How to add music to your Instagram Story

Did you know that you can add your favorite song to your Instagram Story, whether you’re posting a photo, a video, or simply text? Adding music to your Instagram Story helps set the mood for your photo or video, making it more relatable to your followers. If you have the perfect song to accompany a photo or video on Instagram, read on. We’ll go over everything you need to know about adding music to your Insta Story.

How to add a song to your Instagram Story

There are several ways to put music on your Instagram Story. Let’s start with the simplest — adding music directly from Instagram.

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How to add music to your Instagram Story

A couple of notes about this option. First of all, when you add music to your Story, a sticker will be visible with the name of the song and artist. This ensures that the artist is being properly recognized and you aren’t breaking any copyright laws. For this same reason, Stories with music will not automatically share to Facebook if you have your account set up that way.

That said, here’s how to put music on your Insta Story:

1. Open the Instagram app and navigate to your Stories.
2. If you want to choose music before adding your visuals, tap Music at the bottom of the screen.
3. Find the perfect track to accompany your story. You can do this by browsing the Popular, Moods, and Genres tabs at the top of the screen, or you can type a song, artist, or album into the search bar.
4. Tap on the song you want to use in your Instagram Story.
5. If your music will be accompanying a photo, you can choose a 15-second clip or shorter to play along with your photo. If you’re playing a video, then your Instagram song will play as long as the video is running.
6. After you add your music, you can choose which part of the song to include in your Instagram Story. You will see a white bar below the album cover. Using your finger, slide the bar to the left or right to find the section of the song you want to use. If your song has a chorus, the clip is usually set to it by default.
7. Now you can choose a photo or video to accompany your music and then add it to your Stories.

How to add music using a sticker in Instagram Stories

If you choose your video clip or photo first when creating your Story, you can easily add music afterwards by using a sticker. Here’s how to do it:

1. Choose a photo or video for your Story.
2. Tap on the Sticker icon.
3. Tap Music.
4. Choose a track to accompany your Instagram Story.
5. Choose the part of the song you want to use and add it to your Story.
6. Share your Story.

How to share a Spotify song on an Instagram Story

If you have a music streaming app like Spotify or SoundCloud, you can also add music to your Instagram Stories from there. Here’s how to add a Spotify track to Stories, for example:

1. Open Spotify. (You can also do this with a few other music apps.)
2. Navigate to a song you want to add to your Stories and press Play.
3. Tap on the ellipsis (three dots) in the upper-right corner.
4. Tap Share.
5. Tap Instagram Stories.
6. Your selected song will appear as a Story, with the cover art of the album. You can add stickers and other media before sharing with your followers. Your Story will appear with a link back to Spotify, so that others can tap on it to view the song’s details.

Why can’t I add music to my Instagram Stories?

A few people have noticed that music for Instagram Stories doesn’t always work. The most common error that Instagram users get when trying to add music to their Stories is a generic “This song is currently unavailable,” or “Instagram music isn’t available in your region.” Why is this happening? There are three common reasons for these error messages.

1. Instagram hasn’t released Music for Instagram Stories in your country

If you live outside of the US, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe, you will not have the option to add music to your Stories, and you won’t be able to play music on the Stories you come across. Instagram may start rolling out the feature to additional countries in the future, but for now, all you’ll get is an error message when trying to access it.

2. The song is not available in your country

The second reason for an error message may be that certain songs are not available in certain countries due to the nuances of licensing. The song shows up in the app, but when you tap on it, you get an error message. Unfortunately, all you can do here is choose another song.

3. The artist has removed the song

Finally, there’s a chance that the artist has decided not to participate in Instagram Stories and has removed his or her content. Eventually, the song will be completely removed from Instagram, but for now, you get an error message. Again, the best solution is to choose another song and move on.

The ability to add music to your Instagram Stories is just another way for you to make your content unique. Adding music is easy to do, and the most difficult task will be choosing the perfect track for your Story. And if you'd also like to add music to an Instagram video post, check out our guide on that topic.