A photo cannot store a normal music soundtrack by itself. To add audio to an image for video sharing, upload the audio in Create video and choose the photo as your background. Turn captions off for an instrumental or cover-art video, choose whether to show spectrum bars, and download MP4.
Use an audio file and image you can publish
Use your own recording or music and artwork you have permission to publish. Upload MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, FLAC or OGG, or the soundtrack of a supported video. Audio and video uploads are limited to 100 MB and 10 minutes. A JPG, PNG or WebP background can be up to 5 MB.
Set the photo crop before styling
Choose 16:9 for a landscape cover, 9:16 for a vertical clip or 1:1 for a square composition. Upload the photo as the background and check the crop. Keep faces, artwork credits and important text inside the visible frame. This workflow uses one background image, not a multi-photo slideshow.
Choose a still cover or music spectrum
Disable captions when you want the image and audio without recognized words. Disable the spectrum for a still-photo treatment, or enable it for moving frequency bars. The uploaded soundtrack remains audible. Spectrum bars visualize frequency energy; they are not a measured beat map or instrument detector.
Add lyrics only when the source contains singing
For a song with vocals, enable captions and select the sung language. Recognition may miss lyrics, so correct the text and timing in the result editor. Instrumentals do not contain sung lyrics to recover. Turning captions off skips recognition; it does not remove vocals.
Download MP4 and review it with sound
Export H.264 video with AAC audio at 720p or 1080p. Play the beginning and ending to check the crop, volume and any text. The result is a video file, not an MP3, a permanent public hosting link or a direct social post. Google sign-in is required; the current service is free with shared usage limits, and private files expire after 14 days.
Common questions
Can I add a song to a photo without captions?
Yes. Turn captions off. You can also turn the spectrum off to keep the background still. The exported MP4 keeps the audio.
Can I download the result as an image with audio?
The output is MP4 because it includes a timed audio track and video frames. It does not modify a JPG or PNG into an audio file.