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How To Add Music to Your Instagram Stories: Step-by-step Guide

Instagram Tips & Resources

By Monique Thomas

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Updated on March 16, 2021

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4 minute read

Wondering how to add music or trending sounds to your Instagram Stories posts? We have all the details!

Published March 16, 2021

With the Instagram music sticker, you can add music and lyrics to your Instagram Stories — creating a fun soundtrack for your community.

However, the Instagram Stories music sticker has proved to be quite elusive — with many users having a limited music library or no access at all.

In this blog post, we’re sharing how to add music in your Instagram Stories, and why some accounts don’t have access:

How to Add Music in Instagram Stories

Ready to add a soundtrack to your Instagram Stories? Follow the steps below and you’ll be posting stories with your favorite beat in no time.

First, download the latest version of the Instagram app on iOS or Android. Next, open the Instagram Stories camera and take or upload a photo or video.

Once that’s done, tap the stickers button at the top of the screen and choose the music sticker.

This will open the Instagram music library where you’ll find thousands of songs to choose from.

You can scroll through a “For You” tab of suggested songs, browse by categories, or search for a specific song.

Instagram’s music library is filled with popular songs and artists like Beyoncé, Guns N’ Roses, and Ariana Grande — all thanks to Facebook’s partnership with record labels.

NOTE: If you have a business account, you may only have a limited selection of music due to Instagram’s licensing agreements.

When you’re happy with your song choice, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits your story.

You can also choose how long you want the music clip to play for (the maximum is 15 seconds).

If lyrics are available for the song you select, they should pop up on your screen.

You can then choose different fonts and designs for them, and edit which part of the song you want to play.

When someone watches your story, they can tap the lyrics to learn more about the artist or listen to the song.

Finally, you can customize what the sticker looks by tapping it before publishing:

Now you’re ready to post to Instagram Stories. As usual, you can add GIFs, polls, or even hashtags.

Then tap the “Your Story” button at the bottom of your screen, and you’re all set.

Want to manage your Instagram feed like a pro? Easily plan, organize, and schedule your content with Later's Instagram Scheduler.

Why Can’t I Add Music to My Instagram Stories?

When the music sticker was first introduced, it was only available in “select countries”, including Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, and the US.

The feature has since been rolled out even further, with Canada being added to the list in 2020.

If you’re not in one of the countries with access to the music sticker, unfortunately, there’s not much you can do other than sit tight right now.

If you live in a country where the feature is available but doesn’t appear to be working as you’d expect, it may be due to one of these reasons:

  • You need to update your app. Instagram frequently rolls out new updates, so you may be simply using an older version!

  • You’re using a business account. Due to licensing restrictions, business accounts may have a selection of royalty-free songs instead of more popular options. You could switch to an Instagram creator profile instead. 

  • You’re sharing a branded content ad. Instagram’s rules state that branded content ads should avoid GIFs, emojis, music, and more than one sticker.

It’s unknown when other countries will have access to the music sticker, and if Instagram’s licensing restrictions will change for business accounts, but we’ll keep you updated.

Are you looking to gain new followers and boost your reach? Checkout our instagram social listening tool today!

About the Author

Monique Thomas

Content Marketer

Monique is Later's Editorial Content Marketing Manager. You can usually find her sipping matcha or adding another book to her TBR list. Say hi on Instagram — @wordsbymonique

Plan, schedule, and automatically publish your social media posts with Later.

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How to Add Music to Your Instagram Story in 2023

Wondering how to add music to an Instagram Story?

If you’re a content creator or marketer, then you know that using creative visuals is key to catching people’s attention on social media.

One of the best ways to grab attention is to create Instagram Stories that are a vibe. You’ll want to add music to set the mood, and this article will teach you exactly how to do that in 6 different ways.

How to add music to your Instagram Story

How to add music to an Instagram Story with Apple Music

How to add music to an Instagram Story with SoundCloud

How to add music to an Instagram Story with Shazam

Why am I only able to see limited music choices on Instagram?

