How To Easily Add Music to Your Instagram Stories

The best Instagram videos stand out with perfectly paired music tracks that enhance their captivating visuals.

Luckily, you don’t need to be a great singer or musical artist to add compelling music to your content — the platform makes it easy to add tracks or songs to your Stories, Reels, and posts. 

Learn how to add music to your Instagram Story and apply royalty-free audio to catch viewers’ attention. 

Adding Music to Your Stories: 6 Steps

The platform introduced the option to use music on an Instagram Story in 2018. Now, millions of people access Stories daily, making it one of the most popular social media formats on the web. Here’s how to add music to Instagram posts in six easy steps.

1. Record or Upload a Video

Open the Instagram app and tap the Story icon in the top left corner of your screen. Then click Camera to record a video. 

Alternatively, you can click the airplane widget on an existing post and select “Add post to your Story” or upload a video from your device.

2. Use the Music Sticker

Once your video is ready, tap the Sticker button at the top of your screen. In the Stickers dashboard, select the Music sticker to open the Instagram Music Library. 

3. Explore the Music Library

The library contains thousands of songs that you can add to your videos. Search for a specific track or browse by mood, genre, or trends. Save songs for your later videos, or click “For You” to see a curated list of songs based on your previous selections. Check back daily, as the platform constantly uploads new tracks from established and trending artists. 

4. Edit Your Music 

Once you find the right song, decide how you want the music to sound in your video. Choose how long you want the music to play based on your Instagram Story dimensions, and move the slider to fast-forward or rewind through the clip to pick the perfect segment of the audio.

5. Adjust the Format

Instagram allows you to choose whether to display the song name with its album art, show just the song name, or simply play the music. You can also display the song lyrics in various fonts and adjust where you place the music sticker. Pin the visual to a specific location or attach it to allow it to move around the screen.

6. Share Your Video

After you finish editing your song, you can upload your video to your Story. Click Close Friends to share the video with a few people, or tap Your Story to post it to your whole following.

How To Add a Spotify Song to Your Instagram Story

Instagram also lets you add music to Stories directly from streaming services like Spotify. Simply install the song app on your phone and follow these steps:

• Open the Spotify app on your device. If you don’t have a Premium subscription, you’ll need to upgrade your account to add audio directly from the app.
• Search for the song you want to add to your Story. 
• Click the three vertical dots in the top right-hand corner of the screen or tap the Share button at the bottom to open the sharing menu. Select the Instagram icon to apply the song. 

Can I Add My Own Music to Instagram?

You can add original music to your Instagram rather than using someone else’s songs. Adding your own songs makes your videos unique, and it lets you earn royalties every time someone uses your audio in their content. Here are two ways to add your own music to Instagram:

• Option 1: Upload your songs to a streaming platform like Spotify, SoundCloud, or Shazam. Then you can share your music to Instagram by finding it in the streaming service’s library. 
• Option 2: Upload your songs to the Instagram Music Library and add your tracks directly through the app. 

Before you can add songs to the Instagram library or a streaming platform, you need to sign up with an online music distribution company like TuneCore, DistroKid, or Ditto. These companies let musicians license and upload their tracks to streaming platforms and retailers.

Why Should You Add Music to Your Instagram Content?

Adding background music transforms Instagram content in numerous ways, some that are blatant and others that work behind the scenes. 

The most obvious benefit to adding music is that it can enhance storytelling. Music pushes your narrative forward or slows it down, conveys emotions, and sets the mood for a scene. For example, integrating an intense rock or rap song into a video of a car driving through the wilderness creates an adventurous, exciting tone. On the other hand, showing the same footage with a light orchestral arrangement creates a more tranquil vibe. 

Instagram’s algorithm detects when you add music to your videos and posts, which can lead to recommendations for users who follow the featured artists. By using trending audio, you can enhance this effect and reach more viewers.

Another benefit to adding music is that it can increase viewer engagement with your content. Imagine you add a popular song to your Instagram Story that is currently trending. Fans of the song artist may leave comments praising the music or like and share your content with friends. Increased engagement leads to increased connections with viewers, raising your chance of growing subscribers, leads, and conversions. 

Create Custom Music With Captions

Music makes Instagram content more engaging and helps emphasize your key message. Personal accounts can easily access copyrighted music, but commercial accounts don’t have the same option. To work around this, businesses can use royalty-free music and original tracks in their videos without copyright issues.

Captions’ AI Music feature allows you to generate custom tracks to add to content for commercial use. Pick from 50 genres, moods, and themes to create unique audio that makes your content more compelling. Adjust the intensity volume to seamlessly blend the music with your video’s visuals. 

With Captions, you can create AI avatars, remove filler words, and add captions to Instagram Stories in just a few clicks. No matter your needs or industry, Captions has the tools you need to elevate all your Instagram ideas.

FAQs 

Why are my song choices limited on Instagram?

Temporary account issues, such as cached data or bad software updates, can cause playback errors, which may explain why Instagram music is limited. Licensing restrictions and regional limitations in certain countries can also make songs unavailable depending on your location or account type. For example, business accounts can only use royalty-free songs unless they have a licensing agreement, restricting their ability to use audio from the Music Library. 

Why won’t Instagram let me add music to my Story?

In most cases, you can’t add music to your Story because your region doesn’t support the feature. If your location doesn’t allow Music Stickers, you can try using a VPN to “relocate” to a country that does. 

Will Instagram delete Stories with music?

Instagram may mute or even delete videos that use copyrighted music inappropriately. For example, Instagram may restrict long videos with full-length songs if you don’t own the copyright or have a licensing agreement to play the music. However, you don’t need to worry about restrictions on Stories thanks to their short length.