Unlike most other social networks, Instagram is not text-heavy. It mainly relies on the photos and videos we post to convey our message. They can be published as permanent photos or videos, or as limited-time Instagram stories shared with friends and followers.
However, if you want to make your Instagram stories stand out a bit more, you can customize them by adding music. Instagram has rights agreements with many of the major music labels, allowing you to add popular music tracks directly to your Instagram stories without question of rights.
Here’s how to start adding music to your Instagram stories and make them more fun.
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How to add music to Instagram Stories
Adding music to Instagram stories is a great way to create a more interesting story for your followers. You can share audio and also set visually impressive lyrics that scroll with your story so your followers can sing along.
This is entirely possible thanks to the agreements made between Facebook (the owner of Instagram) and the major record labels. You can find music to add to your stories by name or category through the Instagram app itself on Android devices, iPhones, or iPads.
This is only available for personal Instagram accounts. If you’re using a business account, the amount of music licensed to you is much more limited.
Create a new Instagram story
- To start adding music to your Instagram story, open the Instagram app on your Android or Apple device and select Your story at the top left. Or, choose add in the top right, then select Story options from the carousel at the bottom.
- You’ll need to create or upload the content you want to upload to your next story. This can be a photo or video you’ve taken within the app itself, or something you’ve created elsewhere. Option Story in the carousel menu at the bottom, then select Camera to start taking a photo (or select and hold it to record a video).
- If you want to upload a video or photo to upload, select Media in the bottom left, then select the appropriate video or photo from your device’s photo library.
Add music to Instagram stories
- Once you’ve created or inserted content to share on your Instagram story, select Stickers in the top right menu.
- inside Stickers search menu, select Music right to buy. If this isn’t immediately visible, use the search bar at the top to search for it.
- inside Music , you can search for the right music to add to your video. For example, you can choose one of the suggested options immediately in For you tab or select Browse to find music sorted by category, music style or mood. Alternatively, use the search bar at the top to search for a specific track or artist. Once you’ve found a song you’d like to add to your story, select it for further customization.
Customize Instagram story music
- Music added to a video can last up to 15 seconds. To change this time interval, select audio length at the bottom right. Choose a new duration (5 to 15 seconds long) before choosing Accomplished confirm.
- To change the position of the code to another point in the song, move playback slider at the bottom of the left or right menu. Moving left moves the audio track closer to the beginning of the song, while moving right moves the audio track closer to the end.
- Adding music to your story also involves adding auto-generated lyrics that appear in sequence as the music clip plays. To change how these lyrics are displayed, choose an alternative using the options provided at the bottom of the menu (just above the playback slider).
- If you want to completely remove the lyrics, choose one of the artist label instead, the carousel style at the end of the lyrics.
- To change the color of the lyrics you insert (or the color of the inserted artist label), select color converter tools at the top of the menu. Selecting this option will change the colors — choose continuously to toggle between different colors.
- Once you’ve made changes to your music, select Accomplished at the top right.
- This will add a lyrics carousel or artist labels to your story for you to view and edit before publishing. You can move it by selecting the lyrics carousel or the artist label and moving it with your finger. If you want to change your settings, tap it to go back Music menu.
- Alternatively, drag the carousel or artist label to the bottom of the screen and drop it in Eliminate Icon. This will remove the music from your story.
Post Instagram stories with music
- Once you’ve added music to your new story, you’ll need to publish it. Make additional changes to your story as required (such as adding text or other stickers), then select Send to at the bottom right.
- If you only want to share your story with followers added to your selected close friends list, select Repost side button Best friend right to buy. To post the story for all your followers or visitors to see, depending on your Instagram privacy settingschoose Repost side button Your story instead.
Watch Instagram stories with music
- View a published story (and listen to music you’ve added) by selecting Your story in the main Instagram menu or by selecting your display photo in the profile menu.
How to add external music sources to Instagram stories
The method above shows how to add music to Instagram stories using Instagram’s built-in music database. However, you can add music to your Instagram stories using external sources, such as Spotify. You may want to do this if you want to add non-copyrighted music (or music that you own) to your story.
However, you will need to have the appropriate app (such as the Spotify app) installed on your device to do this.
- For example, to add music to an Instagram story using Spotify, open the Spotify app and search for the song you want to add. To add a song to your story, select three-dot menu icon > Repost in the playback menu.
- inside Repost optional, choose Instagram right to buy.
- This will add the song and artist name, album art, and other available media (such as a song video) to your story. Choose Send to option to start publishing your story then select Best friend or Your story to give your friends or a broader list of followers.
Use Instagram effectively
Once you know how to add music to your Instagram stories, you can start creating engaging and entertaining content for your followers. If you want to repeat your success, you can repost your stories (as well as those of others) to share them further, especially if you’re switching between multiple accounts.
While Instagram is focused on mobile users, there are desktop Instagram apps that you can use to experiment with the platform on your PC or Mac. If you want to take your stories elsewhere, you can even think about downloading your content from Instagram, but if you run into problems, you can always Delete your account instead of.
