What a described track does here
Lofi requests were too few — and from too few people — to measure on their own between 4 September and 4 October, so the table shows what the whole site does. The row that matters most for lofi is the last one: most descriptions never say how fast, and in lofi the speed of the beat is the genre.
| What we measured | Everything made on Tunely |
|---|---|
| Share that asks for lofi | about 1 in 100 |
| Length of a described song | half between 2:38 and 3:49 |
| Made with the Instrumental switch on | 6% |
| Under one minute | 4%, about half of them short pasted lyrics |
| Descriptions that say how fast (a BPM, or a word like slow or upbeat) | about 1 in 7 |
The picture words give the engine a scene to paint. The gap is the beat. A brief that never says how fast or how heavy it should be leaves the one decision that defines lofi to the engine, and a beat you did not choose is usually a beat that is a little too awake.
The four words that make it lofi
A lofi track is a texture over a slow beat. The briefs that come back sounding like the real thing say four kinds of things, and the order does not matter.
- Pace. “slow”, “sleepy”, “around 70 BPM”, “a lazy head-nod beat”. Only about one description in seven on Tunely says this, and in lofi it is the word that matters most.
- Texture. “dusty piano chords”, “soft vinyl crackle”, “tape hiss”, “a muffled Rhodes”. This is what people mean by lofi and the engine takes it literally.
- Room. “rain against the window”, “a quiet café at closing time”, “a train at night”. One place, not three.
- Purpose. “for late-night studying”, “to fall asleep to”, “for a rainy Sunday”. It nudges the arrangement toward staying out of the way.
Put together: “a slow lofi beat around 70 BPM, dusty piano chords over soft vinyl crackle, rain against the window, for late-night studying, no vocals” is a brief that returns what most people have in their head when they type lofi. Typed as it is, that sentence is a good first brief.
With a beat, or without one
Lofi has a beat; ambient does not. People sometimes type lofi when what they want is a still bed of sound with no drums at all, and then wonder why the drums keep coming. This is what a no-beat brief returns, so you can hear the difference before you decide.
The prompt that made it
“A serene ambient meditation soundscape — evolving warm pads, soft textures, distant piano, and a weightless floating calm”
A meditation brief with no beat named and no beat delivered: pads, textures and a distant piano for four and a half minutes. If this is what you wanted, describe it this way and skip the word lofi.
If you want vocals on a lofi track, ask for “a soft, breathy female vocal with few words and a hummed chorus”; a full lyric with verses turns the track into a pop song with a lofi filter, which is a different thing.
Making it long enough to study to
A described song here lands between 2:38 and 3:49 half the time, while pasted lyrics last about as long as they take to sing — eight lines is about a minute. A study session needs more than one track, so plan a playlist. Four ways to get more music, from free to paid.
- Describe it rather than pasting lyrics: pasted lyrics decide the length, and eight lines sing in about a minute.
- Make two or three tracks from slightly different briefs and put them in a playlist; every generation returns two takes, so three generations give you six tracks.
- On Pro and Ultra, set the length yourself: Custom mode, Pro fine-tuning, Length up to 5:00.
- Extend a track you like: Extend continues it from where it ends, for one credit on Pro and Ultra.
Using it in a study stream or a video
Listening, looping and sharing the link are free and carry no watermark. Keeping the MP3 is $1.99 per track on the free plan and included on Pro and Ultra. If the track goes under a monetised stream or a video, that is commercial use: on Pro and Ultra every track in your library comes with a commercial-use licence and a certificate, including tracks you made before upgrading. Copyright claims on YouTube work differently from licences; this guide explains what happens and what to keep.
Before you press Create
- The brief has a pace word: slow, sleepy, or a BPM around 60 to 80.
- It names one texture (dusty piano, vinyl crackle, tape hiss) and one room (rain, a café, a night train).
- Instrumental switch on, unless you want a few hummed lines.
- It is a description, not pasted lyrics, so the track lands near three minutes or more.
- You are making two or three tracks if you need more than five minutes.
Sources
Written and fact-checked by the Tunely team · Updated