Instagram Stories are easy to create, but they can require a lot of thought if you want to make them truly entertaining. Thankfully, Instagram offers a number of tools to help make your stories as fun as possible.
Maybe you have some great photos or videos and some cool filters and stickers to layer on top, but your story is still missing one important factor—music. Instagram offers a selection of tunes from its own library and your favorite music streaming services, like Spotify, SoundCloud, and Shazam. Here's everything you need to know about adding music to your Instagram stories.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
You can add music directly to your story using Instagram’s library. Open the app on your mobile device. From the main feed page, tap the plus (+) icon at the top of the app and then select Story on the bottom navigation bar. You can also long-press Your Story and tap Add to Your Story or just tap Your Story and then tap the Camera icon.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
At the camera screen, snap your photo or video. If you’d rather use an existing photo or video, swipe up to see your photo library and then select the image that you wish to add. Apply whatever filters or special effects you want. When you're ready to add a tune to your story, tap the Sticker icon and then tap the Music sticker.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
At the Music screen, browse through the different sections and genres to find a song. You can also use the search field at the top of the screen to look for particular music by song, artist, or album. Spot a tune you might like? Tap the Play button to hear a short clip.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
After you’ve selected a song, tap its name to add it to your story.
You’ll have the opportunity to scroll through the song and decide which clip of the music (up to 15 seconds) will play over your story. Move the slider bar until you find the section you want added.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
Some songs offer multiple images from which you can choose, so tap the music thumbnail to change the image. Some even offer lyrics that appear on the screen as the music plays. When you're happy with the image you've chosen, tap Done and the song is added to your story in the form of a sticker.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
You can choose where the sticker will be placed in your story by moving it around the screen with your finger. Change the size of the sticker by pinching or expanding two fingers. Use two fingers and twist to change the orientation of the sticker. Don’t like the look of your sticker? Double tap it to return to the previous screen, where you can change its appearance. Tap Done to return to your story.
If you’ve recorded a video, you can do even more with your sticker before you post the story. Hold down on it and you’ll be able to pin the sticker to a specific person or object in the video. This means the sticker will move along with the object as it moves in the video.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
When you're done tweaking the music, tap the Your Story icon to publish your story with music. Alternatively, if you want only specific people to see it, tap the More icon at the bottom. From the menu, select Send to or Share to select which people should receive it.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
To view your story, tap the Your Story icon. Your story appears with the music automatically playing. Tapping the song label pauses the music and brings up a window at the bottom through which you can save the music or send it to another person on Instagram. Your followers can view your story and play the music in the same way.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
You can add external music to your Instagram story by grabbing it from certain apps, such as Spotify. With a song playing in Spotify, tap the Share icon. Select the icon for Instagram Stories, and you're taken to your Instagram story, where your selected song appears with its cover art.
You can add text, stickers, and other effects to your story. Tap the Your Story icon to post the story with the song you selected.
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(Credit: Lance Whitney)
After your story has been posted, it will display a Play on Spotify link. Anyone viewing your story can then tap the link and tap Open Spotify to hear the song in the Spotify app.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
You can also share music from the SoundCloud app to your Instagram story. Launch a song in the SoundCloud app, tap the Share icon, and select Instagram Stories to import the song and its associated image into Instagram.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
Back in Instagram, your story will present a Play on SoundCloud link. Anyone can tap it and select Open SoundCloud and listen to the song directly in the app.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
While Shazam is primarily used to analyze and identify songs to which you’re already listening, you can also use the app to play music and send it to Instagram. Open the app and allow it to recognize a song currently playing.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
With the song playing in Shazam, tap the Share icon and select Instagram.
If you don’t see Instagram listed on an iPhone or iPad, tap the More icon and then select it from the list. In Instagram, post the song and its artwork to your story by tapping the Your Story icon.
(Credit: Lance Whitney)
After the story has been published, you can travel back to the Shazam app through Instagram. To do this, open the story in Instagram and tap the More on Shazam link to play the song in the app.
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Even if your friends don't use Spotify, they can still see what you're listening to if you share your favorite songs on Instagram.
Spotify teamed up with the social media app in 2018, making for a seamless integration. Thanks to this update, you no longer have to screenshot the song you like to share it. Instead, you can post a stylized preview of the song, which also provides a direct link back to Spotify for others to easily find the song.
To do so, you'll first have to share the song on the Spotify app and select Instagram from the list of sharing options.
This will bring you to the social media app, where you can tweak your story before making it public to all of your followers or just to close friends.
Here's how to do it.
1. Open the Spotify app on your phone or tablet. Once you're listening to a song you'd like to share, tap the three dots found in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Tap the three dots. Stephanie Lin/Business Insider2. Tap "Share."
Share the song.
Stephanie Lin/Business Insider 3. Select "Instagram Stories" from the list of sharing options.
Select "Instagram Stories." Stephanie Lin/Business Insider4. This will open the Instagram app and automatically populate the song icon and link in a new story post. You can make adjustments to your story — such as adding text or stickers — before posting. Once you finish editing your post, tap "Send to" at the bottom of the screen.
