AI Music Exports: Audio, LRC Lyrics and Cover Art

Quick answer: After generating a track on MusicVivo you download an MP3 of the full mix, an .lrc file with each lyric line timestamped and a 1024 by 1024 album cover, on every plan. Use the MP3 as your master in editors, the .lrc for synced lyrics and captions, and the cover for uploads and thumbnails. Free downloads are 128 kbps; paid plans get original quality.

This guide is for anyone who has just pressed download and is looking at a folder of files wondering what each one is for. It is also useful before you choose a tool, because the export decides how much work happens after generation.

You will learn what is inside each file, how to name and store them, how to use an .lrc in players and video editors, how to handle audio quality across a project, and what you do not get from most vocal song generators. The examples use files from the MusicVivo AI music generator, but the principles apply to any tool.

What lands in your downloads folder

Here is the export as it arrives, file by file.

An instrumental render has no sung lines, so its .lrc has little or nothing useful in it. A vocal song's .lrc is where most of the extra value sits.

The audio file: your master

The MP3 is the finished mix: every instrument and voice combined into a stereo file. Treat it like a master tape.

Rename it immediately. Generated files often have IDs for names. Rename to something you will recognize in six months: bakery-bed_92bpm_v3.mp3 or mom-birthday-song_final.mp3. Include the tempo if you will edit to it. Our guide to setting BPM and key explains why tempo in the file name saves time.

Keep an untouched copy. Put the original in a masters folder and never overwrite it. Edit copies.

Avoid repeated re-encoding. Every time you export an MP3 from an editor and then import it into another project and export again, quality drops a little. Import the master into your video editor or DAW, do all the work there, and export the final project once.

Quality by plan. Free plan downloads are 128 kbps MP3, which is fine for previewing and personal listening on phone speakers. Paid plans download at original quality, which holds up better on good headphones, in cars and after platform re-encoding.

The .lrc file: timed lyrics in plain text

LRC is a simple, long-standing format for lyrics synced to audio. It is plain text. Open it in any text editor and you will see lines like this:

Each line starts with a timestamp in square brackets: minutes, seconds and hundredths. The line after it is what is sung from that moment. An empty timestamp often marks an instrumental gap.

Using the .lrc in music players

Many desktop and mobile music players show synced lyrics automatically if the .lrc file has exactly the same name as the audio file and sits in the same folder:

• come-home-slow.mp3
• come-home-slow.lrc

Open the MP3 and the lyrics scroll as the song plays. This makes a personal song gift much more meaningful, because the recipient reads along. Gift-specific ideas are in song gift with cover art.

Turning .lrc into video captions

Video editors usually want SRT or similar caption formats, which need a start and end time per line. Converting is straightforward:

1. Each .lrc timestamp becomes a caption start time.
2. The end time is the next line's timestamp, minus a small gap of about 0.1 seconds.
3. Copy the line text as the caption text.

For a 20-line song that is ten minutes by hand, and many free converters automate it. The result is lyric captions for a lyric video, a Reel or a karaoke night with no manual timing. Our full explainer on the LRC file format covers the format's extra tags and edge cases.

Fixing timing drift

If a caption appears slightly early or late, adjust in the text file. Change [00:12.90] to [00:13.10] to delay that line by 0.2 seconds. Since the file is plain text you can fix a whole song in a couple of minutes without special software.

The album cover: artwork for uploads

On every plan, including Free, each render comes with a 1024 by 1024 square image designed to fit the track's mood. Square art at this size is the standard shape for music players, podcast episode art and social posts.

Where it is useful:

• Audio uploads. Many platforms ask for artwork with a track.
• Shared gifts. A cover makes a song feel like a finished release when you send it.
• Thumbnails and posts. Crop or place it inside a larger canvas for video thumbnails.
• Playlists. Your own library looks tidy when every track has art.

Adapting it to other shapes. For a 16:9 YouTube thumbnail, place the square on one side of a 1280 by 720 canvas and add a title on the other side, or blur an enlarged copy as the background. For a 9:16 story, center the square with text above and below.

A filing system that scales

A few generations are easy to track. Fifty are not. Use one folder per project with the same inner structure every time.

