How to Add Music to an Instagram Story
Add music directly from Instagram or grab tunes from your favorite music streaming services, like Spotify, SoundCloud, and Shazam. Just follow these simple steps.
Instagram Stories are easy to make, 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’ve got 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 you a selection of tunes from your favorite music streaming services, like Spotify, SoundCloud, and Shazam. Here’s everything you need to know about music and Instagram.
Adding Music From Instagram
First, we’ll add music directly from Instagram. Tap the camera button or the Your Story icon to start your story. There are two choices if you want to add music: search for music first; or add photos and video and then place music in the story.
If you want to look for music before you take your visuals, head to the bottom of the screen and scroll to the right until you get to the Music section. This will open up a new window where you can browse for a song.
The other option involves adding media first. You can then select the sticker icon on the story toolbar at the top of the screen. You’ll have a collection of stickers to add to your story, but choose Music to select the song you want.
Searching for Music
Either way you do it, you will end up at the same screen. Use the text field at the top of the screen to search for a particular tune. You can search by song, artist, or album. Spot a song you like? Tap the Play button to hear a short clip. If you don’t have a particular song or artist in mind, you can also browse through Popular, Moods (fun, upbeat, romantic, mellow), and Genres (rock, pop, jazz, classic, cinematic).
Adding and Editing Music in Stories
When you’re ready to make a selection, tap the song you want in your story. If you still haven’t added a photo or video, the music will begin playing while you build the story. If you’re planning to use a static image for your story, the music will run for a max of 15 seconds. If you’re going to post a video, the music will play for as long as the video runs.
You will also have the opportunity to determine what portion of the track plays in your story. Without any photos or videos taken, tap the sound icon at the end of the music toolbar and move the slider bar until you find the section of song you want added. Tap Done and the song will be added to your story in the form of a sticker.
If you’ve already added media to your story, add music by selecting the sticker icon on the toolbar at the top of the screen, then select the Music sticker. Once you select a track, you’ll automatically be asked to cut what part of the song you want in the story.
Changing Music and Placing the Music Sticker
Once you’ve finalized your music selection, the song will appear as a sticker in your story. At this point, you have a few options. 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 and expanding two fingers. Use two fingers and twist to change the orientation of the sticker. Double-tap it to change what the sticker looks like.
If you have recorded a video, you can do even more with your sticker before you publish. Hold down on it and you will be able to pin the sticker to a specific section of the video. This means you can even get it to move around if you pin it to an object in the video that moves.
Want to choose another song instead? You can always make a new selection. If you still haven’t recorded anything, tap the music note icon on the toolbar to open the music screen again. If a photo or video has already been made, just retrace your steps by returning to the sticker icon and selecting the music sticker again.
Publishing and Viewing Stories with Music
When you’re done tweaking the audio and visuals, tap the Your Story icon to publish your story with your music selection. If you want only specific people to see it, you can either tap Close Friends to send it to a custom group of people, or tap Send To and select which users should get it.
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 music player with a play/pause button and other options. Your followers can view your story and play the music in the same way.
Adding Music to Uploaded Media
You can also add music to an existing photo or video that you want to use in a story. Tap the camera icon in the upper-left. Swipe down to see your photo library. Select the photos or videos you want to add to your story and tap Next. To add music, tap the sticker icon in the toolbar at the top of the screen, then select the Music sticker.
Finalizing Uploaded Media Story
From this point, the process is the same as adding music to a photo you took in the Instagram app. Find the music you want and select it. You can then edit what part of the song will play, and for how long it will play for. Tap Done to place the Music sticker into your story.
Adding Music from an External Service
Adding music from Spotify, SoundCloud, and Shazam requires you to first open the app for that service and choose a song. Make sure you have the mobile app for Spotify, SoundCloud, or Shazam, depending on which one you want to use. Let’s check out each of them.
Add Song from Spotify to Instagram Stories
Open the Spotify app. Rev up a song you want to share through an Instagram story. Tap the ellipses icon () and choose the Share option. Among the share options is one for Instagram Stories. Tap that one and you are 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.
Open Spotify From Instagram
Once your story has been posted, it will serve as a link back to Spotify. Tap Your Story to view it, then tap Play on Spotify and Open Spotify to open the song in the app. Anyone who views your story will also be able to open the song in Spotify.
Add Song From SoundCloud to Instagram
Open the SoundCloud app. Select the song you want to add to your story. Tap the Share icon for that song and select Share to Instagram Stories to import the song and its associated image into the Instagram app.
Open SoundCloud From Instagram
Once the story has been published, it will serve as a link back to the song on SoundCloud. View the story, tap Play on SoundCloud, then Open SoundCloud to open the song in the app.
Add Song from Shazam to Instagram Stories
Different from other music services, the now Apple-owned Shazam identifies a song you’re already listening to and identifies it for you. It’s particularly helpful when you don’t know who made a song or you can’t remember what it’s called. You can also get the app to play music and send it to Instagram.
Open the Shazam app. If there’s music playing near you, allow the app to recognize the song, then tap the song in Shazam. Tap More > Share > Instagram Stories to send the song and its artwork to the Instagram app.
Open Shazam From Instagram
After the story has been published, you can travel back to the Shazam app through Instagram. Open the story, tap More on Shazam, then tap Open Shazam to get the song playing in the app.
Originally published at www.pcmag.com.
