MusicGen
A tool that makes music from a text description. The free weights are for non-commercial use. It's for people making games or art. It's free.
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No affiliate link on file. Outbound goes to huggingface.co. Identity checked October 21, 2026. Score null is from the run on October 21, 2026.
Grade
We tried it ourselves. Grade C.
- Grade
- C · We tried it
- Score
- 6/10
- Price
- Free
Best for
Jobs people use this for.
Test details
Text-to-music model from Meta's AudioCraft. Code is MIT. Weights are CC-BY-NC (non-commercial).
Hands-on review · 2026-10-21
TestedC6/10- CPU-only box: 8 cores, 15 GB RAM, no GPU.
- No listening test
- MusicGen audio not yet listened to.
- MusicGen weights are CC-BY-NC (non-commercial).
MusicGen small generated 8-second clips for both prompts on CPU, at about three times slower than real time. The spectrograms show the chiptune and ambient clips really differ the way the prompts asked. We couldn't listen, so musical quality is unknown. Check the non-commercial licence before using it in a shipped game.
Works locally and follows prompt character. Slow on CPU, unheard.
- Coverage
- Two 8-second game-music prompts. Audio not listened to.
- What we tested
- Two 8-second game-music prompts: 8-bit chiptune and a calm ambient menu theme.
Method
transformers MusicgenForConditionalGeneration facebook/musicgen-small, torch CPU, seed 0, 400 tokens. Spectrograms in musicgen/both-spec.png.
Prompts
- 8-bit chiptune
- a calm ambient menu theme
Measured
- chiptune25.0 s for 7.94 s audio (3.15x slower than real time), RMS 0.152
- ambient23.8 s for 7.94 s (2.99x), RMS 0.083
- spectrogram_noteChiptune is broadband and rhythmic with short gaps; ambient is soft and low-frequency, consistent with the prompts
Pros
- Fully local and free
- Outputs differ clearly in character between prompts
Cons
- About 3x slower than real time on CPU
- Model licence is CC-BY-NC (non-commercial), not re-verified
- No listening test; quality is unjudged by ear
- Status
- Not run
- Date
- October 21, 2026
- Time to first output
- —
- Cost
- —
- Result
- —
- Evidence
- Log linked below
Queued task. Produce a small asset set from a fixed brief, or a playable slice, and note the export format.
FAQ
What is the agent-tested verdict for MusicGen?
A tool that makes music from a text description. The free weights are for non-commercial use. It's for people making games or art. It's free. We tried it ourselves. Grade C.
How much does MusicGen cost?
Free. Free (non-commercial weights)
Do sponsors outrank this tool?
No. A sponsored slot is labeled and sold separately from tiers. It cannot move this listing.