How to Add Music to Instagram

Instagram is quickly becoming synonymous with popular audio sounds and memes – especially with most social media trends being tied to popular music. Does anyone remember The Weeknd's Blinding Lights dance challenge? Our point being that now more than ever, it’s important to understand the power of audio when you're looking to increase engagement in your Instagram Stories and other Instagram video content. By leveraging audio in your Instagram content, you’re not only adding some personality to your content, but you’re also leaning into trends that can help you reach new audiences. Here we share how to add music to your Instagram Stories and Reels content to increase overall engagement.  

Steps to Add Music to Your Instagram Stories and Reels 

Instagram’s music library is vast and widely available to most users. We’ll touch on which accounts can’t add music in the next section, but for now, follow these steps to get started! 

How to Add Music to Your Instagram Story 

1. Tap the ‘+’ icon on your home screen it will open the ‘New Post’ window 
2. Tap the bottom right of your window where it says ‘STORY’
3. After opening the Story window snap, record, or upload existing photos or videos to your story 
4. To add music to your story tap the Instagram Sticker Icon then on the top of your screen then the sticker that says ‘MUSIC’ 
5. After tapping the music sticker, search the song you want to use 
6. Once you find the song you want to use tap it to add to your story, there you can pick the section of the song you want to play and how you want it to display on your story 
7. Once your story is ready to share, tap ‘Send To’ then tap ‘Share’ to add to your story. 

Another way to add music to your story without using the music sticker is by using the music note icon. 

1. Follow steps 1-3 above
2. To add music to your tap the music note icon at the top of your screen 
3. Follow steps 5-6 above

How to Add Music to Your Reels 

1. Tap the ‘+’ icon on your home screen it will open the ‘New Post’ 
2. Tap the bottom right your window where it says ‘REELS’ 
3. After opening the Reels window, start recording your Reels content
4. Once you’ve filmed your content tap the music note icon on left side navigation bar 
5. Search and tap the audio you want to add to your Reels
6. Pick the section of the audio you want to use for your video then tap ‘Preview’ to share 
7. After tapping ‘Share To’ write your caption, edit your cover image, add your tags, etc then share to your feed

Related: Ultimate Instagram Video Guide: Tips and Best Practices

Which Accounts Can and Cannot Add Music on Instagram

If you’re a business account, you’ve probably run into a few blockers when it comes to adding music to your account, and here’s why. Due to copyright restrictions and Facebook’s advertising policies, business accounts using popular songs for branded content will get taken down. Another reason you sometimes can’t add music to your content is if you live in a country where the music feature isn’t available. 

Follow these tips for adding music to your content: 

1. Always make sure there’s a video component
2. Keep your videos short, so not too much of the song plays in your Instagram content 
3. Use Instagram’s royalty-free music library

We hope this makes adding music to your Instagram content a breeze, so you can start increasing your Instagram Stories and Reels engagement.