Instagram stories are really easy to create. But, if you want to make yours really interesting, you’d have to add some spice. Spice in this context could be adding music, filters, emoji, or even graphics to your Instagram story.
Fortunately, Instagram has provided lots of tools to make your story more fun. It offers a selection of tunes from its own library and your favorite music streaming services.
Additionally, there are lots of stickers, filters, and emojis you can choose from to make your story a lot more entertaining.
For this article, we’d focus on how to add music to your Instagram story.
Here’s everything you need to know about music and Instagram.
How to add music to an Instagram Story
In 2018, Instagram introduced the option to share music on Stories, allowing users to add their favorite songs to their photos and videos.
This move allowed Instagrammers to access thousands of songs and gave them the ability to share their stories in a new, more exciting way.
The story feature enables you to use your photos and videos to create seconds-long stories and share them with the world.
It’s important to know that Instagram doesn’t actually allow you to add music to your Instagram stories. If you add music to a video you made on your story and download it, the video will be downloaded without the song.
You can also add music directly from other apps like Apple Music, Spotify, Sound Cloud, and Shazam.
How to add Music on an Instagram Story With a Sticker
Multiple formats for adding music to Stories have been released since the launch of Instagram’s music feature.
However, the most common and simplest way to add music to your photos or videos is to use the Stories sticker.
Follow these methods to add a music sticker to your Instagram story.
- Open the Instagram app.
- Press your Story icon (which looks like your profile picture) at the top-left of your screen.
- Upload your story by swiping up to access your Camera roll or shoot it with the story camera.
- Press the sticker button at the top of the screen or swipe up.
- Tap the Music button. Either type the song you want to use into the search bar or browse via your mood, genre preference, or what’s popular today.
- Press the song to add it to your Story.
- Then, press “Done” at the top-right corner of the page.
- Move your sticker to the placement you want on your Stories.
- Press the “Your Story” button at the bottom left of the screen.
- When selecting a song for your Story, you have the option to listen to a preview before adding it. All you have to do is press the play button to the right of the song.
How to Edit the Music Sticker in your Story
When adding a music sticker to your Instagram story, you’d notice that there are a few options to edit the song you chose.
In addition to rewinding and fast-forwarding through the song to select the precise clip you want to use, you can also choose:
- The length of the clip. (up to 15 seconds)
- The color of the music sticker.
- The size and type of sticker.
- Whether you want the lyrics displayed instead of the sticker.
- The color and font of the lyrics.
Here’s how to edit your music sticker:
- Tap the music sticker itself to change the icon or switch to lyric mode. You can also do this by swiping left on the icons above the music player.
- Press the color wheel at the top-center of the screen to change the color of the music sticker or the lyrics.
- Select “Done.”
- Press the Your Story button at the bottom-left of the screen to post it.
- If you want to have music on your Instagram story but don’t want a sticker to be visible, you can drag the sticker off the screen. It will disappear from the Story preview display, but after it publishes, you’ll still hear the music and see the song title and artist at the top of the screen.
How to Add Music Lyrics to Your Instagram Story
Follow these instructions below to add music lyrics to your Instagram story.
- Open the Instagram app.
- Press your Story icon at the top-left of your screen.
- Upload your Story by swiping up to access your Camera Roll or shoot it with the Story camera.
- Press the sticker button at the top of the screen or swipe up.
- Press the Music button.
- Find the song you’d like to use.
- Press the song to add it to your Story.
- Press the letter button directly above the music player and swipe left to see more font options.
- Select the font you wish to use.
- Press Done.
- Press the Your Story button at the bottom left of the screen.
Why Can’t I Add Music to my Instagram Story?
Trying to add music to your Instagram story but having trouble? There could be a few reasons for that.
Firstly is that your app isn’t up to date. If you can’t find the music sticker in your stories, try updating the Instagram app first. Sometimes a quick update is all that’s needed to bring your music-adding capabilities back.
Next, the music feature is not available in your country. If you reinstall the app and there’s still no sticker, it could be because your country isn’t on the list of those that can access music for Stories.
Right now, the feature is available in only 60 countries, including the United States, New Zealand, France, Australia, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Japan, and Portugal.
Unfortunately, unless you live in one of the aforementioned countries, you’ll have to wait until Instagram makes music a global feature.
How to Add Music to Instagram Without Stickers
If you don’t want to use the music stickers, there are a couple of other ways to add your favorite songs to your Instagram Stories.
Follow these methods below to add music to your Instagram story without stickers.
#1. How to Add Music from the Apple Music App
Love using Apple Music to rock out? Well, there’s a simple way to share the song you’re jamming out to with your followers via Instagram Stories.
Here’s how:
- Open Apple Music.
- Navigate to the song you wish to share.
- Press the three horizontal dots at the center-right of the screen.
- Select Share.
- Swipe on the apps until you find Instagram (if you don’t see it, press More).
- Allow Instagram to open automatically.
- Press the Your Story button at the bottom-left of the screen.
It’s important to note that the song won’t play directly on your stories, but if a user taps on that Story, it will take them to Apple Music, where they can play it.
#2. How to Add Music From the Spotify App
If you prefer to use Spotify, you’ll be happy to learn that sharing a song from that platform is just as straightforward as ABC.
Here’s how to do it:
- Open the Spotify app.
- Navigate to the song you wish to share.
- Press the three horizontal dots at the top-right of the screen.
- Scroll down and select Share.
- Tap Instagram 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.
Once your story has been posted, it will serve as a link back to Spotify. You can tap the “Your Story” icon on Instagram to view it. Anyone who views your story can tap Play on Spotify, and then Open Spotify to launch the song in the app.
Once again, it’s important to note that the song won’t play directly on your Story.
#3. How to add Music From the SoundCloud App
Just like Apple Music and Spotify, the instructions for sharing SoundCloud songs on your Stories are easy to follow.
1) Share a song from the SoundCloud app to your Instagram story by selecting a song and choosing Share.
2) Select Stories to import the song and its associated image into Instagram. And, as music is shared from those platforms, songs from SoundCloud will not play on your Stories. Instead, followers who tap on the Story will be redirected to the song in SoundCloud.
#4. How to Add Music From the Shazam App
While Shazam is primarily used to analyze and identify songs you’re already listening to, you can also get the app to play music and send it to Instagram.
Open the app and allow it to recognize a song that is currently playing.
- Tap the song in Shazam, then tap More and Share.
- Tap the Instagram option to send the song and its artwork to the Instagram app. After the story has been published, you can travel back to the Shazam app through Instagram.
- To do this, open the story on Instagram and tap the “Open Shazam” button to play the song in the app.
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Summary
Adding music to an Instagram Story is a great way to elevate your content and make it unique.
Whether you’re sharing your current favorite song or adding some background music to a video, we hope this guide helps you take your Stories to the next level.
And if you want to make a video Story with your favorite track, check out the music video editors that help you do just that.
