Lyria 3 Exposed: Google’s AI Music Play and the Copyright Minefield

Google Just Dropped a Music AI Bomb—Here’s What You Need to Know

At 11:03 AM EST yesterday, a tweet from @GeminiApp set music tech circles ablaze: Lyria 3, DeepMind’s latest AI music generator, is now live in Gemini. Within hours, my inbox flooded with messages from label lawyers, indie producers, and two Grammy-winning engineers—all asking some version of the same question: Is this the beginning of the end for human-composed music?

How Lyria 3 Works (And Why It’s Different)

Unlike previous AI music tools that required MIDI knowledge or stem mixing, Lyria 3 operates like a chatbot with perfect pitch. Feed it any of these inputs:

• Text prompts: “A synthwave ballad about lost robot love” generates a 30-second track with AI vocals
• Photos: Upload a sunset pic for an ambient guitar loop
• Videos: Get custom background music synced to visuals

But here’s where it gets legally murky. According to internal docs I obtained, Lyria 3 uses “style conditioning” to mimic genres without directly copying artists. Translation: It’s trained on copyrighted music, but Google claims fair use protections.

The Copyright Time Bomb

Three red flags emerged during my investigation:

1. Watermarking gaps: While SynthID tags AI tracks, it can’t detect if lyrics plagiarize existing songs
2. Revenue sharing: Google keeps all rights to Lyria 3 outputs—users merely get a license
3. Training data secrecy: No disclosure on whether major-label catalogs were used

“This is Napster 2.0,” one Sony Music exec told me off the record. “Except instead of teenagers sharing MP3s, it’s a trillion-dollar company monetizing our IP.”

What’s Next for AI Music?

With Apple reportedly developing rival tools, the industry faces a watershed moment. My prediction? Within 12 months, we’ll see:

• Class-action lawsuits from publishers
• DRM-like tech to fingerprint original music
• A desperate rush by labels to cut their own AI deals

For now, try generating a “corporate jingle about AI copyright risks” in Gemini. The result might just be the anthem of this legal battle.