The prompts.txt file matters for two reasons. It lets you regenerate a matching track later, and it documents which plan you were on, which tells you what license covers the file. The keep your license records guide shows a simple log format.

What you do not get, and how to work around it

Being clear about missing pieces prevents surprises during an edit.

No stems. MusicVivo exports a full stereo mix, not separate drum, bass and vocal tracks. If you need the voice quieter in one section, automate the whole track's volume, or regenerate with a softer vocal setting. If you need an instrumental version of a vocal song, render the same prompt with vocals set to none; it will be a new composition in the same style rather than the identical backing.

No MIDI or sheet music. The output is audio. If you want to learn the chords, use a chord detection tool on the MP3 or work them out by ear.

No separate vocal file. For karaoke you can use the .lrc for on-screen words and play an instrumental render of the same prompt underneath.

Worked example: one song, four outputs

Render: a two-minute acoustic song for a friend's housewarming, female lead vocal, made on a paid plan.

Downloads: housewarming.mp3, housewarming.lrc, housewarming-cover.jpg.

Output 1, a private listening file. Send the MP3 and .lrc together in a zip. The friend opens them in a music player and reads along.

Output 2, a lyric video. Convert the .lrc to captions, place the cover on a 1920 by 1080 canvas with a soft blurred background, and let the captions run over it. Export once.

Output 3, a 30-second Reel. Pick the chorus by finding its timestamp in the .lrc, for example [00:26.30]. Trim the MP3 from 26 seconds to 56 seconds, add captions for those lines only, and use a 9:16 canvas with the cover centered.

Output 4, a printed card. Print the cover with a QR code linking to a private upload of the song.

Every output came from three files and one edit session. For more on sharing songs as gifts, see present a song gift.

Checking a download before you build on it

Spend two minutes on every keeper before it goes into a project. Problems found now cost nothing; problems found after a two-hour edit cost the edit.

Listen to the first and last three seconds. Check that the track starts cleanly and that the ending is the ending you asked for: a ringing chord, a hit or a fade. If the end is cut short, render a slightly longer version rather than trying to invent a tail in the editor.

Check the level. Generated tracks arrive mixed and mastered to a normal listening level. If you will place music under a voice, you will lower it anyway. If you are making a playlist of several renders, compare loudness by ear and adjust each clip so none jumps out.

Read along with the .lrc. For vocal songs, play the audio with the lyrics file open. Make sure every line appears and the timing feels right. Small offsets are easy to fix in the text.

Look at the cover at thumbnail size. Art that looks great at full size can turn into a blur at 120 pixels wide. If you will use it as a thumbnail, check it small.

Confirm the plan. A 30-second file from the Free plan is for personal use. If the project is commercial, make sure the version you are using was rendered on a paid plan.

Choosing a tool by its export

If you are comparing generators, the export often matters more than small differences in sound. Ask three questions: what audio quality do I get on the plan I will use, do I get synced lyrics, and does the license on that plan cover my use? For a side-by-side look at tools by use case, see best AI music generators by use case. If you are leaving another tool, Udio alternative: features to compare lists export features worth checking.

People also ask

What file formats do AI music generators export? Most export compressed audio such as MP3, and some offer WAV. Vocal song tools may add lyrics files and artwork. MusicVivo gives an MP3 and timed .lrc on every plan, plus a cover, on every plan.

What is an LRC file and how do I open it? It is plain text with a timestamp for each lyric line. Open it in any text editor, or keep it next to the MP3 with the same name so players show synced lyrics.

Is MP3 good enough for YouTube or podcasts? Yes for most use, because platforms re-encode uploads. Keep the original as your master and export your final project once.

Do AI music generators give you stems? Some do, many do not. MusicVivo exports a finished stereo mix without stems, so check documentation if you need separate parts.

Related reading

• What Is an AI Music Generator? A Beginner's Guide
• How to Generate Music with AI: A Practical Workflow
• Can You Use AI Music Commercially?
• An AI Music Workflow for Content Creators
• LRC File Explained
• Song Gift with Cover Art

Product and company names mentioned in this article are trademarks of their respective owners. MusicVivo is an independent product and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by any of them. Comparisons are based on publicly available information at the time of writing; check each provider's own site for current features, pricing and terms.