow the clock:

  1. Minutes 0–3, count: paste each line into the syllable counter. Lines that will share a melody should be within one or two syllables of each other; mark the stressed syllables.
  2. Minutes 3–6, loop the chords: open the chord player with C–G–Am–F at 90 BPM and let it loop. Speak the lyric in rhythm over it before you sing a note. If it sits too high or too low, check what key you should sing in and change the key.
  3. Minutes 6–12, sing three versions: with headphones on, sing the first line three different ways, record each take and keep the one you still remember a minute later. Do the same for the next line.
  4. Minutes 12–15, fix what doesn’t fit: if a line is too long, cut a word and count again; if a rhyme sounds forced, look for another in the rhyming dictionary.

If you play guitar, tune it first with the online tuner and swap the player for your own chords. Our guide on how to put music to lyrics explains each step with audio examples, and how to write a melody goes deeper into shaping the tune.

Who owns a song made from your lyric?

Two things decide it. The first is each app’s terms: they set what you may do with the result, and the tables above show how far apart they are, from Suno’s paid plans, which assign you their rights, to Udio, where nothing may leave the platform. The second is copyright law, which decides whether there is anything to own. In the US, the Copyright Office’s January 2025 report concluded that AI output can be protected only where a human author determined sufficient expressive elements, which includes a human-authored work that is perceptible in the output, but not the mere provision of prompts. In practice, your lyric remains your work even when an AI sings it; the melody and the voice generated from your prompt are not your authorship. Suno also says you keep the rights to your original lyrics, while its terms give it a broad license to what you submit. This is not legal advice: read our guide on whether you can copyright AI music for the US, UK and Canada rules. If someone helps you write the melody, agree on the shares in writing with a split sheet.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an app that turns my lyrics into a song?

Yes. Suno turns a lyric into a full song with vocals in its Custom mode, on the web, iOS and Android. Udio also generates songs, but you can’t download them. In both cases the melody and the voice come from the AI.

What is the best free app to put music to lyrics?

To hear it sung: Suno’s free plan, for personal use only. To write the melody yourself: MuseScore Studio and GarageBand are free, BandLab’s studio is free, and Hookpad has a free version for melody and chords. The free chord player on our site also loops chords in the browser for you to sing over, and Zoundroom’s Free plan keeps one song’s lyric and its melody takes in the same note.

Can I release a Suno song made with my lyrics?

Only with a paid plan and a permitted download: Pro and Premier include commercial use, the free plan doesn’t. Suno makes no promise that any copyright exists in the generated music, so read its terms before you upload the song anywhere.

Do I need to read music to write a melody for my lyrics?

No. Singing over a chord loop and recording the takes is enough. Hookpad shows notes on a color-coded grid instead of a staff, and you only need notation if you want a score in MuseScore Studio.

Does Zoundroom write music for my lyrics?

It keeps the music you write: you record your own melody inside the note that holds the lyric, and Auralis suggests chords and structure as text. For a melody generated from your words, Suno is the tool.

Sources

Official pages checked on October 2, 2026: