Lyria - Google's new AI music model

Google’s announced a new music generation model Lyria that can create instrumentals and vocals that sound too real. With Lyria as its foundation, Google is announcing the new AI music generation tool Dream Track in YouTube Shorts as an experiment with additional music tools for music artists, songwriters and producers.

What’s going on here?

Google has released a new music generation model with live experiments within YouTube.

What does that mean?

Dream Track is an experiment on YouTube Shorts using Lyria. It lets creators make 30 second soundtracks with an AI-generated voice in the style of certain artists like Sia and John Legend. The lyrics, backing track, and vocals are all generated together.

The Music AI tools are designed with input from artists to enhance creativity. You could transform a vocal melody into accompaniment, turn MIDI chords into a choir, or generate new sections.

Any Lyria-generated content will have an audio watermark called SynthID. This converts the audio into a visual spectrogram and embeds an inaudible digital watermark. Even if modified, SynthID can detect if parts of a song were AI-generated.

Why should I care?

Google worked closely with the music industry to align experiments with principles that encourage creativity while protecting artists. Continued engagement will be important for developing these tools responsibly.

The implications are that AI will empower musical creativity in new ways. Songwriters, producers and fans can benefit from technologies that enhance and inspire the process. We're only beginning to explore the possibilities.