Introduction
An independent musician pays for everything. Mastering, practice tools and demo vocals all come out of the same budget that covers strings and studio time. AI tools now handle a good share of that work for less than the cost of one hired master. They come with limits, and the limits sit in licensing terms, download caps and minute quotas more than in sound quality.
This roundup covers seven tools that do jobs an indie artist actually has: finishing a track, pulling stems apart, building vocal ideas and sketching songs. scored.tools has not published rated reviews of these products yet, so none of them carry a score here and the entries are not ranked. Prices come from vendor pricing pages where those pages were readable, and from named third-party sources where they were not. Check the vendor page before you subscribe, because several of these companies changed their tiers during 2026.
One tool is missing on purpose. Udio still sells Standard and Pro plans, but per its help centre, downloading audio, video and stems has been disabled since its October 2025 licensing settlement with Universal Music Group. A generator you cannot export from is no use to someone releasing music, so it gets no entry.
The tools
Izotope Ozone
Score: Not yet scored
Ozone is a plugin mastering suite that runs inside your DAW, which is the main reason to choose it over an upload-and-download service. Its Master Assistant listens to your mix and proposes a starting chain of EQ, dynamics, imaging and limiting, and every module stays editable afterwards. You get a starting point you can override, so a mastering decision never gets locked in a black box. iZotope groups the tiers by tool count. Elements is the core set with the AI assistant, Standard has 14 mastering tools per iZotope, and Advanced has 20. The catch is the learning curve. Ozone pays off if you are willing to learn what each module does. If you want a finished file with no decisions, an online service is faster.
Best for: Artists who mix their own records and want to master in the same session with full control.
Pricing: iZotope lists Ozone 12 at $55 (Elements), $219 (Standard) and $499 (Advanced) as one-time purchases. Retailers such as Plugin Boutique run frequent discounts, and upgrade pricing is available from earlier versions.
Landr
Score: Not yet scored
LANDR started as online AI mastering and now bundles mastering, distribution, sample libraries, plugins and collaboration tools under LANDR Studio. You upload a mix, pick a style and intensity, preview, and download. For an artist releasing singles regularly, the appeal is having mastering and distribution in one account. LANDR's Fair Trade AI program, per its pricing page, offers a $5 advance per eligible track for artists who opt in, which is worth reading the terms on before you tick the box. Tier pricing is confusing. LANDR's own pages quote different starting prices depending on where you look, and the headline figures are annual-billing rates. Budget for monthly billing costing more.
Best for: Artists releasing frequently who want mastering and distribution from one vendor.
Pricing: LANDR's homepage lists Studio from $8.25/month billed annually (Essentials). A LANDR blog post lists Standard at $11.99/month and Pro at $16/month, both billed annually. A free account is available.
Moises
Score: Not yet scored
Moises is a stem separation and practice app for web, desktop and mobile. Per its site it separates tracks into 27 stem types, including vocals, guitar, bass, drums, piano, keys, winds and strings. On top of separation it offers chord detection, tempo and pitch change and a metronome, which makes it a practice tool as much as a production one. A session player learning a set list, or a songwriter pulling a guitar part out of a reference track, gets the most from it. The free tier caps monthly uploads. Pricing is the weak spot for research purposes: the public pricing page sends you to a login wall, and third-party listings disagree.
Best for: Working musicians who learn, transcribe and rehearse against recorded tracks.
Pricing: Free tier with limited monthly uploads. Moises puts its current price table behind a login. Several 2026 reviews list Premium at about $3.99/month and Pro at $9.99/month on the web, while an App Store price tracker logged higher in-app prices in March 2026. Check the price inside your account.
LALAL.AI
Score: Not yet scored
LALAL.AI is a dedicated stem splitter with a clear pricing page, which counts for a lot in this category. It separates vocals, instruments and individual parts, and offers voice cleanup and voice-changer packs. Paid plans give unlimited processing on a relaxed queue plus a monthly allowance of fast-queue minutes, so you can split as much as you like if you can wait. The Pro tier adds a VST plugin and API access, per the pricing page, which matters if you want splitting inside your DAW. Unused fast-queue minutes do not roll over, and subscriptions are non-refundable after purchase.
Best for: Producers and remixers who split a lot of tracks and want predictable costs.
