One Special Gift: Personalized Song Sites Reviewed

Best Sites for Gifting a Custom Song for 2024

Thumbnail of Songs With You homepage
Thumbnail of Songfinch homepage
Thumbnail of Songlorious homepage

Background

In October of 2023, my wife and I were looking at buying the perfect gift for our 7-year old niece. At this point in her life, she has everything: toys, clothes, a pet, drawing and art supplies, books, and all the other typical things that adolescent girls want while they are growing up. I'm a bit of a minimalist, and also sometimes feel like gifts these days can be very material-oriented, so this year I really wanted to gift her something that was more of an experience. A meaningful experience.

The next day, we coincidentally received a video from my brother-in-law showing our young niece playing her own made-up song about her dog Sunny on her toy keyboard. It was obviously very cute, and made my wife and I smile while listening and watching. That's when it hit me! What about creating a song for someone? She clearly likes music!

The next day, I looked online to see if we could actually create a song for her. I don't have any music talent to speak of, so I Googled it. At first I'm thinking I could have some computer simulated website create a song for me. But, after browsing a few search results, I came across a website called Songs With You, which in fact creates personalized songs for people. Bingo! I thought it was actually the perfect type of gift I was looking for - something that was intended to create a meaningful memory.

I was prompted to select a song style and submit some interests and a story about our niece. I made payment, and sure enough, a week later, I received an email with a totally personalized song for Kai and her new dog Sunny. My wife and I couldn't wait for her to hear this! The song turned out great, and we knew this gift was going to be awesome (and unique).

Gifting the Song

A week or so went by, and we were truly excited to play this song for my brother-in-law, his wife, and especially our niece. [Tongue-in-cheek] I actually didn't know who would appreciate this gift more. We were sitting around a fireplace, right before Kai (our niece) had to go to bed. After kind of talking about her age and her birthday, the time had come. My wife and I broke out our phone, and told her that we had something really special for her this year -- Something different.

We had a song that was created about her, her dog, her friend, and it's HER own song. We clicked the play button, and everybody went quiet. The song lasted about 90 seconds or so, and at one point, I actually looked over and saw my brother-in-law tearing up. At first I think Kai was in shock. She really didn't know what was happening. We played it a second time. During this playback, she started really understanding that this song playing was actually talking about her best friend, her keyboard playing, her dog, and it all started to make sense. She smiled ear-to-ear, and wanted to immediately hear it AGAIN, a third time.

Over the course of the weekend, we played the song repeatedly at Kai's request of course. The experience was truly something 'magical' 'genuine' 'unique' - choose your description. But, this was something that I honestly felt like was one of the best gifts ever.

More Gifts, and an Experiment

For Christmas, I Googled "gift a personalized song" or something similar, and ended up seeing a different company that offered the same type of sevice. Their name was Songfinch, and their ad came up on the top of the search results. So, I decided that I'd also try their personalized song service this round. Overall, their site was very well polished. You can tell they have been around a while. And after going through the song purchasing process, I came to appreciate the specificity they require for each of their song requests. This was my second gift, and it wasn't over.

On February 2, 2023, my wife and I shared our 10th anniversary, and I decided to get her a song created using a third provider - Songlorious. Like the other two, these guys provide music options that are professional-level talent. I was actually very happy with my purchase with these guys as well. Overall, all 3 companies provide such an incredible and inspiring gift-giving service, that I thought I would sit and write this article describing each of them and give a general recommendation of who I like the best.

I've narrowed down the criteria to 5 attributes.

What makes for a good personalized song?

  • Personalization (25%)

    Was it easy to submit your personalized song details?

  • Sound Quality (25%)

    How good does the final song sound? Is there background noise?

  • Quality of Vocals/Lyrics (25%)

    Does the musician do a good job at writing and recording your song?

  • Price (25%)

    Was the pricing fair? Any surprises?

Best Personalized Song Gifting Services

Songs With You

Songs With You logo

Editor's Pick

The first site I purchased a custom song through was Songs With You. They make it simple and hassle-free to order up a well written personalized song.

