AI Music for Business: How to Get Started

Are you thinking of using AI music in your marketing? Wondering how to create original tracks for your business? 

In this article, you’ll learn how to create AI-generated music for videos, podcasts, and ad campaigns.

Why Marketers Should Pay Attention to AI Music

Music and marketing have been intertwined for nearly a century, with the first commercial jingle appearing in a Wheaties radio advertisement back in 1926.

The emotional impact of music cannot be overstated. Just as soundtracks set the mood in movies and TV shows—Sanchez points out that “Star Wars is not Star Wars without John Williams' music”—music can dramatically enhance marketing content. “Most people buy with emotion and justify with logic,” he notes, making music a powerful tool for connecting with audiences.

However, creating custom music has traditionally been out of reach for most marketers due to limited musical expertise, high production costs, and complex licensing requirements.

Now, AI is democratizing music production for marketers.

4 Applications of AI Music for Marketing

Using an AI music generator opens up numerous possibilities for marketers who previously avoided music due to a lack of expertise or budget constraints.

Background Music for Content

One of the most immediate applications is creating background music for videos and other content.

While tools like CapCut offer royalty free tracks, the libraries are often limited. Dan Sanchez, Senior AI Marketing Strategist for Social Media Examiner, describes how he faced this challenge when creating content for “The Dollar Marketer” series. He wanted an electric swing background track, but the music library offered only two tracks in that style. He used Suno to generate multiple tracks quickly and found the perfect fit.

Original Songs and Jingles

AI enables marketers to create custom AI-generated songs targeting specific audiences or occasions. 

For example, you could create some fun, one-off songs to use in social posts targeted at accountants.

Audio Branding

While Fortune 500 companies have long maintained detailed audio style guides and branded soundtracks, smaller businesses can now develop their audio branding without licensing music.

User Experience Enhancement

AI music can also enhance various touchpoints throughout the customer journey. This approach mirrors how brands like Netflix use their signature sound to enhance brand experience. The key is finding unexpected places to delight your audience with musical elements.

#1: AI Music Creation Process: Tools and Case Studies

Creating AI music requires two primary tools.

First, you'll need a text generation like ChatGPT to create lyrics. You can also use it to identify and understand music genres you can describe but can't put a name to. This is helpful for non-musicians who need guidance on musical styles and terminology.

Second, you'll need a music generation tool. Dan recommends Suno.ai and Udio.com While both offer free and paid tiers, Udio provides the added benefit of commercial rights to the music you create.

When you begin creating music, lyric development will take about 15-20 minutes, and music generation will take 1-1.5 hours. The entire process should take approximately 2 hours per song.

Case Study 1: A Social Media Marketer's “12 Days of Christmas”

Sanchez created a holiday post by developing a professional-quality parody of “The 12 Days of Christmas” specifically for social media marketers.

Here's how he did it:

Step 1: Lyric Generation with ChatGPT

Sanchez approached ChatGPT with a specific vision: a fun, industry-specific holiday song that would resonate with social media marketers. He worked through several iterations with ChatGPT to craft lyrics that balanced humor with relatable professional challenges.

Genre/Style: Fun and festive parody of "The 12 Days of Christmas"

Theme: Celebrating the challenges and wins of social media marketers during the holiday season

Tone: Lighthearted, humorous, and relatable

Perspective: From the viewpoint of a social media marketer (or team) during the holidays

Key Phrases/Imagery: "Engagement soaring through the roof", "Twelve scheduled posts publishing", "A client calling for last-minute changes", "Ad budgets climbing higher and higher", "Trend-chasing on TikTok"

Structure: Mirror the structure of "The 12 Days of Christmas" with escalating lines that fit industry-specific struggles and wins

Specific Requests: Include humorous but relatable social media terms (e.g., hashtags, algorithms, content calendars) and a mix of chaos and joy marketers experience during the holidays.

The final lyrics playfully captured common frustrations:

“For Christmas, my job gave me twelve trending TikToks, eleven comments trolling, ten bots spamming, nine DMs sliding, eight tweets to schedule, seven hashtags trending, six metrics plummeting, five client edits, four last-minute memes, three Canva crashes, two reels reduced, And a boss who wants it to go viral.”

Step 2: Music Creation in Suno

With lyrics in hand, Sanchez used Suno to create the musical track. He notes that finding the right version required patience and iteration, but the process was straightforward:

1. Created a new project in Suno
2. Pasted in the finalized lyrics
3. Specified vocal preferences and musical style
4. Generated multiple versions until finding the perfect match

Step 3: Video Creation

Finally, he recorded himself reacting to different parts of the song to produce the final video.

