Instagram Music Sticker: How to Add Music to Instagram Stories

May 4, 2020
By
Hugh Stephens

You don’t need to be a music composer to add music to your Stories. Instagram offers an opportunity to do so with a music sticker.

Are you planning to add an Instagram music sticker to your stories but don’t know how?

Wondering how to enrich your Stories with music?

You don’t need to be a music composer to add music to your Stories. Instagram offers an incredible opportunity to do so with an Instagram music sticker.

Here’s everything you need to know about adding music stickers to Instagram stories and how to use them.

What’s the Instagram Music Sticker?

Instagram Stickers are additional features that you can add to your Stories to make them more interactive.

Instagram introduced the music sticker in 2018 to let you add music to your Stories.

It’s a quick way to add 15-second audio clips to your Stories by accessing a library with thousands of songs.

Example of Instagram music sticker.

Whether it’s your favorite pop song or a soundtrack from your beloved movie, the choice is yours!

How to Get the Instagram Music Sticker

Screenshot showing how to select the sticker on Instagram.

Here’s the exact process to getting an Instagram music sticker into your Stories.

  1. Create a new Instagram Story in the Instagram app, add your photo or video
  2. Pick the Sticker icon at the top right of your screen
  3. Select the Music sticker
  4. Pick a song you want to play. You can discover songs by name, artist, genre, and even mood.
  5. Choose the part of the selected song you want to include. Remember, you can include only 15 seconds of audio in the sticker.
  6. Decide on the way the music sticker will be displayed
  7. Tap “Done”

As the songs are up to 15 seconds, it’s important to pick the best part that matches your Story’s content (or your favorite lyrics).

Luckily, Instagram’s music stickers automatically start from the chorus of the song to help you use the part of the song that you are more likely to prefer.

As a result, you don’t necessarily need to spend too much time looking for the perfect part of the song. Instagram has you covered.

Image showing different music categories.

Keep in mind, the chosen song is automatically playing when your followers view your Story, so make sure you pick the best part!

How to Add Song Lyrics to Your Instagram Stories

An amazing feature of the music sticker is the ability to add lyrics to your Story.

(Note, the option isn’t available on all songs, though. Many of them allow you to add lyrics to the story.)

When you are picking the song, you can explore the available ways to display it in your Story.

If lyrics show up among the options, then you can choose the font and the color of the lyrics and how they show up on your Story.

It’s a fun way to be more creative with your Stories and how you’re mixing the text with the sound.

Image showing lyrics on the music sticker.

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How to Use Instagram Music Stickers in Your Stories

Sticker showing the album cover.

There are many different ways to use the Instagram Music Stickers and customize how the sticker shows on your Story.

Whether you add lyrics or not, you can decide how the music will be part of the Story.

Once you pick a song, you can tap on the sticker to discover all the available options.

You can choose between displaying:

  • Lyrics
  • Squared album cover
  • A small thumbnail of the album cover

If you want to have the music as the focus of your Story, then you can pick a larger album cover. If you want to keep it on the background, select a minimal design.

Either way, you can still adjust the size of the sticker to customize it as much as possible.

How to Play Music on an Instagram Story

The sound on sticker on Instagram.

All Instagram Stories are muted by default. So, to play music on the Story, you just need to do is to unmute them.

You can click on the video when it’s playing or you can just use the volume buttons to adjust the sound.

If you are sharing a Story and want to make sure that your followers listen to the music that you’ve picked, make sure you tell them to turn the sound on.

Many Instagram Stories include stickers for ‘sound on’ to tell their followers that the Story is playing music. You can search for ‘sound on’ stickers in the GIF section of the Instagram Story Stickers.

How to Be Creative with Music Stickers on Instagram

Here’s a question I hear from our users often - How can we add music to your Stories to make them stand out?

Here are some top tips to consider.

Familiarise Yourself with the Music Sticker

As with every feature that we are trying for the first time, it’s good to try and familiarise yourself with it.

Search for your favorite songs, explore the different ways you can add music to your Stories, and learn how to master it.

It’s very easy to include music to your Stories, all you need is to get to grips with the way music complements your Story.

Test Different Ideas

As with every Instagram Sticker, it’s a new opportunity to be creative. Don’t limit yourself to the obvious way of adding music to your Story.

Think outside the box to appeal to your followers and look at the Insights for the results.

For example, how about adding a cheerful sunny song to a miserable rainy day to be ironic with your music?

There are many ways to be creative and you can even find inspiration from your friends!

Think of Your Followers

If you are a brand sharing Instagram followers, then you need to create content that your followers will enjoy.

It’s not just about sharing a Story with your favorite song. You need to add the music that will make your Stories even more interesting.

Pick a Clip that Matches Your Story

Picking the chorus of the song is the obvious choice for your song clip. What if there is a great intro that matches your Story even better though?

You don’t necessarily need to stick to Instagram’s recommended portion of the song for your Story.

Find the part that makes more sense for your Story.

Make the Sound a Part of Your Storytelling

Think of an Instagram music sticker as an extension to your storytelling. It’s not just an addition to your current Story. It can be part of it in an integral way.

When you’re sharing a picture, the music can make the Story even more interesting.

Remember this the next time you’re about to add music to your Stories. It can make a difference to the final result!

Use the ‘Sound on’ Sticker

As obvious as it sounds, it’s useful to remind your followers to turn the sound on.

You don’t want all the effort to pick the perfect song to go to waste, after all.

Final Thoughts

Adding an Instagram music sticker is easy.

But it can also be a very creative way to create more engaging Instagram Stories.

Think of your favorite songs, find the best excuse to add them to a Story, and start testing new ideas.

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