AI Artwork Generators For Musicians (2024)

The AI art generators are one of the latest trends in technological breakthroughs and could be described as creative AI tools that produce unique designs based on written, descriptive text. In terms of music, they can be great AI album cover generators or create other artwork relevant to musicians. Generally speaking, as a musician, all you have to do is write a text describing what the artwork is supposed to look like and the AI will do the work for you.

This way, you can end up creating genuinely exceptional, yet realistic designs that will make your art of work stand out among the rest. By utilizing a mix of features, such as zooming in, zooming out, adding components, or cutting them out, you are likely to discover some fascinating patterns that will bring your artwork to another level.

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Dall-E 2 is a new AI system by OpenAI, able to create realistic yet original pictures from a written description in a natural language (= any language that has evolved naturally in humans by use and repetition). The system can use various attributes, art tools, and styles to create exactly what you’re asking for.

Additionally, it has the ability to expand the image beyond the size of the original picture and make amends by retouching the existing image by leaving out or adding elements. Moreover, the system does it all while taking aspects such as shadows, textures, or reflection into consideration.

The software’s precursor, Dall-E was introduced by the OpenAI company in 2021 with the ability to simply create images from text. Dall-2 brings the power of technology to another level by tackling high resolution and greater comprehension and possessing new capabilities. Based on deep learning, the system learns not only to distinguish between individual objects but also to understand the relationship between them. This way, the system can produce images that in reality make sense and still support and even amplify one’s creativity.

Naturally, Dall-E 2 has its limitations, too. For example, it may learn the wrong name for the subject or may lack a particular word in its vocabulary, suggesting a subject that the system thinks best fits the described word. However, even that may come as a benefit eventually leading to unexpected artistic results.

Original version (on the left) vs. Dall-E 2 version

Difference between images generated by Dall-E (on the left) and Dall-E 2

If Dall-E 2 sounds like something you’d love to try, there has never been a better time to do so! Just a few days ago, the company OpenAI revealed that it has removed the waitlist and the AI text-to-image generator is now available to the general public. All you have to do is to sign up and you can start creating your artwork! The whole system is based on the concept of credits which are needed to generate art on the platform.

During their first month of use, every Dall-E user will receive 50 free credits followed by 15 free credits every subsequent month. Additional credits will have to be purchased - you can currently buy 115 credits for $15.

Dall-E art generator

Just like Dall-E 2, Midjourney, run by the instant messaging social platform Discord, also uses the technology of artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate art based on the text description. The main difference is that you won’t reach such astounding results as you would with Dall-E.

The Beta version of Midjourney has been and still is available to the public. All you need is to create your free Discord account - that’s where you’ll be giving your text descriptions to the Midjourney bot. After signing up, you can use Discord in a web browser or download its official app, available for both android and IOS systems.

The whole interaction with the system then takes place in a chat box where you write down your text prompt and submit it. You can then watch the system creating 4 different images based on your description in a new message.

Afterward, you can pick the ones you like and follow up with some additional options. You can either choose to upscale the image(s) you’ve selected or ask for a different version of it. If you feel like what the system has created, you can simply download the image. You can also see what other people are making, which can often inspire creativity.

Midjourney chat box where artwork is generated by AI

Jasper Art was created as an extension of the Jasper AI writing assistant and should, too, just like Dell-E 2, create exceptional images. Unlike the previous generators, however, Jasper Art takes the prompt submission much more seriously. You can describe the picture that you have in mind in as much detail as you'd like, including identifying the mood of the image; its artistic style, the type of medium as well as some keywords that can better describe the desired picture.

Jasper will read your text prompt and as a result, you’ll get (very quickly) four copyright-free images which you can save, share or use however you’d like. All images generated by Jasper Art can be used in blogs, on websites, social media platforms, as NFTs, or printed on T-shirts or coffee mugs. You can also provide the system with feedback on its image output. This way, Jasper can continuously improve the quality of the images it generates.

On the other hand, the system offers a very limited set of features. Although you can provide some detailed information about the image you’d like to have created, not much more can be done otherwise.

You can’t, for example, upload an already existing image for the software to use or further evolve an existing output that the AI has previously created. Nevertheless, we have to bear in mind that the Beta version Jasper Art was released just a few months ago so there’ll definitely be some improvements happening.

If the current version of the generator sounds like something you’d love to try, you can do so for $20/month. Unfortunately, unlike some other generators, Jasper Art doesn’t offer a free trial or a limited amount of free prompts.

The company Stability AI has been known for building open AI tools, including the Dream Studio (also known as Stable Difusion), another open-source image generator. Although the program is still in pretty early stages of development, already now, Dream Studio is creating astonishing images.

Moreover, the interface and prompt submission process are straightforward and user-friendly, enabling users to have an image created with just a few clicks. Just like in the case of the previous generators, your artwork will be mostly derived from a written description.

In addition to that, you can take advantage of other extra features, including specifying the width and height of the picture, as well as the artistic style of the image. You can also choose how many pictures you’d like to generate from one prompt or upload a picture yourself that can then be edited in the Dream Studio.