Bonus: Unlock our free, customizable Instagram storyboard template to save time and plan all your Stories content in advance.

How to add music to your Instagram Story

Adding music to your Instagram Story in the app is pretty easy! You can watch this video to find out how:

It’s a necessary skill for any marketer or content creator worth their salt.

Plus, once you’ve got Instagram Stories nailed, you can move on to the rest of your Instagram marketing strategy. We can walk you through creating white-hot Instagram Story Ads, too.

Stick with us, and you’ll be well on your way to engaging and entertaining your followers in no time.

Follow these eight steps to add music to your Instagram Story.

Step 1: Open the Instagram app

Step 2: Tap on the Your Story icon in the top left corner of the screen or find a post you would like to share and hit the airplane widget then click Add post to your story

Or:

Step 3: If you’ve chosen to add a Story from the Your Story icon, then tap on the Camera square in the top left corner or choose a photo or video from your camera roll.

If you’re sharing someone’s feed post, move on to Step 4.

Step 4: On the top bar of widgets, navigate to stickers

Step 5: Tap on the Music sticker

Step 6: Select a song from the For you library or search for a specific song using Browse

Step 7: Once you’ve selected a song, you will have the option to show either just the song’s name or the album art. Here, you can scroll through the song and choose the place where you want the music to start.

Step 8: Share to either your Close friends or your entire following by hitting Your story

How to add music to an Instagram Story without a sticker

If you’ve followed the steps above but don’t see the music sticker in your app, there are 3 potential reasons:

  1. You need to update your app
  2. Instagram’s music feature isn’t available in your country
  3. You’re sharing a branded content campaign

Copyright laws and Instagram’s advertising rules mean that some features (like music) can’t be included in branded content ads.

But maybe you’re wondering how to add music to your Instagram Story without the Sticker. Well, good news, friend, there’s a pretty easy workaround.

Step 1. Open a music streaming app, like Spotify or Apple Music

Step 2. Start playing the song you want to use

Step 3. With the song still playing, head to Instagram and record your Story. The music playing on your phone will be included in the end result.

Just a note, this workaround won’t show your followers the album cover or lyrics.

It’s not technically sanctioned by Instagram, so you won’t have the same features the app offers. It’s more of a ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ situation.

You may also be on the hook for copyright infringement which Instagram is pretty strict about. If so, Instagram will remove your Story and could flag your account.

Just FYI, Instagram defines its ‘general copyright guidelines’ as:

  • Music in stories and traditional live music performances (e. g., filming an artist or band performing live) are permitted.
  • The greater the number of full-length recorded tracks in a video, the more likely it may be limited.
  • For that reason, shorter clips of music are recommended.
  • There should always be a visual component to your video; recorded audio should not be the primary purpose of the video.

So, if you do use the workaround above, it would be beneficial for you to use a shorter clip and accompany your recording with a visual component. If you need some visual component inspiration, here are over 30 Story ideas you can shamelessly steal!

The only problem with having so much Story inspiration is that you probably won’t want to post them all at once. Being able to schedule Instagram Stories in 4 simple steps is a must for busy content creators.

How to add music to an Instagram Story with Spotify

Vibing to a song on Spotify that you think your Instagram community would like? Well, you can add music to Instagram Stories directly from Spotify.

Step 1. Open the Spotify app

Step 2. Find the music you want to add to your Instagram Story

Step 3. Tap the vertical ellipsis icon on a song, album, or playlist

Step 4: In the pop-up menu, navigate to Share

Step 5: Navigate to Instagram Stories. You might have to give your permission to open Instagram

Step 6: Spotify will open up a new Story for you, uploading the cover art of the song, album, or playlist.

Once you publish your Story, your followers will be able to click through your Story to the song you posted on Spotify.

Step 7: For the music to play over the cover art image, add the song following the steps outlined above under “How to add music to your Instagram Story.”

If you are getting the error message “You can’t add a song to a story you shared from another app,” you may not be able to play music over the cover art image, but there is a workaround!

