TL;DR: Google DeepMind’s Lyria 3, the company’s most advanced AI music generation model, is now rolling out inside the Gemini app. Users can generate 30-second original tracks from text prompts, photos, or videos – complete with auto-generated lyrics and custom cover art, no musical knowledge required. The feature is live on desktop now, with mobile following shortly. Lyria 3 also powers YouTube’s Dream Track feature, expanding globally beyond the US for the first time.
Type “a comical R&B slow jam about a sock finding their match,” and Gemini will now hand you a complete 30-second song — lyrics, instrumentation, vocals, cover art, and all. On February 17, 2026, Google officially brought Lyria 3, Google DeepMind’s most advanced music generation model, into the Gemini app, making full music creation accessible to anyone with a Google account.
This is a meaningful moment for the AI creative tools space. Music generation has been the domain of dedicated platforms like Suno and Udio, which require users to navigate separate apps. Embedding Lyria 3 directly inside Gemini makes AI music creation a casual, everyday action rather than a specialist workflow.
What Is Lyria 3?
Lyria 3 is Google DeepMind’s latest generative music model, and a significant upgrade over earlier Lyria versions. Where previous models required users to supply their own lyrics and offered limited stylistic control, Lyria 3 handles the entire creative process: melody, instrumentation, lyrics, tempo, vocal style, and even album artwork.9to5google+3
“Lyria 3 is Google DeepMind’s most advanced music generation model. Compared to earlier iterations, you no longer have to add your own lyrics as Google automatically generates them based on your prompt.”
— 9to5Google, February 18, 2026[9to5google]
The model produces high-fidelity, musically complex tracks that are noticeably richer than what earlier AI music tools generated. Each output is also embedded with SynthID, Google’s imperceptible AI watermark, which lets anyone upload an audio clip to Gemini and check whether it was AI-generated.
Key Features of Lyria 3 in Gemini
Multimodal Music Creation
Lyria 3 doesn’t just take text prompts. You can feed it:
- Text descriptions: Describe a genre, mood, concept, or even a joke
- Photos: Upload an image and Gemini generates a soundtrack that matches its mood
- Videos: Feed a video clip and get music tailored to its energy and pacing
- Audio references: Upload a sound and build from it
This multimodal approach is what separates Lyria 3 from most competitors. Suno and Udio work primarily from text. Lyria 3 can read the emotional tone of a photo of your cat and compose something appropriately playful.
Auto-Generated Lyrics
One of the most practical upgrades: you no longer need to write lyrics yourself. Describe your idea, and Lyria 3 writes the words, sets them to melody, and delivers a complete song. This lowers the creative barrier dramatically for users who know what they want to hear but can’t write verse and chorus structures.
Granular Creative Controls
After the initial generation, users can refine the output by adjusting:
- Style (genre, subgenre, aesthetic)
- Tempo (slow, mid, fast)
- Vocal style (gender, character, delivery)
- Mood (energetic, melancholic, playful)
“Users can describe anything — a genre, a mood, a memory, an inside joke — and the model handles the rest, including elements like tempo, vocal style, and instrumentation.”
— Times of India, February 19, 2026[timesofindia.indiatimes]
Custom Cover Art via Nano Banana
Every generated track automatically gets custom album artwork generated by Google’s Nano Banana image model. This makes Lyria 3 outputs immediately shareable as a complete creative package — not just a raw audio file.
SynthID Watermarking
All Lyria 3 outputs are imperceptibly watermarked using SynthID. Users can upload any audio to Gemini and ask whether it’s AI-generated, and the app will check for the watermark and flag it accordingly. This is Google’s answer to AI authenticity concerns, and it’s baked in by default.
Lyria 3 on YouTube: Dream Track Goes Global
Beyond the Gemini app, Lyria 3 now powers YouTube’s Dream Track feature, which previously launched in the US only. Dream Track lets YouTube creators generate custom background music for their videos without licensing third-party tracks. With the global expansion powered by Lyria 3, any creator worldwide can now produce original soundtracks tailored to their content.
“Google is also expanding access to its music generation tool beyond the Gemini app. Lyria 3 will power the Dream Track feature for creators on YouTube, broadening availability worldwide.”
