Want to give your plain old photo a little bit of boost on Instagram? Whether you want to convey a specific vibe or share your favorite songs, Instagram now lets you add music to your regular feed posts. This can be a great way to add an extra layer of entertainment to your content and make your posts a lot more engaging.
Here, we provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to add music to your Instagram posts. We also share a few best practices and tips that will help you make the most of this feature.
Best Practices and Tips for Adding Music to Your Instagram Posts:
Why You Should Add Music to Your Instagram Posts
In 2022, Instagram introduced the option to add music to regular feed posts. This proved to be exciting news to users who loved the rich experience that audio creates but didn’t want to go through the trouble of creating a whole Reel or video. Let’s find out some of the top reasons why you should add music to your Instagram posts.
Provides a Richer Content Experience
Sometimes, you want your Instagram posts to convey a specific vibe, and a single photo isn’t always enough to do that. Perhaps you want to create a sense of nostalgia, or you want to build excitement for a new product that you’re launching. Either way, a still image alone may not effectively help you express that vibe. Music can be the perfect addition to share that vibe and get your audience in the exact kind of mood you want them to be in as it provides audio stimulation and creates a richer content experience.
For example, in the following Instagram Collab post with Canterbury Classics, book content creator Ashley used a music track that can be associated with the Scottish Highlands. This helped to set the perfect mood for the post, which is about a book set on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
Similarly, the right music track can help you deliver your punchline more effectively when sharing memes. Imagine being able to include an iconic song from the mid-2000s in a relatable meme about mid-2000s fashion. You can imagine that the post will be much more impactful with the right song to add another dimension to your meme.
Improves the Chances of Engagement
An Instagram feed post containing music isn’t just a regular photo that people can scroll past. Being able to enjoy an audio experience may compel users to take pause and engage with the content. The audio element immerses them in the post and creates a more engaging experience for them. As such, you could significantly improve engagement on your Instagram posts. Plus, the same principle applies to Instagram stories: adding music and collaborating on stories can take the user engagement up a notch.
Helps to Build Your Brand Voice
A bold and dramatic instrumental, a fun and quirky pop song, a serene and minimal piano solo–the right music can accurately reflect your brand. It helps you set a mood that you want people to associate with your brand. So when you regularly add the right tracks to your Instagram posts, you can express your brand voice much more effectively.
On that note, make sure you have guidelines in place for the type of theme that you want to maintain when choosing songs for your Instagram posts. This will help you maintain consistency and effectively build your brand voice.
For example, Jessica Conrad is a content creator who describes herself as an “elder emo.” Her content revolves around emo music and fashion and relatable scenarios from the 2000s. She consistently maintains this personal brand voice by leveraging popular songs from that era. This isn’t just limited to her Reels but is also consistent throughout her regular feed posts and her Collab posts.
Easier to Create than Videos and Reels
We know how impactful videos can be, and that’s exactly why almost everyone is creating Reels on Instagram. However, the process of creating Reels can be time-consuming and sometimes even stressful. You typically have to be very strategic, planning and adjusting your transitions in a very precise manner to create the intended impact. For most small business owners and individual creators, the resources they have may not support being able to do this on the regular.
Fortunately, adding music to your feed posts lets you enjoy the benefits of video content minus the cost of creating one. It’s much easier and less time-consuming to create a regular Instagram feed post with music than it is to create video content. All you need to do is go through the usual steps of posting a photo and adding a music track before publishing it. So it can be completed in just a couple of minutes as opposed to the hours it may take to create a share-worthy Reel or video.
This also means that you can effectively scale your Instagram content production. While you may have been able to produce 2-3 videos a week before, now you could ensure that there’s a new post for your followers every day.
4 Steps to Add Music to Your Instagram Feed Posts
If you want to enjoy the benefits of adding music to your Instagram posts, you may want to get started right away. Follow the steps below to create Instagram feed posts with your favorite music tracks.
Step 1: Create a New Post
To create a new post, open your Instagram app and tap on the “+” button in the middle to create a new post. Alternatively, you can also go to your profile and tap on the “+” button at the top right-hand side of the screen and select “Post” to start a new post. Then choose the photo you want to share with your followers.
Step 2: Choose the Track You Want to Add
On the next screen, tap on the music icon at the top of the screen. This will open up a window to select the music track you want to add. You can choose from the tracks Instagram suggests specifically for you, browse through popular selections, choose from your saved tracks, or even conduct a search for the exact track you want to include.