Pricing: Free Starter tier with 10 minutes on the relaxed queue. Lite is $7.50/month ($90/year) with 90 fast minutes. Pro is $15/month ($180/year) with 250 fast minutes, the VST plugin and API access. One-time top-ups run from $50 for 750 minutes to $300 for 5,000.
Kits AI
Score: Not yet scored
Kits.ai converts a vocal performance into another voice, either from its library of licensed artist voices or from a custom model trained on your own recordings. For an indie songwriter, two uses stand out. You can demo a song in a voice closer to the intended singer, and you can make harmony or backing stacks in your own voice without booking more studio time. The free tier lets you try conversions but includes no download minutes, so it works only as a preview. Kits says unlimited conversions and downloads on paid plans are subject to fair use, and it notes that existing subscribers keep the price they signed up at.
Best for: Songwriters building demos and backing vocals, and artists who want a model of their own voice.
Pricing: Free (15 conversion minutes, no downloads). Starter is $10/month with 15 download minutes and 2 voice slots. Producer is $30/month with 60 download minutes and unlimited voice slots. Professional is $60/month with unlimited downloads under fair use. Kits advertises up to 47% off on annual billing.
Suno
Score: Not yet scored
Suno generates full songs, vocals included, from a text prompt or your own lyrics, and its Premier plan includes Suno Studio for editing and arranging generated material. For an artist with their own catalogue, the realistic uses are sketching arrangements, testing a lyric in different genres and producing reference tracks for collaborators. The licensing terms deserve close reading. Per Suno's pricing FAQ, Free plans carry no commercial rights, and paid plans grant commercial rights for songs made while you are subscribed. Downloads are capped per month even on paid tiers. If you release anything built on Suno output, also check your distributor's AI-content policy, since distributors set their own rules.
Best for: Songwriters who want fast arrangement sketches and genre tests around their own lyrics.
Pricing: Free gives 50 credits a day, no downloads and no commercial rights. Pro is $8/month billed annually (about $10 month to month) with 2,500 credits and 20 song downloads a month. Premier is $24/month billed annually (about $30 month to month) with 10,000 credits, 60 downloads and Suno Studio. Subscription credits do not roll over.
Bandlab
Score: Not yet scored
BandLab is a free browser and mobile DAW with AI features attached: SongStarter for idea generation, a stem Splitter and one-click Mastering. For an artist on no budget, it covers sketching, basic separation and a quick master without a credit card. The mastering is preset-based, and a September 2026 plans guide places reference mastering and mastering EQ in BandLab's top paid tier, so the free version suits demos more than final releases. BandLab has not disclosed what SongStarter was trained on, according to a 2024 analysis, which is worth knowing before you build a release on its output.
Best for: Artists starting with no budget who need a free DAW plus basic AI mastering and splitting.
Pricing: Core app and the basic AI tools are free. BandLab sells paid membership tiers. Third-party sources disagree on current prices, so check in the app.
Comparison table
| Tool | Main job | Free tier | Paid from | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Izotope Ozone | In-DAW mastering | No | $55 one-time (Elements) | Not yet scored |
| Landr | Online mastering and distribution | Free account | $8.25/month, billed annually | Not yet scored |
| Moises | Stems and practice tools | Yes, limited uploads | Price shown after login | Not yet scored |
| LALAL.AI | Stem splitting | Yes, 10 minutes | $7.50/month, billed annually | Not yet scored |
| Kits AI | Voice conversion and voice models | Yes, no downloads | $10/month | Not yet scored |
| Suno | Song generation | Yes, no commercial rights | $8/month, billed annually | Not yet scored |
| Bandlab | Free DAW with AI tools | Yes | Check in app | Not yet scored |
Final picks
For mastering, pick by how much control you want. Izotope Ozone Elements at $55 is a one-time cost and keeps every decision editable in your DAW. Landr makes more sense if you also want distribution in the same account and are happy with a subscription.
For stems, LALAL.AI has the clearest pricing and an unlimited relaxed queue on paid plans. Moises is the better buy if you mainly practise and transcribe, since chord detection and tempo control come with it.
For vocals, Kits AI Starter at $10 a month is enough to demo with a model of your own voice. Expect to move to Producer if you download stacks regularly, because 15 download minutes runs out fast.
Suno is useful for sketches, provided you read the commercial-rights terms and your distributor's AI policy before releasing anything built on it. If your budget is zero, start with Bandlab and pay for a specialist tool once you know which job takes most of your time.
