Suno v5 in 2026: the AI music generator that topped the Yandex Music charts
In February 2026, an AI track topped the Yandex Music and VK charts for the first time. We tested Suno v5 and its competitors in jazz, rock, chanson, and in Rus
AI music generator Suno has proven for the first time that it can compete with real artists. In February 2026, an AI track topped the charts of Yandex Music and VK, reaching 4.2 million listeners. But is this an exception or the start of a trend?
When Machines Write Hits
The SDP Project with Yesenin's lyrics was created entirely by a neural network. Until February, it was believed that charts remained an ecosystem of real music — AI tracks appeared, but didn't top the ratings. Now the situation has changed. This is not just an AI experiment, but a full-fledged hit with its own audience.
For comparison: creating a real track requires time, money, a studio, a sound engineer, mastering. Suno v5 creates a track in minutes. True, it often turns out to be of less than optimal quality. But if there is an AI generator capable of charting, we need to understand where the line is between an interesting experiment and a real possibility.
How We Tested
We tested Suno v5, Udio, and Riffusion. We generated compositions in four genres (jazz, chanson, pop, heavy rock) with female and male vocals in Russian and English. Each generator created 8 compositions.
- Vocal quality (naturalness, absence of artifacts)
- Structure (verse-chorus logic or chaos)
- Genre compliance (jazz sounds like jazz)
- Instrumentation (variety and balance)
- Intelligibility of text in Russian
Testing Results
Suno v5 clearly leads. Vocals sound natural, artifacts are minimal. Structure is logical, especially successful in pop and chanson. Udio takes second place, but occasionally vocals sound more robotic. Riffusion showed the weakest results — many artifacts and chaotic structure. All three made more mistakes with the Russian language. Intonation was sometimes strange, which is critical for chanson, where intonation is everything. But the text was understood.
What This Means
Suno v5 has come very close to the threshold of professional music. For indie projects, background music, experiments — this is a solution that already works. But for a musician who wants to express themselves, AI remains an assistant, not a replacement.