Google adds music-generation capabilities to the Gemini app

Google announced on Wednesday that it’s adding a music-generation feature to the Gemini app. The company is using DeepMind’s Lyria 3 music-generation model to power the feature, which is still in beta.

To use the feature, you’ll describe the song you want to create, and the app will generate a track along with lyrics. For instance, you could ask Gemini to create a “comical R&B slow jam about a sock finding its match,” and the app will generate a 30-second track along with cover art made by Nano Banana.

Google said that you can even upload a photo or a video, and the AI-powered tool will create a song to match the mood of the media file.

The company said that Lyria 3 improves on the previous generation of models, creating more realistic and complex music tracks. Users can also change and control other elements like style, vocals, and tempo.

Along with rolling out Lyria 3 to the Gemini app, Google is making the model available to YouTube creators through the Dream Track feature on YouTube, a tool that helps creators make AI-generated tracks. The option was only available to YouTube creators in the U.S. until now. But with this release, Google is expanding Dream Track availability globally.

Google said that you can’t mimic an artist outright, but if you add an artist’s name to your prompt, Gemini will create a track in a similar style or a mood. (It’s not clear if generation will make it easier for others to decode the music style of a particular artist.)

“Music generation with Lyria 3 is designed for original expression, not for mimicking existing artists. If your prompt names a specific artist, Gemini will take this as broad creative inspiration and create a track that shares a similar style or mood. We also have filters in place to check outputs 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 that it’s also adding capabilities to identify AI-generated music with SynthID within Gemini. Users will be able to upload tracks and ask Gemini if it is AI-generated.

Music generation is rolling out to all 18+ Gemini users across the world with support for English, German, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.

AI-generated music has created mixed sentiments among artists and listeners. On one hand, companies like YouTube and Spotify are adopting AI and signing contracts with music labels to monetize AI-generated music. On the other hand, AI model and tooling companies are facing lawsuits from the music industry over copyrights of the training material. Platforms like Deezer have published tools to mark AI-generated music to curb fraudulent streams of this kind of music.