Step 3: Make Necessary Adjustments
Unlike regular videos, a photo post doesn’t have a specific duration. So you’ll need to manually choose how long you want to play the track. Instagram lets you play music tracks in your feed posts for at least 5 seconds and up to 90 seconds. Tap on the circle with a number right below the name of the track to choose a duration that works for you.
Further you can also drag the bar below to select the section of the song that you want to play in your post. This should ideally be precisely adjusted according to the message you want to convey or the mood you want to set.
Step 4: Publish Your Post
Once you’re happy with the duration and placement, tap on “Next.” This will take you to the screen where you can include additional details in your post. Here, you can write a detailed caption with relevant hashtags, tag people, add a reminder, add a location, and choose to share the post to your other accounts.
If you’ve changed your mind at this point, you can also tap on the track selection and change it, adjust it, or remove it as needed. Perhaps you might want to replace the initial song with something a bit catchier. Or maybe you just remembered another song that’s more fitting to the post. Either way, this is your chance to make any changes you need to make.
After you’ve finalized everything, hit the “Share” button to publish your post. Your post will now be live and your followers will be able to listen to the music you’ve selected.
3 Best Practices for Adding Music to Your Instagram Posts
Once you know the essential steps to add music to your Instagram posts, you’re pretty much sorted. But before you start creating your first post with music, here are a few tips and best practices to help you make the most of this feature.
Take Advantage of Trending Songs
If you’re familiar with Instagram, you may already be aware that using trending songs in your Reels is a key step to gaining visibility on the platform. Similarly, using trending music in your regular feed posts could help improve your chances of getting recognized by the Instagram algorithm. There’s a good chance that your post may gain better visibility in the audio tab of relevant searches as well as in the Explore pages of users who have interacted with content using the audio.
Moreover, if an audio track is trending, it means that it appeals to most Instagram users. So when you use the same track in your post, people are likely to pay attention because they’re already familiar with the music.
That’s why we recommend capitalizing on trending songs and audio tracks for your Instagram posts. You can go through the types of posts that people are creating with the tracks and get inspiration from them. Or you can simply use them when you can’t think of anything better to include in your post.
In the following feed post from Garden & Grace, they’ve used the popular song “La Vie En Rose” by Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra, which fits the vibe of the room they’re showcasing. The track is quite popular among Instagram users, with 148k Reels and photos using it.
Create Guidelines for Track Selection
If you want the music in your Instagram posts to help you establish your brand voice and identity, it’s important to have a clear idea of what types of music will fit the bill. Then you’ll need to make sure that everyone on the team knows what kinds of tracks to look for when creating your Instagram posts. This will help you maintain consistency across all your Instagram posts as you’ll be able to select tracks that convey a similar vibe and create a similar mood.
Think of the type of music that you want people to associate with your brand. For example, soft, serene, and breezy instrumentals may be what you want to use if your brand is all about minimalism. Or perhaps you want to show that your brand is a fun trendsetter by selecting bold, fun, and upbeat pop tracks. Whatever the specifics are, have clear guidelines in place to help your social media team with their track selection.
Have a Selection of Pre-Saved Tracks
Even with guidelines specifying the exact type of music you’re looking for, it’s not always easy to find the tracks you want to include for certain posts. To make your job easier and speed up the content creation process, we recommend having a collection of tracks saved beforehand. That way, you simply have to go to your “Saved” section to find some suitable tracks to add. Your team may be required to strictly use tracks only from this section or resort to the list when they can’t decide on which tracks to add.
Fun Facts to Know about Music in Feed Posts
- The music you add in your feed posts doesn’t show up on the web app. You can only see and listen to it with the mobile app.
- Instagram is currently testing a new feature that allows you to add music to your photo carousels.
Jazz Up Your Instagram Posts with Music
The right music can get your audience in the right mood and create a richer experience when they engage with your content. Meanwhile, trending songs could even help boost your content visibility. So make the most of the feature that lets you add music to your Instagram feed posts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does adding music to Instagram posts increase engagement?
Adding music to your Instagram posts can create a richer content experience and may be able to increase engagement.
Can I add music to a carousel post?
Instagram has rolled out a new feature allowing you to incorporate music into your photo carousel posts.
How do you add music to a picture on Instagram?
You can add music to a picture on Instagram by uploading the photo and then tapping on the music icon at the top. Then choose the song you want to add and publish your post.
Why can’t I add music to my Instagram post?
In most cases, you can’t add music to your Instagram post if your app is outdated.
Can I use my own music to an Instagram post?
You can only choose music from the Instagram music library to add to your Instagram post.