Follow the steps above and then hit the download button or take a screenshot. Discard this Story and create a new one using your downloaded or screenshotted version and add music like you normally would.

This means your followers won’t be able to navigate to the song on Spotify from your Instagram Story, however.

How to add music to an Instagram Story with Apple Music

Sharing music to an Instagram Story through Apple Music is simple. In four easy steps you’ll be able to post songs across your apps.

Step 1: Open the Apple Music app

Step 2: Find a song, album, or playlist that you want to post

Step 3: Touch and hold the piece, then tap Share

Step 4: In this menu, tap Instagram and post as you normally would

Source: Apple

How to add music to an Instagram Story with SoundCloud

Adding music from Soundcloud directly to an Instagram Story is especially useful for musicians. This way, you can cross-promote your new music to your Instagram followers. People who see your Instagram Story will be able to click on your song and listen to it on Soundcloud.

Step 1. Open the SoundCloud app

Step 2. Find the song, album, or playlist you want to post, hit the share icon

Step 3. In the pop-up menu, select Stories. You may have to give your permission to open the Instagram app.

Step 4. SoundCloud will upload the cover art to your Instagram Story.

Step 5: For the music to play over the cover art image, add the song following the steps outlined above under “How to add music to your Instagram Story”

Step 6. Once you post your Story, a link will appear at the top of the Story that says Play on SoundCloud. If you click this link, you’ll be taken directly to that song, album, or playlist on SoundCloud.

How to add music to an Instagram Story with Shazam

Step 1. Open the Shazam app

Step 2. You can either hit Tap to Shazam to identify a new song or choose a song from your library of previous Shazams

Step 3. Tap the share icon in the top-right corner

Step 4: Choose Instagram. You may have to give your permission to open the Instagram app.

Step 5: Shazam will create a new story with the cover art of the song

Step 6: For the music to play over the cover art image, add the song following the steps outlined above under “How to add music to your Instagram Story”

Step 7. Once you post your Story, a link will appear at the top of the Story that says More on Shazam. If you click this link, you’ll be taken directly to that song, album, or playlist on Shazam.

Why am I only able to see limited music choices on Instagram?

If you can only see a limited music selection, it’s likely one of two things. It could be your professional account or the copyright laws in your country.

Do you have a business account? ​​Instagram restricts songs for business accounts. You can switch to a personal or creator account, but be sure to weigh your Instagram business vs. creator vs. personal account pros and cons first.

Your music selection could be dependent on where you live. Instagram music isn’t available in all countries, and they follow the copyright laws of the country they operate in closely.

Don’t just save time adding music to your Instagram Stories, save time managing all your social media networks with Hootsuite! From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

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Music in Stories, short videos and replies with songs: Instagram will launch new features in Russia

  • Technologies

Instagram has announced the launch of new features in Russia. Users will have access to a TikTok-like Reels video service and a music sticker in Stories. With it, you can add music to your stories and answer questions with songs. Russian Facebook users will be able to pin it in the profile header so that it plays when the page is opened

Starting June 23, Russian Instagram users will begin accessing Reels, a platform for short videos, the company said.

With Reels, you can shoot and edit videos up to 30 seconds long, apply AR effects to them, and use the green screen effect to change the background. In Reels, you can add music from the app's library or choose from trends or recommendations. Users will also be able to create their own original audio, and if their account is public, other users will be able to use this audio in their videos.

Videos created using the new feature can be published in Stories or Post format, optionally limiting the audience. In addition, Facebook and Instagram are also launching a new music sticker in Stories. To add music to your Stories, you will need to follow these steps:

  • open the camera in the application, select a photo or video from the gallery, click on the sticker icon and select the Music sticker;
  • find any song from the library, select a fragment, add the name of the artist and the name of the song. If the composition has lyrics, it will automatically appear on the screen;
  • Click on a sticker to change the text style and animation. The sticker can be moved, rotated and resized.

