Everything you need to know about Songbrain, the Virality Score, playlist placement and more.
Songbrain is an AI-powered music analysis platform. Upload any song and get a full report in under 60 seconds — including a Virality Score, Best Moments timestamps, Song DNA (tempo, key, energy, mood), lyrics transcription, genre detection and more.
Every new account starts with 500 free credits — enough for 25 full analyses. During the launch window every signup is auto-upgraded to OG Early Access (100 cr/month refill forever, permanent OG badge). No credit card required.
MP3, WAV and FLAC. Maximum file size is 50MB. Most songs are well under this limit.
Under 60 seconds. Multiple specialized AI models analyze your track in parallel. You can watch the progress in real-time.
Yes, a free account is needed to upload and analyze songs. Sign up takes 10 seconds — just an email address.
The Virality Score is a number from 0 to 100 that predicts how shareable your track is across TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Spotify. It's calculated by combining outputs from 10 specialized AI models.
The score combines multiple signals: Best Moments hook quality, production characteristics, energy profile, lyrics emotional impact, genre trend alignment and more. It's not just one metric — it's the fusion of 10 independent AI evaluations.
Scores vary by genre, but generally: 0–40 = needs work, 40–70 = solid potential, 70–90 = strong viral candidate, 90+ = exceptional. Scores above 70 have strong chances for Viral Radar playlist consideration.
Yes. The report shows exactly which elements contribute to your score. Use the Best Moments data to understand what hooks work, check your production metrics against chart standards, and iterate on your next version.
Best Moments are the exact 3–15 second sections of your song that are most likely to make someone stop scrolling and engage. You get precise timestamps (e.g. 0:47–0:58) with a confidence score for each moment.
Use them to create TikTok clips, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. Start your video at the exact timestamp where the hook hits. These are the moments that are statistically most likely to trigger shares and saves.
After your song is analyzed, you can paste the link to your own TikTok, Instagram Reel or YouTube Short — the one you posted with this song. Songbrain analyzes the visuals, the engagement curve (views, likes/views, comments, shares) and the comments themselves, then cross-references everything with your song's hook map and tells you exactly what to change.
Concrete, second-precise, song-aware recommendations. Examples: "Your strongest hook lands at 1:46 (recurring chorus, score 0.87) — not 0:42. Recut the clip." / "Your caption misses the actual hook line — use 'don't be afraid of the dark', it's your repeating lyric." / "Visual energy 0.4 vs song energy 0.9 — mismatch. Faster cuts on the drop." / "Add #deathcore · #motivational — trend match in your subgenre."
For 14 days. We snapshot views, likes, comments and shares every 8 hours, then automatically classify the outcome (viral, strong, normal, slow). The decaying poll schedule means we catch the spike if it happens, without burning credits on stable posts.
TikTok and Instagram Reels are fully supported. YouTube Shorts support is rolling out. The Reel link must be public — we can't analyze private posts.
TikTok and Instagram analytics tell you what happened. They don't tell you why, and they don't know anything about your song. Songbrain knows your song's hook structure, its emotional arc, its lyric repetitions and its sound DNA — so when we see the Reel underperform, we can point at the exact cause and the exact fix.
Every week Songbrain scrapes the top viral TikToks and Reels per subgenre — and indexes the exact second of the song that gets clipped, the lyric snippets in the caption, the hashtags, the engagement metrics and the visual style. The result: a live map of what's actually breaking in each subgenre right now.
Charts show what already won. The Trend Database shows the moment a clip is hitting — sec-precise on the audio. So when you upload your song, we can match your hook map against the trend window your subgenre is in right now, and tell you whether your track is on-time, early or late.
All 37 Viral Radar subgenres — drift phonk, liquid DnB, deathcore, 4th-gen K-pop, hyperpop, indie shoegaze, modern pop, trap, drill, afrobeats, reggaeton and more. The scrape is refreshed every Sunday.
The trend signals are folded into your song's analysis ("on-trend" / "trend match" / "caption fits subgenre window"). API customers can request structured access to the underlying trend records — see the API page.
Viral Radar is Songbrain's network of 37 genre-specific Spotify playlists. Tracks with high Virality Scores are automatically reviewed and can be featured — completely free.
Just upload and analyze your song. If your Virality Score is high enough within your genre, your track enters the consideration pool automatically. There is no separate submission process or fee.
There is no catch. Playlist placement is 100% free and based entirely on music quality (your Virality Score). We don't charge for placement, we don't use bots, and we don't violate Spotify's Terms of Service.
Paid playlist services charge $50–$2,000+ and often use fake listeners or bot farms that risk getting your Spotify account flagged. Viral Radar is organic — real playlists, real listeners, zero risk. The only thing that matters is your music.
37 genres including Metalcore, Techno, House, Drum & Bass, Phonk, Trap, Drill, Modern Pop, K-Pop, J-Pop, Afrobeats, Reggaeton, Indie Rock, Shoegaze, Classical, Jazz and many more. See the full list on our Viral Radar page.
Playlists sync regularly. Qualifying songs can appear within hours of analysis. There is no manual review queue — placement is fully automated based on your score.
Absolutely not. You retain 100% ownership of your music and all royalties. Songbrain only analyzes your audio — we never claim rights, distribute, or monetize your tracks.
Audio files are stored temporarily for analysis and automatically deleted after processing. We do not keep permanent copies of your music.
Only you. Your results are private by default. You can choose to opt-in to the leaderboard and Viral Radar playlists, but this is always your choice.
Songbrain is the most comprehensive music analysis API available. It combines virality prediction, best moment detection with timestamps, full Song DNA (tempo, key, energy, mood, danceability), lyrics transcription with emotional scoring, genre/subgenre classification, instrument detection and production quality metrics — all in a single API call under 60 seconds. Unlike discontinued services like AcousticBrainz or the deprecated Spotify Audio Features API, Songbrain is actively maintained and offers features no other single API provides.
Yes, Songbrain offers a REST API for developers and businesses. It provides all the same analysis features — Virality Score, Best Moments, Song DNA, lyrics and more — via a simple JSON API. One endpoint, one call, complete analysis.
AI video generators, TikTok/Reels automation tools, playlist curation platforms, music distributors, labels, artist analytics dashboards, recommendation engines and AI music generators. Anyone building music-powered products who needs genre detection, key detection, tempo/BPM, mood analysis, lyrics or virality prediction.
AcousticBrainz was discontinued in 2022. Spotify Audio Features API was deprecated in November 2024. ACRCloud focuses on audio fingerprinting, not song analysis. Essentia is an open-source library that requires self-hosting and ML expertise. Songbrain is the only hosted music analysis API that combines virality prediction, timestamp-level moment detection, lyrics, genre, instruments and production quality in one call.
Request access on our API page. We're currently onboarding selected developers and companies during Early Access.
Reach out at hello@songbrain.ai