Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

What is MusicLM? Check out Google’s text-to-music AI

MusicLM is one of Google’s experimental artificial intelligence (AI) tools that uses natural language models to interpret your instructions. But instead of chatting to you like ChatGPT, or helping you search, like Bing Chat, MusicLM is an AI that takes what you tell it and creates music based on it.

You’ll need to join the waitlist to get access, but once you’re in, you can start making music with Google’s latest AI tool.

Music LM Artist workshop with AI Test Kitchen & Google Arts & Culture Lab

What is MusicLM?

MusicLM is  a prompt-based music creation tool driven by natural language AI. It takes inputs from the user, whether that’s “humming to the tune of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody,” or “ambient, soft music to study to with rain in the background.” You can create genre mash-ups, multi-instrumental compositions, or human voice sounds that have never felt vocal cords before.

For every prompt you input, MusicLM makes two tracks for you to listen to. To help improve the model, Google encourages users to reward a “trophy” to the one that feels the best, or that sounds closest to what you planned with the prompt.

How do you access MusicLM?

MusicLM prompt page.
Google

At the time of writing, Google is only taking applications for MusicLM, granting permission on a case-by-case basis. It’s not clear how many people are being given access or what the criteria are, but you can register your interest to see if Google grants you permission.

To sign up for MusicLM, head to the main page, and hit the Get Started button to sign up.

How do you use MusicLM?

To use the AI, just visit the main MusicLM page, or open up MusicLM in the Google AI Test Kitchen Apps (on Play Store and App Store, respectively), then sign in to your Google account, if necessary. On the main MusicLM page, input your prompt into the prompt window and hit Enter, or press the little arrow next to the prompt field.

You can specify instruments, styles, tempos, pitches, keys — whatever you can think of. MusicLM will then give you a couple of new tracks. You can listen to them by hitting their respective play buttons, or reward them with a trophy by selecting the corresponding icon.

The only caveat is that Google has added a protective system that won’t allow MusicLM to generate music based on artists or existing songs, so you can’t do the mash-ups that have been going viral in recent months. That’s to keep Google out of murky copyright waters.

Interested in checking our more cutting-edge AI? Try making your own GPT-4 chatbot with Dante.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
The best AI image generators to create art from text
Théâtre D’opéra Spatial AI artwork developed by Jason Allen.

AI image generators are becoming a hot topic online, but they are far from new. The technology for these tools has been around for some time. It is just reaching a point where they are more accessible to the everyday user.

Some of these text-to-art generators are free, while some are behind paywalls, and others allow for a trial. There are also many styles of art you can create from different generators. Take a look at our roundup of some of the best AI image generators below to see which ones might match your artistic style.
What is an AI image generator?
An AI image generator is essentially a tool that uses machine learning to create art. In its simplest form, it will use text prompts to describe the type of art you want to create, and then it'll do its best job to make it for you. Some tools include additional styles and parameters to their generators to make the results more unique.

Read more
These are the new AI features coming to Gmail, Google Docs, and Sheets
Google has announced a host of new writing focused AI features for its Workspace suite.

Google Workspace is getting a generative AI boost at the same time that many other productivity suites are adding new features that allow users to simplify clerical tasks with just a prompt.

Following up on the visual redesign to Google Docs and the announcement of Google Bard, these new AI features are the company's latest attempt to bring more buzzy goodness to its most popular applications.

Read more
Google missed big chance with ChatGPT-like tech, report claims
Google Logo

Google missed a golden opportunity to lead the way with its own ChatGPT-like chatbot technology tool two years ago, but an overly cautious attitude from those at the top prevented the company from releasing it, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday.

The two Google researchers who created the powerful conversational AI technology reportedly told colleagues at the time that their creation could revolutionize how people searched on the internet and worked with computers.

Read more