How to add music to your Stories on Instagram
Instagram is currently one of the most-used social media platforms in the world, with over two billion monthly active users. Instagram Stories alone are used by a total of 500 million users every day. Stories are an in-app feature which allows users to share pictures and videos in a vertical format. All posts disappear after a 24 hour time period, and then can only be seen if you create a highlight with archived Stories on your profile. Each Instagram Story has a time limit of 60 seconds. Since 2018, the app allows users to pick a song to use as background music for their Stories. As soon as your songs are available on Instagram’s in-app library, you and your fans can start using this feature to share your music. If you want to use this application properly and add songs to your stories or reels, follow the instructions below:1. Open your Instagram Stories and tap the sticker icon at the top of your screen.
2. Select the MUSIC icon.
3. Type the name of the song or artist on the search bar.
4. Select the desired section of the song.
5. Publish it!
You can be creative and use this feature to promote new songs or albums with pictures from promotional material or even use archive photos and videos. Instagram also offers a wide range of tools, such as different text fonts, gifs and filters, for you to experiment with your posts.And what about Reels?
Reels are a relatively new feature that allows creators to share short, vertical videos on their Instagram feeds. It resembles TikTok’s content format. Since launching in August 2020, it has become Instagram’s most popular feature. Altogether, over two billion people interact with Reels monthly, making it the best option to gather views and followers on the app. If recorded directly on Instagram, each Reel can have up to 90 seconds. The social media service also allows you to upload 15 minute long videos from your camera roll. However, it’s important to consider that Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes shorter clips, so longer Reels might reach a noticeably smaller audience. Instagram has a series of built-in tools for users to edit their Reels, many of which are similar to the ones available on Stories. There’s filters, text fonts, GIFs, special effects, a green screen tool and also the possibility to add background music. You can add your music over a pre-existing video, as well as opting for selecting a song first and then recording your content with it already in the background. Don’t know where to start? No need to worry! Here’s an easy step-by-step guide for you to use your songs on Instagram Reels:1. Open Instagram and tap the “+” sign on the bottom center to create a new Reel.
2. Select the AUDIO option.
3. Type the name of the song or the artist on the search bar. On this page, you can also see the popularity of an audio based on how many times it has been used in Reels.
4. Select the part of the song you want to use.
5. Publish it!
We will also give you insights on how to get the best from Instagram to improve your social presence in the app. Keep scrolling!How to use Instagram to promote your music
After writing, recording and producing your songs, there’s a very important step you shouldn’t miss — promoting it. Through marketing, you can let your audience know about your future releases and build hype around it. Instagram and other social media platforms provide great tools for you to do so. Using your songs on Instagram Stories and Reels can be a fun and dynamic way of sharing new releases to get new fans and followers. Your audience will want to share pictures and media of their own life using your songs in the background, and also add your lyrics to express themselves. That way, more and more people will get to listen to your music, increasing the chances for it to go viral. You can also take advantage of this feature using it combined with behind the scenes pictures, live footage from shows, anything to get the public interested in your work. Instagram offers a full range of tools to promote your work, such as GIFs, polls and boxes with questions so you can connect with your fanbase. While choosing the song directly from the in-app library allows people to see your cover art, song title and artist name, sharing it from Spotify generates a link for whoever wants to stream it afterwards. Additionally, having your songs on Instagram is a great way to establish an international fanbase. According to Instagram’s 2023 Trend Report, social media users are now more interested in global music than ever. Also, with the rise of genres such as K-pop and Reggaeton, many non-English speaking musicians have started gaining traction on digital spaces. Here’s a couple more tips for you to best utilize Instagram as a musician.Create an artistic persona — and stick to it!
How do you want your audience to perceive you? Other than listening to your songs, followers will engage with your profile picture, bio, and posts on social media. Defining a distinct and authentic brand may seem challenging, but it’s a very important step to strengthen your connection with the public.
First, you need to know who your audience is. Instagram offers interesting insights to Professional accounts, like the average age, gender and nationality of their followers. Based on that information, you should be able to determine elements that work best for your persona. Here’s an example: if your audience is composed mainly of young people, your approach should be different from those used by musicians that target older generations.
Having a consistent visual identity on your Instagram profile is also a good technique to make your work distinguishable.
Plan your promotional campaigns ahead
A successful marketing plan must include pre-launch announcements, the release itself, and post-launch acts. Before releasing your songs, you can share snippets of the tracks on social media, as well as behind the scenes photos and videos. This type of content works great on Instagram Stories and Reels. Moreover, using Instagram’s live broadcast feature to interact directly with your fans and play some songs is a good activity for release day. Once your music is out, Instagram allows you to get creative with your approach to promotion. Many viral tracks now have inspired dance or lip sync challenges on Reels, for example. Encouraging your followers to take part in those trends, using a specific hashtag or filter, is a fun and fairly simple way to get more listeners. Keep in mind that it may not be for everyone, but it’s worth a try. In the digital era, many new artists have found success through social media. Take Lil Nas X and Doja Cat as an example: both musicians became popular after having their songs go viral on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and more. However, older songs can also regain popularity online. Lady Gaga’s Bloody Mary was released back in 2011, but made its way back to radios and music charts when a viral dance challenge included the song.In conclusion
Magroove aims to help independent artists from all over the world boost their careers. When our free music distribution service uploads your songs on both Facebook and Instagram’s in-app libraries, they become available for use on Instagram. This means any of your fans will have access to your music and be able to share it easily with their followers. This feature allows people to help you with promoting your material simply by sharing it. When your music is available for anyone using the app, you can get a bigger audience promoting your songs free of costs!
Whether you want to use your own music to generate content or have your fans do it, both ways help you monetize the songs streamed in the app. So the only thing you need is a trustworthy distributor to help you get your songs online!
How to upload with Magroove
Magroove offers to distribute your music for free, as there are no upfront charges. Per year, we only collect the first USD 5 from the royalty profits from each of your releases. All additional gains are 100% yours. Even if your songs don’t meet the USD 5 threshold in a year, the service isn’t charged, and your music won’t be taken down. We distribute them to over 40 great streaming platforms, like Spotify and Deezer, retail partners and social media apps such as Instagram. Want to know how to get started? Here’s a guide to uploading your music with Magroove.- Sign up to a free Magroove for Artists account here.
- Insert information about you and your music, such as your artist name and release name.
- Upload your audio files and cover artwork.
- Fill out a simple copyright form and define a release date.
- Click submit!