Personalization

The song submission form is fairly short and straightforward. They first ask about you, the gifter, and just some basic information like name and email. Halfway through the form, you will get into details about the person you are buying the song for. Namely, you will want to describe a few traits and qualities about the person, and then tell a fun or sentimental story about them, including some of the interests that you previously listed.

Next, they provide a section for you to choose the style of your custom song, which lists: Romantic, Funny, Heartfelt, Lighthearted, and Happy. Or, you can choose a combination of any two (which I thought was actually a nice addition because sometimes songs don't just fall into one category).

Lastly, you have the ability to emphasize a part of the song you really like or wish to hear. In the final section, you'll be able to add a personal message to the song, and name it (optional).

After the form was filled out, and the song was delivered (see below), I thought the funny & heartfelt song I ordered had some fantastic lyrics that matched my intentions when filling out the submission form.

Sound Quality

The song quality was crystal clear, with percussion, guitar, and shakers, along with a male voice that was much better than what I honestly expected. It looks as though these guys are from Hawai'i and the styles they offer (3 total), mesh well with the song types that they offer on their submission form (funny, light, heartfelt, etc).

The artist who wrote and sang the song for Kai and Sunny that I bought was clearly a gifted musician, and the sound had zero distortion. Overall, was more than pleased with quality and clarity of the song.

Song Delivery

Since Songs With You was the very first type of custom song service I've ever used, I honestly had no idea what to expect. The song was emailed to me with both an .mp3 file in addition to a link to stream the song on a service called soundcloud.

According to their website, on checkout, they also offer an option for you to receive your song through SMS (being texted to you), which I thought was pretty cool as well. I would say the delivery wasn't fancy or elaborate; it was punctual and the song was easy to play.

Price

Songs With You charges a flat rate of $199. There were no add-on services or anything, so what they advertise is what I paid: $199 USD.

2024 PROMO FOUND!

NOTE: They have a promo code BHE20 for an additional $20 off, which brings the total to $179.

This discount is automatically applied if you click here.

Songs With You Homepage
Songs With You start page.

Summary: I will undoubtedly use these guys again for any upcoming gifts for family or friends. It doesn't appear that they offer wedding songs at this time, but for other occasions such as anniversaries, holidays, birthdays, or or just because, I would highly recommend this service for this price.

As you'll find out, these guys were actually the least expensive, but without a doubt had the same great quality and delivery.

The care for quality in lyrics was apparent, and the song itself was something that was an absolute hook for me. I now understand why people gift songs to others.

Overall Rating: 4.8 out of 5.0
(average score)

Check them out now
Songs With You

Songfinch

The second site I tried was Songfinch. They seem to be the "big boys" of the business. They cater to a very broad audience and have a plethora of specific musicians to select.

Personalization

The site is well organized in that they walk you through the steps to personalize your song one step at a time. There are roughly 7 steps before getting to the final review screen. I thought that the process was nicely developed, and walked you through the process in a clear manner. However, I did find the many steps to be a bit lengthy. But some may prefer this method. I do like that you can review your submissions. Note that you are NOT permitted to make any edits to your song submission details after the form is submitted.

There are a LOT of choices on this website - a bit overwhelming at times. In the musicians category alone, they offer 750+ different musicians to choose from. I spent a ton of time going through many of the musicians and their very well presented profiles. But, 750+ did make this process a bit daunting.

Checkout process of Sngfinch

Collage of Song Submission Steps

Sound Quality

The song I purchased through this company was for a friend of mine, who was having a birthday. The sound quality was good. It was also sent over as an MP3, so as you'd expect, the digital version is only as good as the recording equipment used to record the song. Which, in my case, sounded clear and didn't have any skipping or fading. It was apparent that the musician that made the song for my friend used at least relatively good sound equipment during the production process. No complaints at all; my only feedback would be that it could have been a bit louder. But after turning up the volume on my phone it was not a problem hearing the song.

