How to Sell Custom Songs Online as a Side Business

Quick answer: To sell custom songs online, render every song on a paid plan (MusicVivo's paid plans include a commercial license; the Free plan is personal use only), collect details with a short intake form, promise a turnaround that leaves time for one revision, and price your time plus your credit cost. Deliver an MP3, synced lyrics, a cover and a vertical lyric video. On Etsy, disclose AI use in the listing; on Fiverr, customize every delivery and respect requests for non-AI work.

This guide is for people who want to turn personalised songs into a small side business: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, pets and local businesses. It covers the whole order, from the first message to the license record you keep after delivery, with the rules Etsy and Fiverr publish for AI-made work.

We make MusicVivo, a custom song gift maker, so we have an interest in this. MusicVivo facts here come from our plans and license; marketplace rules come from Etsy's and Fiverr's own pages, opened while writing. We do not quote market prices, because we could not verify them, and we do not promise income.

Get the license right before the first order

A custom song you sell is commercial use, even though your customer will play it at a private party. You are being paid for it, so it falls under client work.

On MusicVivo, Starter, Creator and Pro include a commercial license that covers client projects, and the rights continue after you cancel for songs generated while your plan was active. The Free plan is personal use only, and a Free track stays personal even after you upgrade, so regenerate anything you want to sell. Our guide on whether you can use AI music in client projects covers contracts and disclosure in more depth.

Two license rules matter for this business in particular:

• No real-artist voices. You may not prompt for, or present a song as, the voice or work of a real, identifiable artist. When a customer asks for "a song that sounds exactly like" a famous singer, offer a genre and mood instead.
• One song, one customer. Make each song to order. Selling the same track to many buyers as a downloadable asset starts to look like stand-alone stock music, which the license does not allow on any plan.

What customers actually ask for

Most orders fall into a handful of occasions. Each has its own length, tone and pitfalls.

Wedding and anniversary orders have their own craft; see how to create a custom wedding song and make a personalized song for an anniversary. Business orders are closer to jingles, and writing jingle lyrics for a small business gives word counts for 15 and 30 seconds. Memorial requests need extra care and a slower conversation; making a memorial tribute song explains how to handle them.

Collect details with an intake form

The quality of a custom song is set before you generate anything. A customer who writes "make it about my wife" gives you nothing to work with. A short form fixes that.

Our 20 questions to ask before writing a gift song is a fuller version you can adapt. Ask only for what the song needs: names and stories, not addresses or birth dates. Names deserve special attention, because a mispronounced name is the most common reason for a redo. Spell difficult names phonetically in the lyrics; can AI sing unusual names shows how.

A turnaround you can keep

On MusicVivo a two-minute song typically takes about 60 to 90 seconds to generate. That is not your turnaround. Your time goes into reading the form, drafting lyrics, comparing takes, checking names and handling one round of changes.

1. Read the form and ask one round of questions

   Fill gaps now, not after generating. A missing pronunciation costs a re-render later.

2. Draft lyrics and send them for approval

   Approved lyrics before audio protect both sides. Most changes are cheaper on paper than as new renders.

3. Generate and compare takes

   Paid plans give 2 to 4 variations per prompt. Listen for names, the chorus and the ending.

4. Deliver and allow one revision

   Send the files with a short note and a clear window for fix requests.

Promise a delivery date that leaves room for that revision. A same-day option can work as a paid extra if you have time that day; can you get a custom song the same day lays out a realistic schedule.

Price your time, not the generator

We do not quote what other sellers charge, because prices vary and change and we could not verify them. Build your price from your own numbers instead.

Your credit cost is the easy part. A three-minute song uses 180 credits per take, so if you usually generate three takes and one revision, budget for four renders, about 720 credits. Starter includes 3,600 seconds a month, Creator 10,800 and Pro 24,000; pricing has the current plan prices and one-time top-ups.

Your time is the bigger part. Time a few practice orders from first message to delivery, multiply by the hourly rate you want, and add your credit cost and marketplace fees. That is your base price. Then add extras you can name clearly: a longer song, rush delivery, a lyric video, a second language. Finally, compare what you include against similar listings, not just the price. Our guide on how much a custom song costs explains what drives cost on human and AI routes.

What to deliver

A delivery that looks finished earns better reviews than an MP3 alone. Every MusicVivo plan produces these files:

• The MP3. Paid plans deliver original quality.
• A synced lyrics file (.lrc). It lets players show each line as it is sung; what is an LRC file explains how to use it.
• A 1024 by 1024 album cover. See pairing your song gift with album cover art for ideas.
• A lyric video. Any song can become an MP4 lyric video with the cover, a waveform and synced lyrics, in vertical 9:16 for phones or landscape 16:9, at no credit cost. Videos made on the Free plan carry a small "Made with MusicVivo" credit.

