Google announced Wednesday that it’s adding a music-making feature to its Gemini app. The company uses DeepMind’s Lyria 3 music generation model to enable the feature, which is still in beta.
To use the feature, you’ll describe the song you want to create and the app will create a track along with lyrics. For example, you could ask Gemini to create a “comedic slow R&B jam about a sock finding her match,” and the app would create a 30-second track along with Nano Banana’s cover.
Google said you can even upload a photo or video, and the AI-powered tool will create a song that matches the mood of the media file.
The company said the Lyria 3 improves on the previous generation of models, creating more realistic and complex music tracks. Users can also change and control other elements such as style, vocals and tempo.
Along with the launch of the Lyria 3 on the Gemini app, Google is making the model available to YouTube creators through the Dream Track feature on YouTube, a tool which helps creators create AI-generated tracks. The option was only available to YouTube creators in the US until now. But with this release, Google is expanding the availability of Dream Track globally.
Google said you can’t completely mimic an artist, but if you add an artist’s name to your prompt, Gemini will create a track with a similar style or mood. (Whether generation will make it easier for others to decode a particular artist’s musical style is unclear.)
“Music generation with Lyria 3 is designed for original expression, not imitation of existing artists. If your prompt mentions a specific artist, Gemini will take that as broad creative inspiration and create a track that shares a similar style or mood. We also have filters to check results against existing content,” the company said in a blog post.
Google noted that all songs created with the Lyria 3 model will have a SynthID watermark to identify AI-generated content. The company said it is too adding AI-generated music recognition capabilities with SynthID within Gemini. Users will be able to upload tracks and ask Gemini if it was created with artificial intelligence.
Music Generation is available to all 18+ Gemini users worldwide with support for English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese.
AI-generated music has created mixed feelings among artists and listeners. On the one hand, companies like YouTube and Spotify are embracing AI and signing deals with record labels to monetize AI-generated music. On the other hand, AI model and tool companies are facing lawsuits from the music industry over the copyright of educational material. Platforms such as Deezer have released tools to flag AI-generated music to curb fraudulent streams of this type of music.