Song Delivery

The way Songfinch handles their delivery is you need to sign up for an account. Then, once your song is ready, you are provided a URL to access your song. This is a completely different approach than Songs With You, which is directly emailed to you. However, I didn't mind the setup process. The turnaround time is 4-7 days from when your song is purchased. They do not permit changes to your song after 48 hours from song delivery, so be sure to make edits within 2 days of receiving your song. They allow you to add on services to your song through your song page, which is convenient for those who wish to purchase your lyrics on a vinyl, or a physical CD.

Songfinch Price

The price for a song is $199. As per my experiment in using all 3 personalized song services, these guys fell in the middle.

For this reason, I gave them 3-stars. Add-ons became fairly expensive, and for the money, Songs With Youis a better deal / value.

Songfinch Screenshot
Songfinch Song Samples page

Summary: Customers may enjoy the broad selection of musicians at Songfinch. With an enormous catalog of options for song styles and musicians, this was surprising when I first was ordering my song. To some, myself included, it was a bit overwhelming considering that this was only one step of the process (of the 7+). However, the site was well done, the song sounded good, and it was delivered on time. They push for add-on services, so your $199 can quickly become $220+, but since this is optional, so I cannot knock the service overall.

Overall Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0
(average score)

Songlorious

Songlorious website
Songlorious website.

Summary: My last song as a gift was for my wife for our anniversary, who loves music. She, too, loved the quality and creative lyrics crafted using the submission form, which I also thought was easy to navigate and submit. I'm a bit surprised that their prices vary so much, and in the case of ordering my song, I had to add the rush delivery, which made the song $300 (which I thought was pretty high). Overall, this is another outstanding service, and I urge anybody reading this to really consider purchasing a song as a gift. The songwriters here also had excellent lyrical potential, a good unique sound, and the outcome showed with a very presentable song for any occasion.

Overall Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0
(average score)

The next site is Songlorious. Let's dive into the 3rd and final personalized song site I used for gifting.

Personalization

I really like the site and step-by-step song builder these guys use. You choose a genre, an artist, a song length, a mood, then get into the gift recipients details (story, name, occasion, etc). They ask you to list four things that must make it into the song, which seems to be the norm for all 3 sites: Songs With You, Songfinch, and Songlorious. The delivery date is asked, although it costs considerably more money for an early delivery (see below). Overall, they offer all the elements that made the song personal.

Sound Quality

The quality of the song was good. I don't know if my specific song was any different than the norm from their other musicians, but it did have a few seconds of dead air time before the song began. The musician had a nice voice, and my friend liked her song. I would be curious to see if any of the other musicians have different quality recording equipment or if all is consistent. But, overall, the retrieval of my song on their site worked fine, and I was able to play it within the 6 days from when I placed my order as advertised.

Song Delivery

This is where the review of this site is challenging. The delivery of the song is done through their website, by entering your song ID under the Where's my song? section.

order confirmation with Songlorious

Of course I didn't mind checking on the song through their site, but I preferred the simple SMS delivery of Songs With You (or email through either of the above sites).

Songlorious Price

The price that Songlorious charges is based on various selections you make while creating your song. If you are asking yourself who is more expensive: Songfinch vs Songlorious, then I'd have to say Songlorious costs slightly more in most cases. For a short 1-minute song, and standard delivery, they charge just $120. But, I can't recommend that as the most common price since it's only 60 words. For a 2-minute song, which is closer to what Songs With You and Songfinch offer, the cost jumps to $220 - 300+. So, I'm using that as my comparison for this experiment. Expedited delivery is an additional $80, which I thought was high considering they have so many artists that work on songs. Additionally, they also offer add-ons that vary from $20 to $59.

The Results

Site Songs With You Songfinch Songlorious
Was it easy to submit your song details?
Was the pricing fair?
Did the song quality exceed your expectations?
Does the musician do a good job at writing and recording your song?
Final Score 4.8 4.2 4.3

The Winner:


Songs With You

Visit Songs With You
All opinions expressed on this page are my own. I urge readers to use your own judgment when reviewing or deciding on which services are right for you.