5. Tap "Share" next to "Your Story" to share the song.
Share your song on Instagram story. Stephanie Lin/Business Insider
Marissa Perino
Marissa Perino is a former editorial intern covering executive lifestyle.
She previously worked at Cold Lips in London and Creative Nonfiction in Pittsburgh. She studied journalism and communications at the University of Pittsburgh, along with creative writing. Find her on Twitter: @mlperino.
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We can't deny how art and music helped everyone survive in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Over the past few months, I have discovered many good songs that I have never heard before, and the same can happen to you. If you're looking for a way to easily share found songs with your friends, you should consider sharing them on Instagram Stories.
While some consider songs and playlists to be private and not shared, others find joy in helping others find good music.
If you are ready to share songs, we will explain to you the way to quickly share songs on Instagram from your chosen music streaming platform. With all that said, let's start with the list.
Spotify is the music streaming service that has made posting songs on social media mainstream. If you're a Spotify user and wondering where to start, here's what you need to do. Turn on the song you want to share, click on the vertical three-dot icon in the top right corner, and select Share.
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On the "Share" page that opens, click on Instagram. The application will automatically generate a story with the album art of the song. Once it does all the hard work for you, click the "Your Story" button to share the song. Your followers can then click the "Play to Spotify" button to tune in to the song you just shared from the Spotify app on their phone.
This is a Spotify tip that everyone should know, and you can learn more Spotify tips and tricks from our linked article.
Following Spotify's lead, Apple Music recently added a feature that allows users to share songs to Instagram Stories. If you're an Apple Music user, you can access sharing settings by tapping the three-dot menu next to the song title and artist name. In the pop-up window that appears, click on the "Share song" option.
Here select "Instagram Stories" from the list of available options. Now you can add the song to your Instagram story. While Apple Music is late to the party, its implementation stands out. When you view a story that contains an Apple Music song, you'll notice a beautiful ripple effect in the background that enhances the aesthetic. This is undoubtedly my favorite implementation from the entire group. So you can easily share your 25 most popular songs for your Instagram followers to enjoy listening to.
TIDAL, the audiophile favorite music streaming service, has also received integration for sharing stories on Instagram. To get started, click on the three-dot vertical menu in the bottom right corner. When a pop-up window appears with a set of options, select Share.
Shortly after you select "Share", TIDAL will ask you to specify the target platform. As you can see below, the first option on the Share page is Instagram Stories. Click on it and wait for the app to redirect you to Instagram.
As for sharing songs from SoundCloud, this method is much easier thanks to the "Share" button right in the music player interface. All you have to do is click on it and select Stories with the Instagram logo on it.
The rest of the process is quite simple. SoundCloud will take you to the Instagram story add page and you can click to add the song to your story.
The final story has a neat blur with the SoundCloud logo and looks decent enough.
JioSaavn's UI update has made it on par with leading music streaming services in terms of features. If JioSaavn is your music streaming platform of choice, here's what you need to know to share songs from the app on Instagram. First, click on the three-dot vertical menu to open the pop-up window. When the pop-up appears, click "Share".
When the share sheet opens, select Instagram Stories. In a few seconds, JioSaavn will take you to Instagram and you can share that song you miss with your friends and family.
If you use Wynk Music, you can share songs on Instagram Stories. When you are in the player interface, click "More". After that, you will see the "Share" button as the first option. Click on it and wait for Wynk Music to navigate to the Instagram Story Download UI.
Unlike most apps on this list, Wynk Music uses Android's share sheet. As a result, you will have to take a minute to find "Instagram Stories" from the list of available apps. Once you find it, click on it to share the story. However, I'm not happy with Wynk Music's implementation. As you can see below, the developers have not added a direct option to open Wynk Music from Instagram, and all you get is an album cover with the app's logo in it. In a way, you could say that Wynk Music lied to me. I hope Wynk Music will fix this in a future update.
Although Shazam is not technically a music streaming service, millions of people around the world use the app to identify songs. If you're too excited after finding a catchy song using Shazam, you can share it with your Instagram followers directly from Shazam. To do this, open the Shazam page with the song, click on the three-dot vertical menu and select "Share".
On the Share page, search for "Shazam - Instagram Stories". Keep in mind that this option will have the Shazam logo, not Instagram. For reference, you can take a look at the image below. Once you find it, click on it and share the story on Instagram.
Gaana's implementation of song sharing on Instagram is a bit complicated and unreliable. While you won't see the option to share a song to Instagram from the player interface, this option does appear when you navigate to a track from the album section. Even so, it just generates album art like Wynk Music and doesn't offer a direct option to play the song from the Gaana app.
If you're still interested, you can access the album view, click on the horizontal button with three dots, and select Share to Instagram Story. As you can see below, Gaana did not offer the ability to access the app.
In September 2019, Pandora added the ability to share songs to its app.
To use this feature, open the app and play one of your favorite songs. In the music player interface, click on the horizontal three-dot menu next to the track name and select "Share". On the post sheet, select Instagram Stories. You can check the preview of the created story in the image below.
