AIVA is an AI music composition platform made by AIVA Technologies, a company based in Luxembourg, that generates original instrumental tracks in more than 250 styles from a text prompt, a style choice, or an uploaded audio or MIDI influence. It is aimed at game developers, filmmakers, YouTubers, and other content creators who need royalty-free background music, and its Pro plan is the only tier that hands full copyright ownership of the output to the user.
Last updated: September 2026
What is AIVA?
AIVA (the name stands for Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist) is built by AIVA Technologies SARL, a Luxembourg-based company founded in 2016 by Pierre Barreau, Vincent Barreau, and Denis Shtefan. According to the company’s own site, organizations including NVIDIA, Vodafone, Globant, TED, and the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture have used AIVA-generated music. AIVA was among the first AI systems recognized by a music rights society, SACEM (the French and Luxembourg authors’ rights organization), as a composer in its own right, a distinction the company still references in its marketing.
The company’s early history is publicly documented: AIVA released a debut album, “Genesis,” in November 2016, followed by “Among the Stars” in 2018, and the Avignon Symphony Orchestra performed AIVA-composed pieces in 2017. On the funding side, AIVA raised roughly €650,000 in 2017 and, in 2020, received a €1.5 million ($1.68 million at the time) investment from Chinese tech company NetEase, according to Music Business Worldwide’s reporting on the deal. Those figures point to a company with a long operating history in AI composition rather than a recent entrant, which matters for buyers weighing platform stability.
Unlike vocal-first generators such as Suno or Udio, AIVA is built around instrumental composition: cinematic scores, game loops, corporate background tracks, and mood-based music rather than full songs with lyrics and vocals. The platform works from a browser, and generated tracks can be edited, remixed into variations, and exported as MP3, MIDI, or (on the Pro plan) WAV.
Key features of AIVA
250+ preset styles and genres
AIVA’s website advertises “more than 250 different styles,” spanning orchestral and cinematic categories, electronic, pop, rock, jazz, and ambient/meditation music, among others. You pick a style, set a track length, and AIVA generates a full instrumental arrangement in seconds.
Text-to-music and style-based generation
Alongside preset styles, AIVA lets users describe the mood or scene they want scored and generates a matching composition, a workflow aimed at video editors and game developers who need music to fit a specific emotional beat rather than a genre label.
Audio and MIDI influence uploads
Users can upload an existing audio file or MIDI file as an “influence,” and AIVA generates new, original material informed by its melodic and harmonic structure. This is positioned as a way to steer the AI toward a particular reference sound without directly copying it.
Custom style models
AIVA supports training a custom style model from a set of reference tracks, letting studios or advanced users build a signature sound the AI can reuse across future generations, according to the company’s site. This is most useful for teams producing recurring content, such as a game franchise or a YouTube channel, that want a consistent musical identity across many tracks rather than a one-off composition.
In-browser editing
Generated tracks are not final exports only: AIVA’s editor lets users adjust and regenerate sections of a composition rather than starting over, which matters for scoring specific scene lengths or emotional shifts within a track.
Multiple export formats
Free and Standard users can download MP3 and MIDI files. Pro subscribers can export in additional file formats, including high-quality WAV, which suits professional post-production and mixing workflows.
Track length control
Maximum track duration scales with plan: up to 3 minutes on the Free plan, up to 5 minutes on Standard, and up to 5 minutes 30 seconds on Pro, per AIVA’s pricing page.
Benefits of AIVA
- No musical training required: style presets and mood prompts handle arrangement and instrumentation, so non-musicians can get a usable score without hiring a composer or learning music theory.
- Built for instrumental scoring, not songs: the focus on cinematic, game, and background music makes it a closer fit for video and game projects than vocal-first tools, which typically emphasize lyrics and a lead vocal line over incidental scoring.
- Editable output: the ability to adjust generated sections, rather than only regenerating from scratch, gives more control than a single one-shot generation and reduces the number of full re-rolls needed to fit a scene.