Paid plans can also split a song into four AI-separated stems (vocals, drums, bass, instruments) with a browser mixer, which helps when a customer wants an instrumental version for a slideshow. Expect slight bleed between stems. Add a one-paragraph note with the title, the names in the song and a suggestion for how to share it; creative ways to present a song as a gift has ideas you can pass on.

Selling on Etsy and Fiverr: what their rules say

Both marketplaces allow AI-assisted work, with conditions. These points come from their own pages; read the current versions before you list, because both say their rules are changing.

Etsy

Etsy's Creativity Standards place "seller-prompted AI creations" in the "Designed by a seller" category, and digital downloads of a seller's original audio also fit there. The same page says sellers must disclose within their listing description if an item is created with the use of AI, and that AI prompt bundles do not qualify.

In an October 22, 2026 Seller Handbook update, Etsy said it will continue to allow AI-generated work when sellers play a clear creative role and are transparent, that sellers cannot misrepresent AI-generated work as handmade or entirely their own creation, and that bot-generated listings without human involvement are not allowed. The same article notes a California law, SB 1050, taking effect January 1, 2027, that may require a disclosure when listing images or videos prominently feature an AI-generated synthetic performer, which can include a voice. If your listing video plays an AI vocal, read that section.

Fiverr

Fiverr's guidelines say it permits AI across all service categories, but that AI-assisted work must be "meaningfully refined and customized" to the client's requirements, and that generic, unmodified or reused AI output does not meet its quality standards. Freelancers must honor a client's explicit request for non-AI work. Its AI services guidelines name services that create music based on a known singer's voice as prohibited. For how buyers compare a Fiverr musician with the DIY route, see AI song gift vs hiring a musician on Fiverr.

Revisions, refunds and disputes

Write your policy before the first order and show it in the listing. Customers accept limits they were told about; they dispute limits they discover.

On Fiverr, if a concern about AI is raised after delivery, the guidelines say Fiverr looks at the whole order: whether the client stated their AI expectations, whether the delivery was accurate and tailored, whether it shows the freelancer's own effort, and how both sides communicated. A trust breach can lead to a cancelled order and a full refund. Clear disclosure and an approved brief are your best protection on any platform.

A worked example: a pet song order

A buyer orders a song for her dog Biscuit's tenth birthday. The form says: beagle, steals socks, howls at the doorbell, sleeps on the dryer, family calls him "Mr. B". She wants it funny and warm, about 90 seconds.

Before: a first prompt that only says "funny birthday song for a dog named Biscuit" gives a generic song any dog owner could have bought.

After: the seller drafts lyrics around the four details, gets them approved, then generates.

For a business order the same method applies: facts from the client, approved words, then audio.

Keep a license record for every order

Each order should leave a record you can find in a minute: the customer, the occasion, the approved lyrics, the file names, the plan and the generation date, and the delivery date. If a customer later posts the song on a monetized channel and gets a question, or a marketplace asks about an order, you can answer with specifics. Our guide on how to document music licenses for your projects has a log template you can copy.

People also ask

Can I sell custom songs made with AI? Yes, if your license allows commercial use and the marketplace allows the listing. MusicVivo's paid plans include a commercial license for client projects; Etsy requires AI disclosure in the listing, and Fiverr requires AI work to be customized to the client.

How should I price a custom song? Add your credit cost and the hours each order really takes, then set a base price that pays for that time. Add named extras such as rush delivery, a longer song or a lyric video.

Do I have to tell buyers the song is made with AI? On Etsy, the Creativity Standards require disclosure in the listing description. On Fiverr, misrepresenting AI use is treated as a trust breach, and you must honor requests for non-AI work.

What files should I deliver with a custom song? An MP3, a synced LRC lyrics file, a square cover and, if you offer it, a vertical lyric video. Add a short note with the title and names in the song.

How do I handle revisions and refunds for custom songs? Publish your policy first: free fixes for name errors, one round of lyric changes, paid new versions for a new style. Follow each marketplace's own refund and dispute process.

Related reading

• Best Personalized Song Gift Options
• Is a Song a Better Gift Than Flowers or Jewellery?
• How to Write a Song for Someone You Love
• How to Make a Happy Birthday Song with a Name
• Is the Happy Birthday Song Copyrighted?
• Can You Use AI Music Commercially?
• Ways to Make Money with AI Music: An Honest Map
• How to Make a Lyric Video for YouTube, TikTok and Reels

Product and company names mentioned in this article are trademarks of their respective owners. MusicVivo is an independent product and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by any of them. Comparisons are based on publicly available information at the time of writing; check each provider's own site for current features, pricing and terms.