Image: Pandora
Deezer is another music streaming service that has the ability to share songs to Instagram Stories. You can click on the horizontal three-dot menu next to the song and choose "Share to Instagram Stories" to get started.
Image: Deezer Community
One of the unique aspects of Deezer's approach to Instagram stories is the fact that you can share up to 5 lines of text per story. This can be useful when you want to put extra emphasis on a particular part of a song.
Image: Deezer
There are currently only two major streaming services that do not support posting songs to Instagram Stories.
Of these two, YouTube Music will soon join the others as it has been testing the music sharing feature. However, there is no word on Amazon Music.
If you're in a hurry, you'll be happy to know that you can share songs using Instagram's music feature without relying on third-party apps. However, please note that your song selection is limited to the Instagram music library. To get started, choose a background for your story and click the sticker button on the top right side of the story interface. Select "Music" from the options that appear.
In the search field, find the song you want to share and select it when the results appear. You can save a track thumbnail or choose to display text.
If you are adventurous, you can combine both. For example, you can take a screenshot of the player interface (it's a bit old-fashioned, I know) and select the exact song from the Instagram library.
The result looks something like the one below. The reason I prefer this method is so that viewers can hear part of the song without having to open the streaming service.
You can use the Instagram music feature or use one of these apps like Spotify or Apple Music to share music to your Instagram story.
You can open the song in Spotify, click "Share" and choose Instagram to share the song from Spotify to Instagram.
The Instagram music library is rather limited due to licensing agreements. Song availability may also vary depending on your region.
You can record your singing and post it as an Instagram story. If you are an artist, you can share your song by following this guide on any streaming service.
You can open your Spotify playlist, click "Share" and choose Instagram to share your Spotify playlist on Instagram.
If you are part of the Apple ecosystem, you should choose Apple Music. On the other hand, if you have a plethora of devices and gadgets, Spotify offers great integrations to make it easy to pick up where you left off.
You can copy your Spotify profile link from Spotify and paste it into the Edit Profile -> Website section of the Instagram app to make it your Instagram bio.
Apple Music offers the ability to share songs on both Android and iOS. This feature was first introduced in iOS 13.4.5. If you're not receiving it, make sure your app is updated to the latest version available from the App Store or Google Play Store.
So, here's how you can share songs to Instagram Stories. Don't forget to let us know if you found it useful in the comments.
In the meantime, you can find some useful tricks in our roundup of Instagram tips and tricks, as well as a frequently updated list of new Instagram features you should be using.
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People tend to share everything on Instagram with text, photos, videos, or clips. Plus, you can share your Instagram stories and share them with people from all walks of life. Moreover, in most cases, music can tell any story. You can also create stories with Spotify music and make them more engaging. Instagram users can share Spotify songs to Instagram Stories. Let's see how to do it in this post.
CONTENTS
When you stumble upon an exciting tune in Spotify app, you can directly share the song with your best friends.
Spotify allows listeners to share great songs with any application, including Instagram. Making your story from a song from Spotify to Instagram is easy with a few steps.
STEP 1. Log in to your account on the Spotify app on iPhone/Android.
STEP 2. Go to Your Library to find the song you want to share as an Instagram story.
STEP 3. Tap the … icon next to the song and select Share . Now you will see the cover of the song and an excerpt from the video.
Note that you can click the Edit option to replace the video clip with a fixed color.
STEP 4. Click Stories and it will automatically open your Instagram app. At this stage, you can add texts and stickers, apply effects, or draw.
STEP 5. When finished, tap Your Story at the bottom, and you will share Spotify to Instagram successfully.
Instagram users can add music to Instagram stories, but the selectable tracks are provided by Instagram itself. There are all kinds of ringtones available for every mood. Just choose the right music and share your thoughts on Instagram Story. Let's learn how to add music to Instagram Story.
STEP 1. Open the Instagram app from the screen and tap Your Story in the top right corner.
STEP 2. Select an image or video to add to Instagram.
STEP 3. Click the sticker icon to open the sticker center, and select MUSIC in it.
STEP 4. There will be specially selected songs for you, or you can go to Music search from above or browse songs in different genres. Press the Play button to preview the clip and select the song that suits your mood.
STEP 5. You will see text on the screen if available. At this point, you can make a preview style, cut a song, or add your avatar to the story at this point.
STEP 6. When you're done, click Your story post it on Instagram.
Some people wonder if it is possible to share a song from Spotify to Instagram Story on Windows or Mac computers. I'm afraid this feature hasn't been implemented on desktop yet. If you frequently use Instagram or Spotify on your computer, you will be aware of these scenarios.
● If you log into your Instagram account on a computer, you will find that it only allows users to create a new post with photos or videos uploaded from their Instagram desktop. Thus, it is not possible to create your Instagram story on PC, let alone share Spotify music.
● If you log into your Spotify account on the desktop, you will also be frustrated that it cannot share one song to any app or website, but will copy the link of the song.