- Clear path to full ownership: the Pro plan’s “copyright owned by you” model removes ambiguity for creators who plan to monetize their work broadly, rather than leaving licensing terms implicit.
- Long operating history: AIVA has been developing composition models since 2016, with outside investment and institutional users, which is a longer track record than many newer AI music startups can point to.
AIVA use cases by role
- Indie game developers: looping background tracks and mood-based cues across multiple in-game scenes, exported as MIDI for further mixing in a game audio engine.
- Filmmakers and video editors: temp scores and finished cinematic underscore for short films, documentaries, and YouTube videos, with the in-browser editor used to tighten a cue to an exact scene length.
- Content creators and YouTubers: royalty-free background music for videos, with the Standard plan’s limited monetization covering YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram specifically.
- Podcasters: intro/outro themes and ambient beds that do not require licensing a commercial music library or negotiating usage terms per episode.
- Corporate and marketing teams: production-music-style tracks for ads, presentations, and internal video content, best suited to the Pro plan given its unrestricted monetization rights.
How much does AIVA cost?
Prices below are as of September 2026, taken from AIVA’s own pricing page, and are billed in euros; AIVA does not publish separate USD list prices. The approximate USD figures in parentheses use a mid-September 2026 EUR/USD rate of roughly 1.14 and are for reference only — they will drift with the exchange rate, so US-based users should confirm the exact converted amount their card issuer charges at checkout.
| Plan | Price (EUR) | Approx. USD | Downloads/month | Max track length | Copyright | Monetization |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free, Forever | €0 | $0 | 3 | 3 minutes | Owned by AIVA | None; AIVA credit required |
| Standard (billed annually) | €11/month | ~$12.50/month | 15 | 5 minutes | Owned by AIVA | Limited to YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram; no credit required |
| Pro (billed annually) | €33/month | ~$37.60/month | 300 | 5 minutes 30 seconds | Owned by you | Full, unrestricted monetization; all export formats including WAV |
AIVA’s pricing page shows the Standard and Pro figures above as annual-billing rates (with discounts of roughly 26% and 33% respectively versus paying month to month); the site does not display the plain monthly-billing price without first selecting annual, so confirm the month-to-month rate directly on the pricing page before subscribing. There is also a custom Enterprise option reachable through AIVA’s contact form, with no published pricing.
The copyright distinction is the detail that matters most for commercial users: on Free and Standard, AIVA itself retains copyright over generated tracks, which is why monetization is either disallowed or restricted to specific platforms. Only Pro subscribers own the copyright to what they generate, with no attribution requirement and no platform restriction on monetization.
AIVA pros and cons
Pros
- Deep style library (250+) focused on instrumental and cinematic music rather than vocal songs
- In-browser editing of generated sections, not just one-shot regeneration
- Custom style model training for a repeatable, signature sound
- Pro plan gives full copyright ownership with unrestricted monetization
- Long track record (since 2016) and enterprise/institutional users cited by the company
Cons
- Free and Standard plans do not transfer copyright to the user, which limits their use in paid or client work
- Standard’s monetization is restricted to four named platforms, not general commercial use
- Prices are listed in euros with no separate published USD pricing, and the site does not clearly surface the non-annual monthly rate
- No vocals or lyrics; not a fit for creators who need full songs with singing, unlike Suno or Udio
- Download caps (3 on Free, 15 on Standard) can be limiting for creators publishing frequently
How to use AIVA
- Create a free account at aiva.ai.
- Choose a generation method: pick a preset style, describe a mood or scene, or upload an audio/MIDI influence.
- Set the desired track length and generate a composition.
- Use the built-in editor to adjust or regenerate specific sections instead of starting over.
- Preview the result and generate variations if the first version does not fit.
- Export in MP3 or MIDI (Free/Standard) or in any supported format including WAV (Pro).
- Check the copyright and monetization terms of your plan before publishing or monetizing the track.
