BandLab Launches SongStarter, an AI-powered Tool Built to Fix Musical Writer’s Block

Writing the very first note of a song can be surprisingly difficult. New creators may not know where to start. Inspiration can be tough to come by, even for seasoned creators. Other times, pinning down one of a million ideas can be overwhelming. For creatives who are eager to get started but need help getting past the blank screen, the team at BandLab is introducing SongStarter, a musical idea generator powered by artificial intelligence within the BandLab platform.

Built in collaboration with Google on TensorFlow, SongStarter generates unique beats, melodies, and chord progressions based on user input. The patterns it creates are for users to keep, royalty-free, and can be used as a starting point for rapping, songwriting, melody sketching, or just jamming out with friends. SongStarter is now available through desktop browsers and the BandLab mobile app.

To get started, BandLab users simply click on the dice icon through the SongStarter interface. For more customized results, users have the option to enter up to 50 characters’ worth of lyrics and emojis. However, no initial input is required. Within a matter of seconds, SongStarter will generate three new musical ideas, each completely different from the last.

Once the ideas are presented, users can test out different moods for each one by clicking a button with day, dusk, and night icons. This feature provides takes on various instrumentals, keys, and beats-per-minute for the same musical composition, allowing users to select the style that suits them best. Finally, users can open up the chosen idea in the Mix Editor of the BandLab platform and tweak it further, or repeat the same phrasing. Alternatively, they can keep rolling the SongStarter dice until they land on the results they want.

SongStarter marks the start of BandLab’s foray into AI-powered tools to help creators progress in their music-making journeys. Additionally, in alignment with BandLab’s mission of breaking barriers to music creation, SongStarter is free and easy to use. Once users have the foundation of a song, they can continue to personalize their work and share with the ever-growing BandLab community, which now features over 40 million users – ranging from first-time creators to GRAMMY-winning producers.

“We are thrilled to launch SongStarter. It is like having inspiration on-demand,” notes BandLab CEO & Co-Founder Meng Ru Kuok. “Our team designed just the solution for those personal ‘eureka’ moments. SongStarter is fun to experiment with and serves as a resource that creators can keep coming back to again and again. The musical possibilities are endless.”

About BandLab

As the flagship digital product of BandLab Technologies, BandLab is a leading social music creation platform with a global reach of over 40 million users. Through its best-in-class digital audio workstation (DAW) and audio hardware division, BandLab empowers creators to make music and share their creative process with musicians and fans on an unprecedented level. The BandLab product family also includes BandLab for Education, an award-winning music creation platform with classroom management tools, and Cakewalk by BandLab, a professional-level digital recording studio for career musicians and producers. BandLab Technologies is a subsidiary of Caldecott Music Group.

Try it for yourself here: www.bandlab.com/songstarter