How to Add Music to Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels
Did you know you can add music to your Instagram story and Instagram reels? Instagram rolled out the Instagram music feature a while ago, followed shortly by the addition of Instagram reels! Both of which allow you to add music to your content that helps tell your brand story. Instagram has a large selection of popular songs, and even allows you to add your own custom audio tracks.
Ready to go? Here’s how to take advantage of Instagram’s music magic! ✨
How do I add music to an Instagram story?
When you access the sticker library on your Instagram story, you will see a music sticker! Tap on that to open an entire library of songs, now available at your fingertips. The app allows you to search by keyword, mood, genre, or what is currently trending! Make sure to hit the play button to sample your track before you choose it!
Once your song has been chosen, you can scroll through the entire song at the bottom, to make your selection.
If you’re adding a track to a still photo or image, you can choose how long to play the music selection for, determining the length of your story!
Many songs have lyrics available, which will automatically pop up if they are registered in the app. You can choose between four different lyric styles to add a little character!
And finally, you can choose what form of album art sticker you want!
You can also add music before filming your story, by selecting the ‘music’ option on the live camera, search like before, and then you can record a video as your song plays in the background! Please note, this has very limited scope in terms of what countries it is available in— even at Life Lapse, in Canada, we can’t access the pre-selection feature. 😢
How do I go about adding music to my Instagram reel?
We love the new addition of Instagram Reels! But, there’s always the pressing question:
how do I add music to my Instagram Reels? Can I?
When you go to record a Reel, there is a menu on the left side. Tap the music note icon, which will allow you to add music to your reel, from Instagram’s music library.
You can also record a Reel with your own music, which will allow you to take full advantage of the expansive royalty-free music library available in the Life Lapse app. We have hundreds of thousands of songs, available at your fingertips-- and that can be transferred to other social media platforms that have more complex copyright restrictions than Instagram. Instagram also automatically saves original audio, so that you or your followers can use it time and time again!
If you choose to upload an audio track from your personal library (such as a song from an independent label), note that Instagram or the track artist can override the track to have it display the name of the original track artist.
Instagram will also mute copyrighted songs that are played in full, played on an IGTV, or played for a video or post where the audio is the main component-- and there is no video to accompany it. While Instagram has not released its specific copyright licensing rules, they generally follow common copyrighting.
Can everyone hear my music content?
With both Instagram stories and Instagram reels, there’s a glaring obstacle when it comes to adding music: Instagram music is only available in about 90 countries, meaning that your global audience may not be able to access the audio file that comes with your content. And it’s not likely that Instagram music will reach those countries in the future: it’s not due to a lack of trying, but rather licensing complications with the individual country’s restrictions. Countries like Malaysia and Austria have no access to the music posted on your Instagram.
When it comes to Instagram business accounts, there’s even more limitations. Instagram business accounts have no access to the Instagram music features, due to copyright, licensing and infringement.
This makes royalty-free music a no-brainer when it comes to making content that is available to every single person that follows you! Life Lapse’s royalty-free music selection means that all your followers will be able to experience your content in full, no matter where they are! We also have sound effects available to Pro users.
Is Instagram music available in your country? Comment below to let us know.
Interested in taking your Instagram game to the next level? Download the Life Lapse app here to take advantage of our royalty-free music selection.
