riffle takes the opposite approach. It’s a music studio in your browser where you can make, edit, arrange, and collaborate on music yourself, with AI there to help when you need it.
Udio is built around generating music. riffle is built around making it.
at a glance
| riffle | Udio | |
|---|---|---|
| How you make music | Build, edit, arrange and experiment on a canvas | Generate songs from prompts |
| AI | Helps you make and edit your music | Generates songs from text and audio inputs |
| Editing | Edit and arrange your project directly | Generation-first workflow with editing tools |
| Collaboration | Real-time collaboration | Sharing and remixing within Udio |
| Export | Export full mixes and stems | Downloads currently unavailable |
| Workflow | Non-linear, iterative, hands-on | Prompt → generate → evaluate → regenerate |
| Price | Free during beta | Free tier + paid plans |
| Best for | Actually making a track | Generating song ideas from prompts |
which one's right for you?
Choose Udio if you want:
- A machine-made song that you can't even download
- To know what bad music sounds like
- To support a company that profited off music it never licensed
Choose riffle if you want:
- To actually make the song yourself, with AI filling gaps, not composing it
- To export what you make, anytime, with no restrictions
- Real-time collaboration with someone else on the same track
Udio: closer look
Udio is fundamentally a song generator. You tell it what you want - genre, mood, instrumentation, vocalist, structure, whatever collection of adjectives you’ve decided will finally make the machine understand your vision - and it generates a track.
Then you listen. If it’s not right, you try again.
Udio has a free tier with 10 daily credits and 100 monthly credits. Free accounts are currently limited to three two-minute songs per day. Paid plans increase the available credits, with Standard at $10/month and Pro at $30/month on Udio’s listed monthly pricing.
riffle: an infinite musical canvas
riffle is less like a traditional DAW and more like a musical workspace you can mess around in.
Everything happens on a canvas instead of a timeline. You can record audio, play a virtual instrument, drag in a sample, remix a template, or ask Sous Chef (the resident AI assistant) for a starting point. The canvas also holds lyrics, images, links, and notes, so references and ideas can sit right next to the music.
Collaboration is built in too. Multiple people can work on the same board at the same time, which makes it easy to actually make something together rather than sending project files back and forth. There’s also a comment-only option for people who just want to listen and leave notes.
The AI assistant ‘Sous Chef’ is not really trying to make an entire song for you. Instead, it helps with the smaller parts of making one. It can generate short samples and loops, split tracks into stems, detect the tempo and key of an audio file, edit clips, and help with mixing and mastering.
Once a track is ready, it can become a Drop - basically a shareable link to the music. Drops can be private, public, or sent directly to someone, and anyone with the link can listen without an account.
The music can also leave riffle. Individual stems and full mixes can be exported as WAV files, or the project can be exported as an OpenDAW file for further work elsewhere.
riffle is currently in beta and free for early users. see what’s been shipped lately.
faq
Is riffle a DAW?
riffle is a music-making tool, but it doesn't work like a traditional DAW. Instead of starting with a linear timeline and building from left to right, you get an infinite canvas where you can collect ideas, experiment, arrange them, and collaborate. There's also a timeline mode for when you're actually ready to lock in.
Can I collaborate with other people in riffle?
Yes. Multiple people can work on the same board in real time, or you can invite someone just to listen and leave comments.
Does riffle use AI to make songs?
Sous Chef can generate samples and loops, but the idea is to give you material to work with rather than hand you a finished song. It can also edit your board, manipulate audio, mix and master, and give you feedback on what you've made.
Is riffle free?
riffle is currently in beta and free for early users.
Can you download songs from Udio?
Udio currently does not allow downloads of generated audio, video, or stems following its 2025 licensing transition.
riffle is free while we're in beta.
open a board and make something in the next few minutes.
free · no download · no card required