— India Today, February 18, 2026[indiatoday]
This is significant for content creators in India and other markets where music licensing costs are prohibitive. A free, high-quality AI music tool baked into YouTube removes one of the biggest production barriers for independent creators.
How to Use Lyria 3 in Gemini (Step-by-Step)?
- Open Gemini on desktop at gemini.google.com (mobile rolling out shortly)
- Type a music prompt — describe a mood, genre, concept, or even something absurd
- Optionally upload a photo or video as a creative reference
- Review the generated track and listen to the 30-second output
- Adjust controls for style, tempo, and vocal feel to refine the result
- Share or download the track with its auto-generated cover art
The feature is available to users 18 and older, with language support including English, Spanish, and Hindi.
How Lyria 3 Compares to the Competition?
| Feature | Lyria 3 (Gemini) | Suno | Udio |
| Platform | Built into Gemini | Standalone app | Standalone app |
| Audio quality | High-fidelity, fewer artifacts | High | High |
| Lyric generation | Auto-generated | Manual or auto | Auto |
| Multimodal input | Text, image, video | Text only | Text only |
| Cover art | Yes (Nano Banana) | No | No |
| Watermarking | SynthID built-in | No | No |
| Track length | 30 seconds | Full songs | Full songs |
| Price | Free in Gemini | Freemium | Freemium |
The clearest limitation is track length. At 30 seconds, Lyria 3 is great for jingles, social clips, and creative exploration, but falls short for users who want full-length songs. Suno and Udio currently win on that dimension.
“When it comes to audio quality, it somewhat surpasses Suno, producing fewer artifacts and background noise, and delivering high fidelity even with challenging instruments like distorted guitars. However, regarding composition and creativity, it falls short. The results are simply… dull.”
— Reddit user, r/singularity, February 18, 2026[reddit]
That’s honest early feedback worth taking seriously. Lyria 3 is technically impressive but creatively conservative in its first beta iteration.
Copyright, Safety, and Artist Protections [H2]
Google is walking a careful line on copyright. The official position is that Lyria 3 is built for original expression, not artist mimicry. Naming a specific musician in a prompt won’t clone their sound — Gemini treats it as “broad creative inspiration” instead.
Content filters screen outputs against existing material, and SynthID watermarking creates an audit trail for every generated track. Google acknowledges the filters aren’t perfect and encourages users to report potential violations.
“We believe AI should enhance human creativity, not replace it. We’re working directly with artists to gather feedback and shape guardrails that address their concerns.”
— Google DeepMind, Lyria 3 overview[deepmind]
The broader legal tension between AI companies and music labels remains unresolved industry-wide, and Lyria 3 launches into that uncertainty. But Google’s transparent approach to watermarking and its artist collaboration stance put it ahead of most competitors on the responsible AI front.
What This Means for Creators?
For content creators, Lyria 3 solves a real, everyday problem: finding royalty-free music that actually fits your video’s tone without spending hours on licensing sites. Having it inside Gemini means the workflow stays in one place.
For marketers and brands, 30-second tracks are exactly the format needed for social media ads, reels, and short-form video. Custom music that matches a campaign brief, generated in seconds, is genuinely useful.
For casual users, the barrier to creative expression has dropped to essentially zero. You don’t need to know what a BPM is or what “major key” means. You just describe what you want to feel.
FAQs
Yes, Lyria 3 is available for free inside the Gemini app for users aged 18 and older.
Not yet. Current outputs are capped at 30 seconds in the Gemini app. Enterprise and API access via Vertex AI uses Lyria 2 for longer workflows.
Text prompts, photos, videos, and audio references. It’s one of the only AI music tools to accept image and video inputs.
Yes. You no longer need to supply lyrics — Lyria 3 generates them automatically from your description.
Lyria 3 uses SynthID watermarking on all outputs and content filters to screen against existing material. Naming specific artists uses them only as “broad creative inspiration”.
It launched on desktop on February 17–18, 2026, with mobile rollout following within a few days globally.
Enterprise and API access currently centers on Lyria 2 via Vertex AI. Lyria 3 is the user-facing model in Gemini.
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