It's never been easier to write a song, thanks to AI tools that can generate lyrics, melodies, or even chord progressions in seconds. But with great power comes great...weirdness. Here's how to keep AI under control.
by AiSongFix Staff | July, 24, 2025.
If you've ever fed a prompt into an AI lyric generator and gotten something robotic, cliché, or just plain cringey, you're not alone. AI can spark creativity, but it won't do the deep emotional work for you. Nor should it. You should always remain captain of the ship, er, the songwriter.
The best way to learn how to write songs with AI isn't just by doing it. Since AI depends on prompts, it's useful to learn a bit about prompt engineering so you can understand, in a general way, how AI functions. That way, you'll be able to give it input in a way it prefers to produce the output you want.
Don't let the word "engineer" in prompt engineering intimidate you. Basic prompt engineering for AI is very simple. Here is an excellent free starter course online to learn the basics: The Basics Guide to Generative AI and Prompt Engineering. 🌐↗
I'm both a songwriter and an AI prompt engineer. During my training in the latter, my college professor emphasized that we should adopt the mindset of viewing AI as a tool, not a solution. It can help with the brainstorming, the research, and the tedious grunt work.
However, humans must always remain in control, directing and overseeing the AI's output. My professor would say that AI can get you 70-80% of the way there with many tasks, but humans are responsible for the remaining 20-30%, and completely responsible for the final outcome. This means being functionally and factually correct, as well as acting responsibly and ethically.
When songwriting with AI, let AI help you develop ideas and refine them. But you should be directing the AI at every step, actively adding your ideas and input, and not letting AI do all the work for you.
Here's the thing...AI can easily overwhelm you with ideas. Think of AI as a co-writer who shows up with 100 ideas but no filter. Believe me, I've worked with human cowriters like this. You want to say: "Stop talking for a second so that I can think." You don't because you're much too polite for that. But it makes for an exhausting writing session.
AI can also do this to you. Overwhelm you with information. No matter what I'm prompting for (music and otherwise), I'll frequently have to instruct AI to "briefly describe" or "give me a brief description," or the like. You'll run into this with creative AI songwriting. You'll need to be the one who keeps AI reined in, as well as the one with the taste, direction, and final say.
Let's break down how to use AI tools without letting them take over your song.
Before touching any AI tool, ask yourself:
What am I trying to say?
What emotion or story do I want to capture?
What vibe or genre am I aiming for?
AI tools are only as useful as the instructions you give them. If you don't know your own intention, the output will wander.
When creating AI song prompts, instead of typing "love song," try:
“A country ballad about missing someone during the holidays, with bittersweet imagery and a hopeful tone.”
Prompting is an art. The clearer your input, the closer the AI's output will land. Still, don't expect perfection. Expect raw material.
And actually, that's what you want. You want to leave room for yourself in the song. Your perspective. Your voice. Your vision. This is your song—not AI's.
When using AI for lyrics, let the AI spit out a bunch of lines, themes, or title ideas. Use what you like, toss what you don't. It's a launchpad, not a final draft. Highlight a good line and build around it, or combine pieces from several outputs to shape something original.
📌 Pro Tip: One of the most important things for your song to have is an original title or hook. Google your song title and see what comes up. You only care about the exact title being used in your genre. For example, if your genre is country, and the same title comes up for a pop song, no worries. However, if the same title appears in the same genre, there is potential for confusion. Now, if that title was used 20-30 years ago, then it might not be a big deal. However, if that song with the same title is a "classic," then it's timeless, and you don't want to compete with that. If that's the case, then you want to try to come up with a more original title.
AI often lacks:
Once the initial ideas are flowing, turn off the AI and trust your own instincts. This is where the song becomes yours.
Listeners connect with imperfections, surprises, and soul—things AI struggles to replicate. Keep rewriting until the song reflects your perspective, even if AI gave you a helpful start.
I (and many others) seem to like the early stages of an artist's career. And I have a pet theory, which is just my opinion, but I think the reason for that is that the artist is still somewhat raw. Their work has all the imperfections I just mentioned. As artists progress, they tend to become more polished, and as a result, all those raw edges become smooth; we lose the instinctual soul and emotions that we found so exciting. Things become more perfected, perhaps overthought, and less spontaneous.
So while you do consciously want to think about what you're writing, you also want to go with your gut. If something excites you, it likely will excite others who share your taste.
Don't worry if your first AI-generated output feels "off." It's not meant to be a polished song. The magic comes when you shape it into something real. AI is the spark. You are the fire. 🔥
And when it still doesn't feel right?
👉 Then it might be time to consider getting help from "songwriting doctors" who specialize in humanizing AI songs. Scroll to the link below for Country Demo Studio's AI-to-Human Song Service. They can help with rewriting country songs, as well as those in the pop, rock, contemporary Christian, and Americana genres.
Need to humanize your AI song? We can help rewrite your lyrics, melody, or track to make it ready for copyright and pitching.
Country Demo Studio 🌐↗