What’s very different from other generators is the very limited set of restrictions for its users. This means that Dream Studio by Stability AI can be used to create designs that other generators purposefully block, such as p*rnography, violent content, propaganda, etc. As the company says, it very much believes in individual responsibility and agency.

Dream Studio art generator

Similarly to Dall-E 2, Stable Diffusion is also based on the concept of credits. All new users will receive a one-time package of 200 free credits. Generally speaking, one credit should equal one image.

However, how many credits a picture costs very much depends on the image resolution and the step count you choose. The ‘price’ for one picture can therefore vary from 0.2 credits to 28.2 credits.

After you run out of your free credits, you can acquire one of the paid membership packages through which you can then get more credits. You can get a minimum of 1000 credits for $10 and a maximum of 100,000 for $1.000.

PhotoSonic, powered by an AI writer-editor, Writesonic, may seem simpler than other generators. All you need is a written description (as detailed as you’d wish) and with a click of a button, you have your image generated.

Although you can create any type of image you’d like, from illustrations to album covers or artistic images, the limited option of features to use to make a prompt may undoubtedly be a disadvantage. It’s also said that sometimes the generator creates images that are slightly blurry, distorted, or not really related to the written description.

To start using PhotoSonic, every user will get 15 free credits. Afterward, you can choose between two pricing plans: $10/month for 100 credits, or $25/month for unlimited credits.

PhotoSonic art generator

NightCafe, also powered by Discord, gives you the ability to utilize the power of AI to create images and designs in a wide range of styles and settings, from surreal to horror to 3D style. All you pretty much need is a written text prompt and a selected style of your choice. You can also upload images of your own and use the AI generator to edit the picture.

Once again, the program is credit-based with each new user getting 4 free credits right after signing in. Afterward, you can earn some more free credits by, for example, completing your profile, liking other people’s creations, getting a certain amount of followers, etc.

If you’d like to purchase credits, you can choose from a variety of subscription packages starting at $9.99/month for 100 credits. You can also choose to purely purchase the credits only. You can get a minimum of 40 credits for $7.99.

NightCafe art generator

Besides art generators, AI technology can also be used as tools in other fields related to music and the industry. For example, Magenta Studio is a set of sound-generating plugins that use machine learning techniques. These tools can either be used as standalone applications or as plugins for the digital audio workstation, Ableton Live. By applying these AI-driven open-source tools to your MIDI, you can generate new melodies and modify rhythms.

A.I. Duet, established by Yotam Mann with the help of Magenta and Google’s Creative Lab, is a bit simpler program that enables you, as a musician, to play a duet with a computer.

All you have to do is to use a keyboard on your computer (or use the built-in computer key or plug in a MIDI keyboard) and start playing. Regardless of your piano skills, the computer will simply reply to your melody. This can act as a great piano exercise or perhaps be a vehicle for creativity and inspiration.

A.I. Duet

Nsynth Sound Maker

Deepart.io is a website on which you can upload a picture of your choice and create another version of it by using an AI-driven algorithm. The algorithm will then redraw the original image by applying artistic elements of another image or a different style. You can also create an AI portrait of yourself or someone else by using the generator.

GoArt is another AI-driven image generator that can create photo effects that can make your image look like some famous portrait paintings. All you have to do is upload a picture of yours and choose the particular portrait-looking style. The program itself may not be that unique but still can create some dope-looking images.

GoArt

The AI generators of paintings may be certainly useful for those musicians that also enjoy activities such as drawing, sketching, or painting and like to incorporate such works of art into their creative process. Particularly simple yet cool, AutoDraw is an AI drawing tool that will turn your sketch into clip art using a variety of features. You can either use what the system suggests based on your sketch or combine the features with your own artistic skills.

A bit similar to that is the program called Cartoonify which can turn your uploaded photo into a computer-generated cartoon drawing. AI Painter by Instapainting, on the other hand, takes your photo and turns it into an AI photo or an abstract piece of art.

AutoDraw

Although we’ve chosen some of the best and most interesting AI art generators that we think there are on the market, the number of them existing and being in development is much higher. Therefore, there's no doubt that such a trend will grow in the future.

However, one problem that's specific to AI art generators is the issue of copywriting and copyright laws. Although you are naturally encouraged by the companies behind the AI art generators to use the artwork for your projects, the legal and ownership aspects of it have not been seriously tackled yet.

It actually happened just a few months ago that AI images were rejected by the US Copyright Office due to the lack of human authorship, which is a prerequisite to copyright protection. In such a case, the artwork produced by an AI generator becomes a public domain meaning that anyone can use it for commercial use.

The lack of copyright ownership further suggests that it's unknown who will carry the responsibility should the artwork infringe on someone else's copyright or violate laws with obscene and forbidden content. It's therefore crucial to be informed about the unclear legal status of AI-generated content before getting involved in it.

For those who are further interested in other ways of creating artwork for their album, EP, or single covers, we'd recommend reading our article about graphic design tips for musicians or the guide about how to make an album cover.