Songscription
Audio → sheet music · Free tier
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Transcribe →Try →
Audio · YouTube · TikTok → Notation

Audio in. Sheet music out.By AI.

Songscription transcribes MP3, WAV or a YouTube/Instagram/TikTok link into editable sheet music, MIDI, MusicXML or Guitar Pro tabs — across nine instruments. Around 3–5 minutes per song.

Transcribe a Song → Export Formats
FREE TIER 9 Instruments 150K+ Users 150 Countries
How It Works

From a recording to a printable score, in three steps.

Songscription's Transformer-based model picks the notes out of audio and writes them into proper notation — including ornaments, dynamics and key signatures.

01 — Upload

Audio file or a streaming link

Drag in an MP3, WAV or M4A — or paste a YouTube, Instagram or TikTok link. Pick which instrument the model should focus on (piano, guitar, violin, bass, flute, trumpet, saxophone, drums or vocals).

● mp3 · wav · m4a · YouTube · Instagram · TikTok
02 — Transcribe

The AI listens and notates

A proprietary Transformer model trained on professional-grade data picks out pitches, rhythms, dynamics, key, time signature — and nuanced ornaments like trills, ties and mordents. Typical run-time is around three to five minutes per song.

● ornaments: trills · ties · mordents · staccato
03 — Edit & Export

Tweak, then download

Open the transcription in the built-in sheet music editor or piano roll. Adjust speed, transposition, split left/right hands, fix any note. Export PDF for printing, MIDI for your DAW, MusicXML for Sibelius / MuseScore / Finale / Dorico, or Guitar Pro for tab playback.

● PDF · MIDI · MusicXML · Guitar Pro
Signature feature · Four export formats

One transcription. Every format a musician needs.

Most audio-to-MIDI tools give you a MIDI file and call it done. Songscription writes the transcription out to four parallel formats — readable, playable, editable, printable — so the result fits into whatever piece of your workflow comes next.

Open the PDF on a music stand. Drop the MIDI into Ableton, Logic or your DAW of choice. Pass the MusicXML to MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or Dorico for further engraving. Send the Guitar Pro file to bandmates for tab-based playback. Single source of truth, four destinations.

The platform also includes a built-in sheet music editor and an interactive piano roll, so you can clean up any note the model got wrong before exporting — speed control, transposition, split into left/right hands, recolor staves.

Who It's For

Built for anyone who reads, writes or learns music.

Songscription doesn't generate music — it transcribes music that already exists. Useful any time you have audio and you need notation, MIDI or tabs from it.

S

Students

Drop in a YouTube link of the song you want to learn. Get sheet music for piano or guitar tabs for guitar — at the right level for your practice.

T

Teachers

Build custom arrangements for students and ensembles. Generate parts from existing recordings without manually transcribing every note by ear.

W

Songwriters

Document a session by uploading the rough recording. The sheet music and MIDI come back, ready to share with collaborators or hand to a publisher.

P

Producers

Pull MIDI out of a reference track to recreate or rearrange. Drop the MIDI onto a fresh instrument in the DAW and re-voice it however you want.

Features

What's under the hood.

A purpose-built Transformer model, nine supported instruments, and an editor that fixes what the model gets wrong.

Engine

A Transformer trained on professional-grade audio.

Proprietary Transformer-based architecture that combines sequence-learning techniques from speech recognition with music-AI research. The model is trained on high-quality data sourced from professional artists rather than scraped web audio, which is what enables the ornament-detection precision — trills, ties, mordents and expressive markings come out correctly notated, not just as a wall of quarter notes.

URL Support

YouTube · Instagram · TikTok

Paste a link, get a transcription. No download or file-conversion step.

9 Instruments

From piano to vocals

Piano Guitar Bass Violin Flute Trumpet Saxophone Drums Vocals
Editor

Built-in sheet music editor

Fix any note, change tempo, transpose, split left/right hands — before you export.

Privacy

Opt out of AI training

On paid tiers, your audio is never used to train future models. Default off.

Web-first

No install. Any device with a browser.

Runs in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge — desktop or tablet. No native app, no plugin to manage, no version-update treadmill. Sign in, upload, transcribe.

Honest Comparison

Where Songscription wins — and where it doesn't.

The transcription space has several players. Songscription's edge is breadth of instruments, URL support and editor; it's not the only option for every job.

Songscription Klangio AnthemScore ScoreCloud
YouTube / TikTok URLYesYouTube onlyNoNo
Instruments supported95Auto-detectPiano focus
Export formats4 (PDF/MIDI/XML/GP)3PDF/MIDI/XMLPDF/MIDI
Built-in editorYesNoYesYes
Web-only (no install)YesYesDesktop installBoth
Free tierUnlimited 30-sec3 free songsTrial onlyLimited
Full ensemble (polyphonic)In developmentLimitedYesPiano-only
Pricing & features verified June 2026 from publisher pages.
From the Community

What teachers, students and producers say.

