Homepages all look alike: a promise, a crossed out price, a button. From there it is impossible to know what you will actually receive, when, and what happens if the name is sung wrong.
Here are the seven criteria that decide the outcome: what to look for, and the signal that should make you close the tab. Ten minutes of checking, for a gift you only give once.
What a sales page never tells you
A service sells three things at once: a text, a music production, and an object to hand over. Shop windows show off the second, because it plays in two seconds. The other two decide the effect on the day.
The blind spot is what comes after payment: how many revisions, how long when things go wrong, what is left on your hard drive six months later. None of that is on the homepage; all of it is three clicks away.
The seven criteria, one by one
1. Who writes and who sings
The real dividing line. A human songwriter takes your story in hand: three to six weeks, several hundred euros. A music AI steered by the service works inside a writing framework set beforehand. A self-service generator leaves you alone with the words and the failed attempts.
None of the three is bad, they simply answer different needs. The useful question: who guarantees the result? In front of a generator, you do. Full comparison in AI or musician.
2. Real delivery time, not the advertised one
Look for the standard turnaround, the one with no surcharge, not the rush option printed in big type. Then check its price: when rush doubles the bill, the advertised timing is not the one you will get.
Check when the clock starts: at checkout, or when a human approves your brief? For a party set for Saturday, those two days change everything.
3. What you receive, exactly
An audio file is the bare minimum. The difference lies in what surrounds it: a page to share, synced karaoke, cover art, a video, a good quality download.
A gift is handed over in front of people. A song you can neither put on a screen nor sing along to loses half its effect: played from a phone lying on the table, nobody hears the lyrics.
4. Can you listen before you pay
The most revealing criterion. A confident service shows a complete result, not a ten second clip picked to flatter: a weak verse is never audible inside a chorus.
Listen to a whole song with the lyrics in front of you. Our public demo is open, no account, no card: voice, words, karaoke, cover art, exactly what a customer receives.
5. What happens if the song misses
A mispronounced name, the wrong tone, a story bent out of shape: it happens everywhere. Check whether revisions are included, billed or impossible, and how long they take to come back.
Then search the terms and conditions for “refund”: on a file delivered instantly, the right of withdrawal often falls away. A second version offered without argument beats a refund you have to chase.
6. Language
A song in the wrong language misses its target, however well produced. Make sure the service actually sings in the recipient's language, not merely that its website has been translated.
The test: look for a demo in that exact language. If every sample on offer is in English, multilingual is a checkbox, not a product. Pronouncing names, stresses, rhymes: none of it transfers.
7. What is left afterwards
A gifted song gets replayed for years. Make sure you can download the file, MP3 at the very least, and that you know what you are allowed to do with it.
Two questions settle it: does the link stay live once you stop paying, and is private use explicitly allowed? A service that hosts without ever letting you download is not selling you a keepsake, it is renting it.
A service that will not let you hear a whole song before you pay is asking you to take its word for it.
What that looks like here, plainly
You tell the story in a form: the names, two or three precise anecdotes (the time she missed the train to Lisbon beats “she travels a lot”), the tone, the style. Our music AI writes and sings; the song arrives within minutes.
The three packages differ in what you receive: 2 min 30 with two versions and an MP3, 3 min 30 with full screen karaoke and illustrated cover art, 5 min with two styles, a photo slideshow and an MP4 video.
On the day, do not start the song in the middle of the noise: pause, say in one sentence what it is, then send the karaoke to the living room screen. Bring tissues, this is the kind of gift that makes people cry.
Mistakes that ruin the comparison
- Judging on a ten second clip: ask for a whole song, or move on.
- Confusing headline price with final price: add rush, revisions and options together.
- Forgetting the date of the party: three weeks advertised means four if something needs fixing.
- Comparing the audio only: the page, the karaoke and the downloadable file make the gift.
- Writing a vague brief: “he is funny and he likes football” gives you exactly that song.
Prices and timings, no detours
A human songwriter usually charges between €150 and €800, for three to six weeks of work. Platforms that sell songs one at a time sit around €30 to €100, with a few days' wait.
Here: €5, €8 or €13 (instead of €10, €16 and €26), delivered within minutes. The full breakdown is in how much a custom song costs. At that price the real trade-off is no longer budget: it is the time you have left.
How long does it take to compare two services properly?
Ten minutes, once you know where to look: the demo, the list of deliverables, then the terms and conditions for revisions and refunds. Listen to one whole song in the language you need, that is the test that rules services out fastest.
Can you hear that a song was composed by an AI?
Less and less, provided the framework holds: voice, style, structure, and lyrics written around real anecdotes. What people notice is a generic text, not the technology behind it.
Do you have to pay more to get a better song?
The price mostly buys human time and deliverables, not necessarily better writing. At €300 you get a contact and rounds of revisions. At €8 you get a result within minutes and the freedom to start again.
Can you give a song in a language other than English?
Yes, provided the service genuinely sings that language. Ask for a demo in the target language before ordering: name pronunciation and rhymes do not carry over from one language to another.
The takeaway
Seven criteria, one reflex: listen to a whole song before paying, in the recipient's language. The rest (real turnaround, deliverables, revisions, the right to keep the file) reads in three clicks. If a service refuses that listen, the question is already settled. Otherwise, tell your story and judge the result.