User expresses strong desire for Udio to revert its Terms of Service to allow users to share and download their generated songs, which was removed after a partnership with UMG. This is crucial for creators who want to use their own music outside the platform.
Udio will forever hold a special place in my heart. I have been a Pro subscriber since launch. The original algorithm, with all its flaws, changed something within me. An avid music lover my entire life with eclectic tastes, I never thought I had the ability to create something that I would want to listen to myself. I have poems that are near and dear to my heart... and hearing those words blossom into beautiful music was absolutely transformative. Udio changed my entire outlook on life. I lost most of my desire to consume mass media - suddenly the same top 40 hits I'd been listening to my entire life lost their luster. Now I could take a vague musical idea and a poem that made me feel raw emotions and documented some point in my life and combine them together into this marvel of modern technology and produce something that made my fucking soul ache. There have been many times in the last two years where I have cried tears of joy, just quietly sitting in my room by myself, listening to the music I created with Udio. That's why the partnership with UMG was such a gut punch. The service is still there - the 6,000 mocking credits, the "Create" button, beckoning me to spend hours in my comfort zone, making the music I love... except I know I would be locked away from my own music. Unable to download, unable to share with others outside of Udio. No thank you. Wallowing in a mix of rage and grief, I started looking for alternatives... Suno was the first choice. I didn't spend enough time with this service to talk much about it here, but there is something about the UI that is offputting coming from Udio. Someone in this forum suggested trying Producer AI (formerly Riffusion, a name I recognized along with Suno), so I gave that one a shot. The first thing that is different is that it has an LLM that helps you make the music. I've heard complaints about this before, but I kind of like it. I would do the same but use an LLM service such as Gemini or ChatGPT to brainstorm my prompts and feed back to Udio. The Producer LLM can sort of help automate the process, but I notice there are more advanced editing functions that I am currently experimenting with. The generations come much faster, and the whole song is a one-shot, which has its pros and cons. But so far it's the closest to Udio that I have found. It has Projects which is kind of like Udio's folders. There's a Remix function with options for "Variation, Cover, Extend, Replace," a Trim option as well as something called "Vibe" which I think is like Udio's "Style" function. Options to "swap vocals" and "swap sound" - I am still playing with the edit functions to get a feel for them - but I was testing out a prompt I had used with Udio many times before and out of about 30 generations Producer gave me a song in one shot that hit me in my core - in a good way. There are a few spots I need to touch up so I will be utilizing the editing functions more in the next week or so as I work on this one. Not sharing it here because I don't want this post to seem like I'm promoting my own work, but if anyone is interested, I can share it in the comments. I felt compelled to post here because I have felt such relief. I know many are hurting from the Udio change in TOS. It feels like a loss. I keep holding out hope that the clouds will part and Udio will announce a TOS update to give us rights to share and download our own songs again. However, until that happens, I will be making my music at my new home. I affirm that I have no relationship with Producer, I do not benefit from any way in making this post and my excitement over this service is genuine and not an ad. I have 3 invite codes and I was told they can be used by multiple people if anyone is interested in one, let me know. However, they are not hard to find, I got mine by checking the ProducerAI subreddit, people share them there.