★★★★★
I teach piano to about twenty students a week. I used to lose evenings transcribing arrangements they wanted to learn from YouTube. Now I paste the link, get a usable score in five minutes, clean it up in the editor for fifteen, and email a PDF before bedtime. It bought me my evenings back.
H
Hannah F.
Piano teacher · Edinburgh
★★★★★
Honest take: solo piano and clean single-instrument recordings come out really well — ornaments and all. Polyphonic full-band tracks are still rough; the model picks the loudest line and loses the rest. Full-ensemble transcription is on their roadmap but it's not there yet. Great for what it currently does, less great for what I wish it did.
J
Jorge L.
Guitarist · Madrid
★★★★★
I produce film scores and I lean on Songscription when I want to lift MIDI out of a reference track for re-orchestration. Drop the URL, get the MIDI, drag it onto a Kontakt instrument, re-voice it. The MIDI is clean enough that the editing pass is minutes, not hours. That's a serious workflow upgrade.
N
Naomi R.
Film composer · Toronto
The Story

A Shazam for sheet music.

Songscription launched in 2024 with a problem that's stumped music-information-retrieval researchers for decades: converting raw audio into clean, editable musical notation. The pitch — internally and to investors — was "Shazam for sheet music." Drop in an audio file or a streaming link; out comes a printable, editable score.

The team built a proprietary Transformer-based architecture, combining sequence-learning techniques from speech recognition with research from the music-AI literature. Crucially, the training data was sourced from professional artists rather than scraped from the open web, which is what allowed the model to learn nuanced ornaments — trills, ties, mordents, staccato markings, time and key signatures — instead of producing a wall of un-ornamented quarter notes.

In November 2025 Songscription closed a $5M funding round led by Reach Capital. By that point the platform had grown to over 150,000 users across 150 countries, with monthly user growth reported at 60%. The product has been written up in TechCrunch, Billboard and MusicRadar. The roadmap calls for full-ensemble (multi-instrument) transcription, stem-splitting, and an interactive learning system with real-time performance feedback.

It's worth being honest about the current limits. Solo and clean single-instrument recordings transcribe extremely well — that's the comfort zone, and the ornament detection is genuinely industry-leading there. Polyphonic full-band recordings are harder; the model tends to lock onto the loudest line. Full-ensemble transcription is in development, not shipped. Vocals are listed as supported but in practice are noticeably harder than instrumental sources. The interface is English-only. And Pro at $29.99/month is not the cheapest option for casual users — pay-per-song is available without subscription if you only need it occasionally.

If you need polyphonic ensemble transcription today, AnthemScore is a more developed option for that specific case. If you're a casual learner who only needs the odd song, the free tier or pay-per-song route here is plenty. If you're a teacher, songwriter or producer who runs ten or more transcriptions a month, the Pro tier earns itself back in the time it saves transcribing by ear.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Which instruments does Songscription actually transcribe?

Nine instruments are officially supported: piano, guitar, bass, violin, flute, trumpet, saxophone, drums and vocals. You select the target instrument when you upload, and the model tries to isolate and notate that part. Solo and monophonic sources work best; the cleaner the source, the cleaner the transcription. Polyphonic accuracy varies and is being improved.

How does the YouTube / Instagram / TikTok link feature work?

Paste a URL into the upload field, and Songscription pulls the audio directly from the link, then runs it through the transcription pipeline — no need to download the file yourself or convert formats. This is the part the team has positioned as the "Shazam for sheet music" pitch: a link in, a printable PDF out. It works on standard YouTube, Instagram and TikTok video links.

What's the difference between the free, Hobby and Pro plans?

The free plan gives you unlimited 30-second transcriptions plus 10 × 3-minute transcriptions per month (5 per day cap), with PDF export only. Hobby (the "Most Popular" tier) adds longer transcriptions, MIDI / MusicXML / Guitar Pro export and an opt-out from AI model training. Pro at $29.99/month gives 100 × 15-minute transcriptions per month, all export formats, priority support and training opt-out. A pay-per-song option is also available if you don't want a subscription.

How accurate is the transcription?

For solo and clean single-instrument recordings, accuracy is strong — the model picks up not just pitches and rhythms but nuanced ornaments like trills, ties, mordents and dynamics. For polyphonic full-band tracks, accuracy drops noticeably; the model tends to lock onto the loudest line. The built-in sheet music editor exists to let you fix mistakes before exporting. Full-ensemble transcription is in active development.

What can I do with the output once I have it?

Export to PDF for printing or sharing as a regular score, MIDI for any DAW (Ableton, Logic, FL Studio, Reaper, Pro Tools, Studio One, Bitwig), MusicXML for notation editors (MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale, Dorico), or Guitar Pro (.gp5) for tab-based playback. You can also use the built-in editor to playback the score, adjust speed and transposition, split into left and right hands, and recolor staves.

Is my uploaded audio used to train your models?

On the free plan, audio may be used to help improve future models, anonymised. On the Hobby and Pro paid plans you can opt out of AI model training entirely, and that opt-out is part of the plan. If privacy is a hard requirement — for unreleased commercial work, for example — paid tiers are the right choice.

Does Songscription have a desktop or mobile app?

No native app. Songscription is web-only and runs in the browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) on desktop or tablet. That's an intentional product choice — no install, no version-update treadmill, works on any device with a modern browser. It does mean you need an internet connection to use it.

What are the limits I should know about?

Polyphonic full-band transcription accuracy is the most-cited limit — solo / single-instrument is the sweet spot. Vocals are supported but harder than instrumental sources. The interface is English-only. Pro at $29.99/month is on the higher side for casual users; consider Hobby or pay-per-song for occasional use. And the company is young — founded 2024 — so expect rapid iteration and occasional rough edges on newer features.

Drop the link. Print the score.In Five Minutes.

Audio in, sheet music or MIDI out. Nine instruments. Four export formats. Free 30-second tier — no credit card.

Transcribe a Song → See Pricing