Two briefs, two tracks with nobody singing
Both of these came from the library exactly as written. One is four sentences of atmosphere, the other is thirteen words. Neither needed a second attempt.
The prompt that made it
“Dark Japanese trap instrumental. Heavy 808 bass, hard punchy drums, fast hi-hats, dark piano and ominous synths. Aggressive late-night street atmosphere, luxury night drive feeling, cool and confident mood, minimal melody with lots of space for rap vocals. Around 140 BPM. Strong bass drops and a memorable hook section. Instrumental only, no vocals. Around 3 minutes.”
Asked for “around 3 minutes” at the end of the brief — and both takes came back at 3:00 on the nose. Written in English, titled by the generator in Japanese, and the only vocal-related instruction that mattered was the Instrumental switch being on.
The prompt that made it
“A chill lo-fi hip-hop beat for studying, rainy window, soft piano, no vocals”
Thirteen words, a texture and a use (“for studying”), and out came 2:57 of usable background. The shortest brief on any of our pages, and it still beats a long one that forgets to say what the music is for.
One brief names a genre, a tempo, five instruments and a mood; the other names a feeling and a window. Both work because both say where the music is going to live.
The switch decides, the sentence describes
Writing “instrumental” or “no vocals” into the description is a request inside a creative brief, and it can come back sung. The switch is a setting: with it on, nothing is sung, whatever the description says.
| What you want | Where it belongs | What happens if you put it in the other place |
|---|---|---|
| No singing at all | The Instrumental switch, above Create | Written only in the description, it is read as a wish, and a voice can still turn up |
| A particular instrument out front | The description | There is no menu for it; the switch cannot ask for a cello |
| A tempo | The description (“around 90 BPM”, “slow”) or the Tempo menu | Left out entirely, the pace is the generator's choice |
| A set length | Say it in words (“around 3 minutes”); paid Custom mode has an exact length control | Nothing asks for it, and the track lands wherever the arrangement ends |
This is the whole trick of this page. Everything else — genre, era, instruments, mood, the space you want left for a voice-over — is a description, and the description is where you should spend your effort.
How long a wordless track actually comes out
Measured from the audio files of tracks made with the Instrumental switch on, not from anything the generator reports:
| Length | Share of wordless tracks |
|---|---|
| Under a minute | none |
| 1 to 2 minutes | 13% |
| 2 to 3 minutes | 36% |
| 3 to 4 minutes | 46% |
| 4 to 5 minutes | 4% |
| Over 5 minutes | 1% |
Median 3:00; eight in ten land between 1:53 and 3:42. If you need a specific length, write it into the brief the way the first example does — the generator reads it, and both takes above came back at exactly three minutes. For a twenty-minute study session, make three tracks and let them play in a row rather than asking for one twenty-minute piece.
What to write when there are no words to write
A sung song can hide a vague brief behind its lyric. An instrumental cannot: whatever you leave out, the generator decides. Five things are worth a few words each.
- The instruments. Two or three, named: “felt piano and brushed drums”, “808s, hi-hats and a dark piano”. This is the single biggest lever you have.
- The pace. “Slow”, “a steady walking pace”, “around 140 BPM”. About one instrumental description in three says anything about speed; the other two leave the pace to the generator, which then picks one for you.
- The space. “Leaves room for a voice-over”, “nothing loud in the first fifteen seconds”, “lots of space for rap vocals”. Music that has a job needs to be told about the job.
- The arc. “Stays flat, no big changes” for something that plays under talking; “builds to a drop at the halfway point” for something people actually listen to.
- The room. A café, a night drive, a rainy window, a gym at six in the morning. Places carry tempo and instrumentation with them without you naming either.
Put together: “a dark, unhurried instrumental for a night-drive video, 808 bass, sparse piano, hi-hats, around 140 BPM, no big melody so a voice can sit on top, about three minutes” is a brief with all five in it — and it is close to what made the first example above.
Putting it under something
Listening and sharing are free on every plan, with no watermark. Music that goes into something earning money — a client's video, a monetised channel, a game, an advert — needs the commercial licence that comes with Pro and Ultra; it covers every track in your library, with a certificate and a licence code, including the ones made before you upgraded. Pro and Ultra also give lossless WAV, which survives an edit better than MP3 when the music is going to be ducked under a voice.
If a platform files an automatic claim against your upload anyway, the Content ID guide walks through disputing it and what to attach.
Before you press Generate
- The Instrumental switch is on — not just the words “no vocals” in the description.
- Two or three instruments are named.
- There is a pace word or a BPM number.
- The brief says where the music will sit: under a voice, behind a stream, in a room.
- If the length matters, it is written in the brief in plain words.
Sources
Written and fact-checked by the Tunely team · Updated