ElevenLabs Music is the premium music tier on this canvas at 81 credits per minute, and the most useful thing to know about it is when not to use it. For background beds, a 30-second Lyria 2 generation at 13 credits looped is indistinguishable and costs a sixth as much.
Save the premium tier for music that is exposed.
TL;DR
- 81 credits per minute, about $0.81. The premium option
- Lyria 2 at 13 credits per 30 seconds (26 a minute) is the volume alternative
- MiniMax Music v2 at 5 credits per generation is the cheapest, and it does lyrics
- Generate 20 to 30 seconds and loop it for anything under dialogue. A three-minute track is usually wasted money
- Free-tier licensing elsewhere is the real trap. On a paid plan here, output is watermark-free and commercial use is cleared
The audio ladder
Canon 8frame prices, a credit is $0.01 at pack rate:
| Route | Credits | Per minute |
|---|---|---|
| MiniMax Music v2 | 5 per generation | depends on length |
| Lyria 2 | 13 per 30 seconds | 26 |
| MiniMax Music 3 | 17 per generation | depends on length |
| ElevenLabs Music | 81 per minute | 81 |
| ElevenLabs SFX | 5 per effect | n/a |
| ElevenLabs TTS | 13 per 1,000 characters | n/a |
The arithmetic that matters: a three-minute track on ElevenLabs Music is 243 credits, about $2.43. The same coverage from a 30-second Lyria 2 loop is 13 credits, about thirteen cents. Under narration, nobody can tell.
When the premium tier earns it
The music is exposed. A title sequence, a brand film where the score carries emotion, a piece where someone is actually listening to the music rather than through it.
A full arrangement that develops. Where you need a build, a change, a resolution. Looping cannot fake structure.
Client delivery where the quality difference, small as it is, is part of what they are paying for.
For everything else, which is most video work, the cheap tier plus looping is correct.
The loop workflow
- Generate 20 to 30 seconds, not the full length. Ask for a loop explicitly.
- Test the join. Play the end into the beginning ten times.
- Crossfade in your editor if it does not sit cleanly, which it usually does not. Half a second is enough.
- Compress it. Generated music often has a dynamic arc, which is lovely alone and a problem under speech.
- Carve the mids out. A high-pass and low-pass removing the speech range is the single most effective edit for any bed under narration.
Prompting music
Function first, then components:
- State the job. "Background bed under narration, sparse, no lead melody, nothing in the mid range."
- Tempo and feel. "80 bpm, calm, steady, behind the beat."
- Named instruments. "Warm analogue pad, soft sub bass, occasional high bell." Naming instruments works far better than naming a genre.
- Processing. "Tape saturation, slight wow and flutter, low-pass filtered."
- Dynamics. "Consistent level, no build, no drop."
- Exclusions. "No vocals, no lead line, no big transitions."
Point 1 is the one people skip and it is what separates a usable bed from a track that fights your voiceover.
What to do about vocals
ElevenLabs Music and MiniMax Music can produce music with lyrics, and vocals remain the weakest part of generated audio: fast consonants blur, the pocket is generic, and long-form consistency drifts.
What works: instrumental beds, hooks, stylistic pastiche, and demos of an idea you will record properly.
What does not: the song being the product. If people are meant to listen to it as music and care who made it, the thing they care about is the person.
The rule with no exceptions: never generate a named artist's voice or reproduce a recognisable melody. Describing a style is legitimate; naming a person is not.
Licensing, briefly
On a paid 8frame plan, output is watermark-free and commercial use is cleared on paid plans.
The trap is elsewhere: free tiers on third-party music services are typically personal use only, and a monetised video is commercial use. For the current state of that, including a change worth knowing about, see best free AI music generators.
FAQ
How much does ElevenLabs Music cost? 81 credits per minute on 8frame, about $0.81.
What is the cheapest music option? MiniMax Music v2 at 5 credits per generation, or Lyria 2 at 13 per 30 seconds.
Should I generate a full-length track? Rarely. Generate 20 to 30 seconds and loop it unless the music is exposed.
Can it do vocals? Yes, and vocals are the weakest part. Instrumentals are where generated audio is strong.
Thirty seconds looped, mids carved out, premium only when exposed. The 8frame canvas is free and unlimited, and generation is paid from $19/month.