With the release of the music sticker, Instagram and Facebook users will be able to answer questions in Stories with songs. In addition, Facebook users will be able to add their favorite track to the Hobbies / Interests section and pin it to the profile header - it will be played every time someone decides to visit this user's profile.

“Reinventing TikTok is unlikely to succeed”: what’s wrong with YouTube and Facebook’s short video services

Instagram began to roll out the Reels feature around the world in an attempt to attract an audience of TikTok. In Russia, the short video format is gaining popularity - VKontakte is already developing its own clone of TikTok - the service is called Clips. In addition, in the fall of 2020, the head of the Ministry of Education, Sergey Kravtsov, announced joint plans with Mail.ru Group to develop an educational network for Russian schoolchildren, similar to TikTok.

30 most expensive Runet companies. Forbes rating

30 photos

overlay on videos and photos, how to use music stickers

*Instagram and Facebook social networks belong to Meta, an organization whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

Sultan Suleimanov

listens to music on Instagram *

Author profile

Users of Instagram and Facebook* from Russia since June 23 have access to music stickers, a feature that allows you to add song snippets to stories.

Music stickers on Instagram* appeared back in 2018, but earlier users from Russia weren’t able to use them: they couldn’t be added to their stories and they couldn’t listen to music in others. Now everything has changed, and now we will tell you how to use it.

Step 1

Go to Instagram* and select a photo or video

Before adding a music sticker, you need to create a post in your story. Go to the Instagram app*, swipe left and either take a photo or video in the app's camera or add it from the gallery. This also works with text stories created by the "Create" button in the side menu of the camera, but not with posts in the feed.

You can process your post - add filters and other stickers - at this stage, or after adding music.

The button with the image of a note allows you to quickly add a music sticker, but you may not have it on the screen. It's safer to click on the add stickers button and find a sticker there that says "Music"

Step 2

Add a music sticker

Click on the add stickers button and find the item "Music" there. A list of recommended tracks will appear, but there is a search bar at the top of the screen - you can use it to find the song you are interested in. Click on the track you want to add to your story.

Facebook*, which owns Instagram*, does not disclose the size of the music database, but there are definitely popular performers there. For example, Artur Pirozhkov, Elka and the King and the Jester group.

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Judging by the list, Instagram* forms the “For You” tab based on user subscriptions: I see in the list of musicians that

is subscribed to

Step 3

Select song fragment

After you have selected a song, you will be prompted to set up a sticker. Globally, there are two settings: which fragment will sound in stories and how the sticker itself will look.

First select a fragment - it can be up to 15 seconds long. To do this, move one of the two sliders at the bottom of the screen left or right. Next to the sliders there is a button for changing the duration: if 15 seconds is too long, you can trim a fragment of the song.

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The button adjusts the duration of the fragment over time. It does not work for stories with videos: the fragment will last as long as your video. The dotted slider allows you to precisely select a section of the song, and the slider above it is useful for quickly moving through the track

Step 4

Customize the appearance of the sticker

If the Instagram database* contains the lyrics of the song you have chosen, then animated lines will appear on the screen, just like in karaoke. By switching between the buttons at the bottom of the screen, you can customize the font and animation associated with it. The colored round icon at the top of the screen is needed to change the color of the text.

If there is no text in the Instagram database* or you don't want to display karaoke in stories, you can choose one of two static sticker options: they show the album cover, artist name and song title.

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How to make a simple mask for Instagram*

When you're done with the settings, click the Done button.

Click on the rainbow button to change the color of the text. If Instagram* doesn't know the lyrics of your song, only static stickers

will be available to you

Step 5

Place the sticker on the screen

You finally got a music sticker! Now you can move it around the screen, tilt and resize it, just like with regular stickers. Pick the perfect location and post what you've got.

This is what the story will look like after posting

What if I don't have a music sticker?

As a Facebook representative* explained, music stickers will appear gradually for Russian users. This means that you will probably have to wait a few days or weeks - the exact timing is unknown.

To brighten up the wait, you can:

  1. Update the Instagram app* to the latest version.

    Learn more