Case Study 2: The Social Media Manager's Folk Song

The second case study demonstrates a more complex production that captures the daily challenges of a female social media marketing professional balancing work and family life. Here's a sample:

Step 1: Deep Context Development

Before writing lyrics, Sanchez took a unique approach with ChatGPT:

1. Asked ChatGPT what elements it needed to write effective lyrics
2. Spent 10-15 minutes answering ChatGPT's questions about the character
3. Focused on creating a day-in-the-life story arc
4. Emphasized the need for a strong chorus and emotional resonance

“The most important thing I asked it is, ‘What elements of the story do you need me to elaborate on for you to be able to write good lyrics to tell the story?'” Sanchez explains.

Step 2: Genre Selection

Rather than immediately choosing a genre, Sanchez consulted ChatGPT about which musical styles would best fit the narrative. ChatGPT suggested three options, from which he selected a folk-pop style.

Step 3: Music Creation

The process of creating the final song involved:

1. 20-22 iterations in Suno
2. Experimenting with different female vocal styles
3. Using Suno's “persona” feature to maintain vocal consistency
4. Extending the song beyond Suno's standard four-minute limit
5. Fine-tuning the transitions between sections

This project took approximately two hours from concept to completion, demonstrating how AI can compress what would traditionally be a days-long production process into a single session.

#2: Using Suno to Create AI-Generate Music: Advanced Controls

Working with AI Voices

When creating AI vocals, you can specify vocal characteristics for soft/hard delivery, scratchy or smooth texture, gender of vocalist, and solo or multiple voices for harmonies.

If you're looking for a specific style, you can describe what you want using general terms. Still, you should avoid prompts that name specific singers because AI tools actively prevent the replication of specific artists' voices.

Musical Elements and Structure

Controlling musical elements is straightforward. 

For instrument selection, you can specify exactly which instruments you want or don't want in your composition, and the paid tier has a negative prompt feature that allows you to exclude specific instruments. However, Sanchez advises being prepared for some unexpected additions, as the AI often introduces instrumental elements you hadn't planned for, which can sometimes enhance the final piece in surprising ways.

Pro Tip: Test unusual combinations of instruments.

Suno recognizes special instructions embedded within brackets in your lyrics for structure control. 

By examining successful creators' work on the platform, Sanchez discovered that you can include instructions like [Verse 1], [Chorus], [Bridge], [Sing softly], or [Spoken word] directly in your lyrics. The AI will attempt to interpret these instructions, though Sanchez notes it's “more of a suggestion than it is a hard engineering type thing.”

[Verse 1] I wake up to the buzz of deadlines, A coffee in hand, I chase the grind. Scrolling through the trends, chasing likes, Building brands in the glow of ring lights.

[Chorus - Sing softly] Oh, the balance, the juggle, the sway, Family and work pulling both ways. But I'll rise, I'll shine, I'll play my part, A marketer's world with a multitasking heart.

[Verse 2] Midday calls and a toddler's cries, Analytics flashing before my eyes. Hashtags trending, but time's slipping fast, Every campaign feels like the last.

[Bridge - Spoken word] They ask, "How do you do it all?" And I just laugh—I stand tall. It’s not perfect, but it’s mine, Juggling the chaos, one post at a time.

[Chorus - Sing softly] Oh, the balance, the juggle, the sway, Family and work pulling both ways. But I'll rise, I'll shine, I'll play my part, A marketer's world with a multitasking heart.

These structural markers help the AI understand how you want different parts of the song performed.

Exports and Edits

To fine-tune your music, you can download the vocal and instrumental tracks individually. This gives you greater control over the final mix in editing tools such as CapCut or Adobe Audition. This capability becomes particularly useful when you need to adjust the balance between vocals and instrumentals or create special effects at specific moments in the song.

#3: 5 Ways to Get Started With AI Music in Your Marketing

Begin with Background Tracks: Create simple instrumental tracks for existing content and experiment with different genres for your brand. Then, build a library of custom background music for various content types.

Develop Platform-Specific Content: Create shorter musical pieces for social media and design longer formats for YouTube content. Then, you can adapt that music for podcast intros and ad breaks. You can also generate specific tracks for in-store experiences.

Test Seasonal or Event-Specific Content: Design special occasion jingles, holiday-themed songs or produce timely pieces related to trending topics.

Build Your Audio Brand: Develop consistent background music styles, custom jingles for different product lines, and signature sounds for digital interactions, notifications, and alerts. Consider incorporating music into:

• Website loading screens
• 404 error pages
• Post-purchase thank you emails
• App notifications
• Store environments
• Social media interactions

Combine Music with Video: Create lyric videos with moving backgrounds or add music to AI-generated cartoon-style animations.

Other Notes From This Episode

• Connect with Michael Stelzner @Stelzner on Facebook and @Mike_Stelzner on X.
• Watch this interview and other exclusive content from Social Media Examiner on YouTube.

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✋🏽 If you enjoyed this episode of the AI Explored podcast, please head over to Apple Podcasts, leave a rating, write a review, and subscribe.

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