Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. are adding music-focused generative artificial intelligence features to their core consumer apps, underscoring how advanced AI tools are moving into mainstream use.
Google’s Gemini AI assistant can now create 30-second music tracks based on text, photos or video uploaded by users using Google DeepMind’s latest Lyria 3 model, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday. The feature, which can generate custom lyrics or purely instrumental audio, will be available to users over the age of 18 in multiple languages. It is being rolled out on the desktop version of Gemini and will appear in the mobile app over the next few days, the company said.
Its popular image-creation model, Nano Banana, will also generate custom cover art alongside the track, adding a visual element when users share links to the tracks with others, Google said.
Adding audio-creation tools to its mobile app can potentially strengthen Google’s consumer offerings as it remains locked in a race with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to win over users. Google won widespread praise from investors and users for its Gemini 3 AI model released in November, prompting OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman to declare a “code red” to spur faster ChatGPT improvements.
Separately this week, Apple said consumers can soon use AI to create playlists in Apple Music. The feature, called Playlist Playground, uses Apple Intelligence to let people turn text prompts into playlists that will include cover art, description and 25 songs. It is included in iOS 26.4, which was released in beta on Monday and will become more widely available this spring. Apple Music’s new feature rivals a similar one offered by Spotify Technology SA.
Shares of Spotify briefly erased their gains following Google’s announcement. Sirius XM Holdings Inc.’s stock similarly slipped. “We don’t expect it to be a deal-breaker for Spotify,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts wrote in a note Wednesday. “Yet we think these moves could force Spotify to launch an AI mixing feature soon.”
Apple, which has been a laggard in artificial intelligence, is working to add more AI features across its apps and devices, including in its recently launched software bundle Creator Studio. But some highly anticipated updates to its Siri virtual assistant may be delayed after they were first announced in 2024, Bloomberg News reported last week.
Google, for its part, has been working to show investors that its investments in AI-driven products can help boost revenue. For releases like this, that means the product is not completely free. Similar to how Gemini places limits on daily image creation, users of the free product can generate 10 tracks per day, while paying users get 20 to 100 daily, depending on the plan and their subscription tier. Users will have a right to use their generated tracks, the company said, adding it has filters in place to check outputs against existing content so that it doesn’t violate intellectual property or privacy rules.
Generative AI tools have been met with a wary, and sometimes hostile, reception from the music industry, which views some of the technology as a threat to its business and IP. In 2024, Universal Music Group NV, Warner Music Group Corp. and Sony Music Entertainment sued startups Suno AI and Uncharted Labs Inc., the developer of Udio AI, for copyright infringement. Warner Music has since settled with Suno, and both it and Universal Music have reached agreements with Udio to keep the app functioning with proper licensing and controls.
Google said in the blog post that it has safeguards in place that prohibit the AI from lifting content from specific artists. If users name real musicians, Gemini will only take that prompt as “broad creative inspiration and create a track that shares a similar style or mood,” it added.
“Our training for Lyria 3 is designed to use music that YouTube and Google has a right to use under our terms of service, partner agreements and applicable law,” a company spokesperson added.
Lung writes for Bloomberg.
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