How to Add Music to Your Instagram Story

Instagram Stories are riding the wave in 2021. Introduced five years ago, Stories was created as a space where people could post more mundane photos without worrying about the impact they would have on their “curated” Instagram feeds. Music can now be added to Instagram Stories as well. The feature has been available for a while now, but if you haven’t had the chance to try it out yet, then this may be the time to finally do so. Read on to learn how to add music to your Instagram Story.

Also read: How to Add Links to Your Instagram Stories

How to Create an Instagram Story

Before we begin, let’s look at how to create an Instagram Story to which you can add music from scratch. On mobile devices, you have several approaches available. You can, for example, open your account, tap on your profile icon in the upper-left corner and add the Story from there. Another way is to access your main feed and click on the “+” button in the upper-right corner, then select “Story” from the bar at the bottom. Or you can tap on your profile pic at the top of the display.

Alternatively, also from the main feed, swipe left on your screen, and you’ll be taken into Story mode directly. This method is handy, as it allows you to take a picture/video without having to exit Instagram, using the app’s own camera.

Also read: How to Download Instagram Stories and Highlights on Android

How to Add Music to Your Instagram Story

Once you have the Story’s basic component (image or video) ready, it’s time to add it into Instagram and adorn it with additional elements, including music.

1. No matter which technique you’ve used to create a Story, you’ll next have to swipe upward from your screen. Alternatively, you can tap on the Sticker icon located in the upper right of the screen.

2. From there, look for and select the music sticker. It’s not just a simple sticker, as you may be inclined to believe at first. Instead, activating it will have the effect of opening a music library where you can search for the tune that you want to add on top of your Story.

3. The music database is pretty extensive, so you should be able to find any song or artist you desire, even more obscure ones.

4. Once you’ve decided on the track, tap on it, then select which part of the song you want to include in your Story. Since Stories span across a maximum of 15 seconds, the audio will have to follow the same rule with a minimum of 5 seconds. Click Done to move forward with the process.

5. Next, we can customize how the music overlay looks. You can have the lyrics appear as the song is played, or you can simply add a discrete “music playing” sticker to the post or the song’s album art.

6. Just tap on the various options from the menu to select which you like best.

7. Once the story is posted, followers will be able to tap on the music sticker to start listening to the track.

8. From the same Sticker section, users can also add further features, including stickers, GIFs and emoji. To promote interaction and engagement, you can also include a poll or ask questions simply by selecting the appropriate sticker.

How to Add Music to Your Instagram Story Directly from Spotify

For those who have Spotify, there’s a way to add the music you’re listening to into your Instagram Story right from the music-centric app.

1. From Spotify, tap on the music-playing bar at the bottom of the display.

2. Tap on the three-dot menu located in the upper-right corner.

3. Select Share.

4. Share to Instagram.

5. The action will create an Instagram Story featuring the album art and the name of the song.

6. The Story will display an actionable Play on Spotify option in the upper-left corner so that your friends can go listen to the track.

How to Add Music to Your Instagram Stories the Old Way

Before the music sticker was introduced to Instagram, users added their favorite tunes to their stories in a different fashion. This is how it was done.

1. Open the Spotify app and play a song. It can be a song from your own library as well.

2. In Instagram, swipe left on the display to bring up the Story filming screen. The song should continue playing in the background.

3. Start filming the Story by long-pressing the record button.

4. Once the video has been recorded, you can make additional adjustments to it by using the menu of options at the top.

5. Tap on the Story button in the lower-left corner to post your Story. Now when you play the Story, you should be able to hear the song in the background.

This is the old way of doing things, which may still come in handy if you can’t find certain songs in Instagram’s music database. As strange as that sounds, there are plenty of more obscure tunes you won’t be able to find on the app. This method still works if you really want to share some underground music as part of your Story.

How to Add Music to Your Instagram Post

If you were looking to add music to your standard Instagram posts, the bad news is that you can’t – not to images anyway. You can, however, follow the steps outlined in the section above to shoot a quick video Story with a musical background. Instead of posting it as a Story, use the Download button at the top to save it to your phone, then post the musical video to your profile.

Note that even if it’s possible to add music to your Stories, when someone downloads that story, the audio track is lost. Fortunately, there’s a way to link a song with a video (but not picture). You need to download a third-party app for that. An example is InShot, but there are many capable alternatives out there. With this app, you can create videos with embedded musical backgrounds that can be shared as Stories or posts.

How to Add Music to Your Instagram Reels

Instagram also offers a feature reminiscent of TikTok, which allows users to create short videos that can be shared with friends and other followers and discovered while browsing the app. Reels can be up to 15 seconds in length, and you can easily add some music on top of them.

1. Open the Instagram app, go to your feed and swipe left from the screen.

2. Select Reels from the menu at the bottom.

4. Tap on the musical note icon on the left side of the display to add your music.

5. Use the search bar on top to look for the song you want to add.

6. Select the part of the song which you want to include in the clip.

7. Start recording your miniclip.

8. When you’re done, press “Preview,” then “Next.”

9. Type a caption, then press the “Share” button to show the Reel to your followers.

Also read: How to Automatically Caption Instagram Stories

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Having issues with adding the song you want to your Instagram story? Here are some things you may want to try in an attempt to fix the issues:

• Check to see if you have the latest version of Instagram installed. Go to the app’s page on the Google Play Store and check if there’s a green update button. If so, tap on it to get the latest version.
• Keep in mind that Instagram music may not be yet available in your region. If that’s the case, then all you can do is wait until Instagram expands the availability of the option. Unfortunately, it may take a while before that happens.
• If you’re trying to add music to your Stories from a Business account, you may not be able to include certain songs due to limitations. If that happens, simply switch to a regular account or use the old way of adding music to your Stories, as was explained earlier.
• As mentioned above, the song you are looking for may not be available via Instagram’s music database or could be restricted due to legal reasons.

2. Can I add music from music services other than Spotify to Instagram Stories?

Sure. For example, you can link Shazam to Spotify or Apple Music and from there easily add the song to your Story. The same can be done using other popular music apps like Soundcloud. Just get them on your phone and use the sharing option.

3. Can I add music to my Stories from Instagram’s web app?

The short answer is no. By default, Instagram for Web does not allow users to upload Stories. However, it’s possible to do so with a nifty Chrome extension, but you can’t add music to it. What you can do is upload a video story which has been previously edited to include a song as background via your PC.

Now that you’ve learned how to dazzle your followers with your eclectic musical tastes, you may be interested in learning more Instagram tricks – for example, how to add a link to your Stories, how to download Stories from a PC and how to watch videos together with your Instagram friends.

Also read: How to Use Instagram on a Computer