AIVA alternatives
The right alternative depends mainly on whether a project needs instrumental scoring or full songs with vocals, and on how each tool’s entry-level plan handles commercial rights.
- Suno: pick it when you need full songs with vocals and lyrics rather than instrumental scoring; Suno’s Pro plan starts at $8/month with commercial use rights included, per Suno’s pricing page.
- Udio: pick it for another vocal-first, song-generation tool with a strong focus on genre realism and remixing, as an alternative to AIVA’s instrumental-only focus.
- Soundraw: pick it if unlimited downloads matter more than style depth; its Creator plan is $16.99/month (or $11.04/month billed annually) with commercial use and monetization rights included from the entry tier, per Soundraw’s pricing page.
- Beatoven.ai: pick it for mood-based, royalty-free background music built specifically for video editors, as a lighter-weight alternative to AIVA’s broader style catalog.
- Production music libraries (e.g. Epidemic Sound, Artlist): pick these when you want human-composed, pre-cleared tracks rather than AI generation, at the cost of less customization per project.
Frequently asked questions
Is AIVA free to use?
Yes. AIVA’s Free, Forever plan allows 3 downloads per month, tracks up to 3 minutes long, and MP3/MIDI export, but AIVA retains copyright over the output, no monetization is allowed, and credit to AIVA is required. For any commercial or monetized use, a paid plan is necessary.
Who owns the copyright to music made with AIVA?
It depends on the plan. On Free and Standard, AIVA Technologies retains copyright of generated tracks. Only the Pro plan, as of September 2026, transfers full copyright ownership to the subscriber, with no attribution requirement and unrestricted monetization rights, according to AIVA’s pricing page.
Can I monetize music made with AIVA?
Not on the Free plan. The Standard plan allows limited monetization specifically on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and Instagram. The Pro plan removes that restriction and allows full, unrestricted monetization anywhere, since the user owns the copyright outright.
How much does AIVA Pro cost?
As of September 2026, AIVA’s Pro plan is listed at €33 per month when billed annually, according to AIVA’s pricing page — roughly $37.60 at current exchange rates, though that conversion is approximate and will shift over time. The site presents this as a discounted annual rate; the non-discounted monthly rate is not clearly published, so check the current figure at checkout, and note that AIVA bills in euros rather than US dollars.
Does AIVA generate songs with vocals?
No. AIVA is built for instrumental composition, such as cinematic scores, game music, and background tracks. Creators who need full songs with lyrics and singing should look at vocal-first tools such as Suno or Udio instead.
What file formats can I export from AIVA?
Free and Standard plans support MP3 and MIDI export. The Pro plan adds additional formats, including high-quality WAV files, which better suits professional audio post-production, according to AIVA’s pricing page.
Is AIVA good for game and film composers?
AIVA is positioned specifically for this audience, with a large library of cinematic and orchestral styles, adjustable track lengths, and an editor for reworking sections of a generated piece. Studios and organizations such as NVIDIA and TED are cited by the company as users, though AIVA does not publish independent case studies verifying these engagements.
Verdict
AIVA remains a solid pick in September 2026 for creators who specifically need original instrumental music rather than full songs with vocals: its style range, influence uploads, in-browser editing, and nearly decade-long operating history set it apart from newer, simpler royalty-free-music generators. The plan structure is the main thing to plan around, since only the Pro tier at €33/month (annual billing, roughly $37.60 at current exchange rates) grants full copyright and unrestricted monetization; the Free and Standard plans keep copyright with AIVA and restrict how the music can be used commercially.
If lyrics and vocals are what you need, Suno or Udio are a better starting point. If unlimited downloads matter more than a deep style library, Soundraw’s Creator plan is worth comparing, though it costs more per month than AIVA’s Standard tier. For pure instrumental scoring with a clear path to full ownership, AIVA’s Pro plan is the more straightforward option among the AI music tools compared here, provided the euro-denominated pricing and annual billing commitment are acceptable.
