Meet Riffusion: A Free AI Music Creation Tool
I have spent the last year speaking with music educators about AI and its potential impact on music education. I always feature AI-powered digital audio workstations like Udio and Suno in my presentations because I believe they best demonstrate not only how powerful they are, but also the issues surrounding copyright adn the data that these tools have been trained on without compensating the artists. I came across a review of another one of these tools called Riffusion, and I have to say, I’m really impressed. Riffusion is a web-based AI tool that generates music from text prompts, but unlike Udio and Suno, which require paid accounts to make full length songs, Riffusion is 100% free and generates complete songs - and they’re really good. I’ll start by sharing a song that I generated based on the following prompt: “Create a jam band tune about snowing in Vermont.” I’m currently snowed in at my house in Vermont and thought this would be fun. Here is what it generated, titled Lost in the White:
I have to say, I think it’s a really good attempt. I created several others, but this one is my favorite. The major differences between Riffusion and programs like Udio and Suno, are as follows:
It produced a full length song
You can download the individual stems
Among the Remix options, Riffusion allows you to select and replace specific sections of your piece if you don’t like what it produced
You can create a Cover version of your song or Extend it
You can edit the lyrics and it will sing them when you regenerate the song
Riffusion has a “seed” feature which is a number that controls the randomness in song generation. Without entering a seed, you'll get a different song each time - even when using the exact same prompt.
That means you can enter a seed number to get the exact same song in the future, and change the prompt for a variation
As far as classroom uses, I think that Riffusion offers a starting point for creativity. It removes some of the barriers to songwriting and arranging by providing AI-generated musical ideas that students can build upon. Unlike Udio and Suno, which generate more polished, structured outputs, Riffusion is more open-ended—allowing students to manipulate and refine the AI’s musical ideas rather than simply using a finished product.
Music teachers can integrate Riffusion into lessons on melodic and harmonic development, digital music production, and AI in music. It’s a great tool for encouraging students to analyze how AI generates patterns, experiment with different musical moods, and even remix the short AI-generated loops in a DAW like GarageBand, Soundtrap, or Ableton Live.
Because Riffusion is free and easy to use, it’s accessible for students of all skill levels, from beginners exploring music creation to more advanced learners experimenting with AI-assisted composition. Whether used for sparking creativity, generating backing tracks, or exploring AI’s role in music, Riffusion is a unique addition to the growing landscape of AI music tools in education. I highly recommend checking it out.