Photo Credit: Google
Google has partnered with Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer Jacob Collier on its latest AI project, MusicFX DJ. It’s a generative music creation tool that can mix prompts for instruments, genres, and even emotions to steer the flow of a continuous live music stream.
Jacob’s work with the research team was geared towards the user flow state of asking, “What am I dreaming up today?” Collier says that question has always inspired his workflow. “You answering that question give you access to a kind of flow—once you’re in that flow you’re off, you’re going,” he says.
MusicFX DJ can accept multiple prompts with the ability to fine-tune how much emphasis each prompt has on the final continuous stream. Collier’s perspective helped inform the team’s approach to offering creative control and tools for musical collaboration and artistic innovation. The controls offer the ability to make the music fast or slow, bright or dark, or feature specific sounds from prompts that can be adjusted to be heavily influenced or only lightly present.
Creations made with the MusicFX DJ can be shared with others to use as a creative jumping off point. People can watch a 60 second playback of the performance and remix it by taking over controls, adding their own prompts, and continuously building upon the track from their initial creations.
“Our collaboration with Jacob demonstrated the importance of experimentation in the creative process, and how working closely with artists can push the boundaries of creative tools,” Google says about MusicFX DJ. Generating a continuous stream of music that can be influenced with prompts makes it possible to create music with little know-how.
The new interface is much more intuitive than the interface for MusicFX DJ that Google debuted back in May 2024—highlighting Collier’s influence on the process. Alongside the new interface update for MusicFX DJ, Google also released updates for its Music AI Sandbox and YouTube’s Dream Track, giving Shorts creators the ability to generate high quality instrumentals for their YouTube Shorts.