Google ignites AI battle again: Gemini launches music model, generate songs with a single sentence

On Wednesday, February 18th, during the US stock market trading hours, Google announced on its official blog that the Gemini app has been equipped with the company’s most advanced music generation model, Lyria 3, allowing users to create 30-second music clips using text or images.

The press release states, “Simply describe an idea or upload a photo, and Gemini can transform it into a high-quality, catchy song within seconds. To further expand creative possibilities, you can even let Gemini draw inspiration from the uploaded content.”

According to Google, Gemini can do more than “text-to-song”; it can also create a perfect match for the mood by “uploading photos or videos,” producing a 30-second song with a custom cover designed by Nano Banana.

Additionally, creators can explore Lyria 3 through YouTube’s Dream Track feature to enhance the quality of music for Shorts videos. Google says Lyria 3 has been launched in the US and is gradually being rolled out to creators in other regions.

Google mentioned that Lyria’s audio generation features incorporate the company’s latest privacy and security measures. All generated tracks are embedded with subtle watermarks using SynthID technology, which can detect whether music was created or edited by AI.

Following the announcement, major Western streaming music platforms saw their stocks react. Spotify (stock code: SPOT) retraced nearly 5% of its intraday gains, and Sirius XM (stock code: SIRI) also briefly turned downward.

Analysts suggest that while Google’s music generation model is unlikely to pose a fatal threat to Spotify, these initiatives may push the company to quickly introduce AI mixing features.

Furthermore, integrating audio creation tools into mobile apps could enhance Google’s consumer product competitiveness. For Google, it is crucial to continuously demonstrate to investors that investments in AI products can drive revenue growth.

Generative AI tools have long been met with caution or even hostility in the music industry, as many practitioners believe they could threaten business models and intellectual property rights.

Google emphasized in its blog that its system has protective measures in place to prevent AI from directly copying specific artists’ works. If users specify real musicians, Gemini will only regard it as a “broad source of creative inspiration,” generating tracks with similar style or atmosphere.

(Source: Cailian Press)