Google MusicFX has shut down: how to use Flow Music instead

What happened to MusicFX

MusicFX, Google's AI music generator, and its spin-off MusicFX DJ shut down on July 31, 2026. On its official X account, Google Labs said it was doing this to focus on Google Flow Music, a service for making, sharing and remixing music.

When we checked on October 26, 2026, the AI Test Kitchen page for MusicFX that our 2024 article pointed to now redirects through labs.google to the Google Flow Music site (flowmusic.app). The MusicFX DJ page does the same.

Here are the main events in order.

HIKARI'S TAKEYou can't use MusicFX anymore. But Google hasn't given up on AI music. It has folded that work into a different service, Flow Music.

What Google Flow Music is

Google Flow Music started out as a music production tool called ProducerAI. It joined Google in February 2026 and took its current name in April. Google's official blog describes it as a service that musicians started so they could experiment with and share their own music.

The big difference from MusicFX is that it makes songs with lyrics and vocals, not just short instrumental clips. The official site says you can chat with an AI called "Producer" to make full-length songs with vocals.

Lyria 3.5 arrived in Flow Music on July 29, 2026. Google says it improves melodic structure, lyrics, and vocal expression and pronunciation, and makes it easier to control tempo and length.

HIKARI'S TAKEFlow Music isn't MusicFX with a new look. It's a different service that can make whole songs with singing. The names sound alike, but it does a lot more.

Checking our 2024 article

In September 2024 we published a seven-step guide to MusicFX, from logging in to downloading, in Japanese. Here is how what we wrote then holds up today.

Our biggest miss was not saying whether you could use the music for work.

The original article ended with "you can use it in personal projects." Most readers were probably looking for music they could use for work, such as background music for a video or a store. We should have said who holds the rights and what to watch out for. We also left out one simple warning: free experimental tools can end.

HIKARI'S TAKEWriting prompts in plain language and getting two versions to choose from still work the same way. What changed was the screens and steps. What we left out was rights.

How to make a song with Flow Music now

Here is how to make a song with Google's AI now that MusicFX is gone. These steps are based on the official site and a July 2026 hands-on review by the Japanese tech site GIGAZINE. On-screen wording may change.

1. Open Flow Music. On a computer, go to flowmusic.app in your browser. On an iPhone, install "Google Flow Music" from the App Store.
2. Sign in with your Google account. Click "Try it", agree to the terms and privacy notice, and choose a username. You don't need to add a credit card.
3. Describe the song you want. Write to Producer as if you were talking to a person: what it's for, the mood, instruments, vocals or not, tempo and length.
4. Compare the versions and fix only what bothers you. Each prompt gives you two versions. You can regenerate just one section instead of the whole song.
5. Download and keep a copy. You can save audio as M4A, MP3 or WAV. You can also make a music video, but it uses a lot of credits.

Here is the example from our 2024 article, rewritten for how prompts work now. The trick is to state the purpose and "no vocals" clearly.

Background music for the intro video on our shop's website. A gentle acoustic guitar melody over the sound of soft waves rolling onto a beach. Instrumental, no vocals, slow tempo, about one minute long.

You can also make a song from a photo. Before you use an image, Flow Music asks you to confirm that you have the rights to it. Use only photos you took yourself or images you have confirmed you may use.

HIKARI'S TAKEAll it takes is signing in with your Google account and describing the song you want. If you state the purpose and whether you want vocals up front, you'll get closer to what you had in mind.

Flow Music plans, and what to know about rights and commercial use

All of Flow Music's core features are free. How much you can make depends on credits, and the free plan tops up your credits every day. According to GIGAZINE, new accounts got 500 credits at sign-in. Here are the plans we saw on the pricing page on October 26, 2026.

The pricing page shows "Save 25%", and GIGAZINE reports these as monthly prices with yearly billing. Monthly billing costs more. Google's help page also says Google AI Plus subscribers get the Starter benefits, Google AI Pro gets Plus, and Google AI Ultra gets Member. In the US, Google AI Plus is $4.99 a month, Pro is $19.99 and Ultra starts at $99.99. If you already pay for a Google AI plan, check this before signing up separately.

On rights, these are the four things we could confirm from official sources.

• Google's official blog says Google doesn't claim ownership of the original content you make with Flow Music.
• Google says Lyria 3 Pro was trained on material that YouTube and Google have the right to use under their terms of service, partner agreements and applicable law.
• Songs made with Lyria 3 and Lyria 3 Pro carry an inaudible digital watermark, SynthID.
• Google's Terms of Service (US version) prohibit misleading others into thinking that generative AI content was created by a human.

In the US, the key guidance on copyright is the U.S. Copyright Office's January 2025 report on copyrightability. It says that, with today's technology, prompts alone do not give users enough control to be the authors of the output. Material generated entirely by AI is not protected. Your own lyrics, your creative edits, and your creative selection and arrangement of the output can be. So a track you make from a text prompt and use as is may have no copyright protection at all.

HIKARI'S TAKEThe free plan is plenty for trying it out. "Google doesn't claim ownership" isn't the same as "you can use it anywhere you like", so please check the terms before you use it for work.

Before you use AI music for work

MusicFX ended about two and a half years after launch. Free experimental tools change names and move around. When we use AI music for work, such as background music for videos or a store, we try to settle these four things first.

1. Keep the songs you make. Don't leave them inside the service. Save them as WAV or MP3 to your company drive, along with a note of the prompt you used.
2. Don't imitate real artists or songs. Don't ask for "in the style of X" or "like X's song". Google also says Lyria is meant for original expression, not for imitating particular artists.
3. Check the rules where you publish. YouTube, streaming services and ad platforms may each treat AI-generated music differently. Don't hide that the music was made with AI.
4. Keep the plan behind your prompts. Writing purpose, mood, instruments, tempo and length separately is a habit that carries over when the tools change.

These are the three ways to make music with Google's AI today.

Prices were checked on the official Flow Music and Google Gemini subscription pages on October 26, 2026.

HIKARI'S TAKETools change, but you can keep the songs you made and your plan for what to ask for and how. Start by making one song for free and saving it to your own drive.