Foreground Vs Background Music
Well call this Lesson 101 on how to add music to an Instagram Story. Ask yourself, Will the song be the audio of focus or just the background music?
Foreground music is appropriate for Instagram Stories that involve less talking. For example, you could be sharing a post about a magic card trick. Theres usually less dialogue and more activity.
But if its a post about a business idea or a marketing gimmick, then the focus automatically shifts to the person or people in the IG Story. Hence, background music.
Decide On The Length Of The Music
As soon as you decide on the song you want to use to add music to your Instagram Story, you must figure out how long you want it to play.
If youre using a static image, the minimum length of music on your Instagram Story is 1 second. The maximum length when you add music, on the other hand, is 15 seconds.
To change the length of the music, you can click on the button on the left that reads 15. For video posts, the length of the song will automatically adjust to your videos length.
Image via Instagram
The Instagram music feature is set up so that its possible to add lyrics to any music when you add music to your Instagram Story. This happens if there are lyrics available for the song. If they are not available, the lyrics wont pop up on the screen when you are previewing it.
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How To Add Music To Your Instagram Story Directly From Spotify
For those who have Spotify, theres a way to add the music youre listening to into your Instagram Story right from the music-centric app.
1. From Spotify, tap on the music-playing bar at the bottom of the display.
2. Tap on the three-dot menu located in the upper-right corner.
3. Select Share.
4. Share to Instagram.
5. The action will create an Instagram Story featuring the album art and the name of the song.
6. The Story will display an actionable Play on Spotify option in the upper-left corner so that your friends can go listen to the track.
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Choose The Music Clip Wisely
When you are posting images to an Instagram Story, you can only add music to your Stories for 15 seconds. Thats short, so you need to make it count.
Make sure you pick the best part of the song or the one that matches your Instagram Story. That way, the music wont stop abruptly when the 15 seconds is up and you wont break into another section of the music along the line.
A common practice is to start the music for your Instagram Story when the chorus begins. Instagram makes it easy for you to find that part in a song. Just look for a pink marking in the song timeline when you add music. It indicates where the chorus begins.
Feature 1: There Are More Post Filters Than You Think

When it comes to regular Instagram image and video posts, there are plenty of filters to choose from Crema, Ludwig, Gingham, Valencia, Inkwell, Hefe, Sierra, and so on. But you might be missing out on some if you’ve never tapped that “Manage” button at the far end of the filter list. In fact, at present time, there are 40 filters in total, and you can enable or disable filters from showing up in the main filter list at any time.
Images by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks
These are just some of the features on Instagram that you may not have known about. There are plenty more where that came from, including beta features that haven’t hit the masses yet, so make sure to check out to learn more.
This article was produced during Gadget Hacks’ special coverage on becoming a social media expert on your phone. Check out the whole Social Media series.
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Keep Your Connection Secure Without a Monthly Bill. Get a lifetime subscription to VPN Unlimited for all your devices with a one-time purchase from the new Gadget Hacks Shop, and watch Hulu or Netflix without regional restrictions, increase security when browsing on public networks, and more.
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Open Up The Instagram App And Tap Your Profile Picture Near The Upper Left
To start posting a Story, open up the Instagram app and click on your profile image in the top left corner. You can also swipe right or click the plus sign near the top right.
If you click the plus sign, you’ll automatically be prompted to create a post instead of a Story. To get to the Story creator, choose Story at the bottom right.
Instagram Stories Hacks #1: Use Hidden Instagram Story Filters
Did you know theres a bunch of hidden Instagram Story photo and video effects? To access Instagram Story effects, open up your camera and swipe all the way to the end and select Browse Effects.
Here you can scroll and find hundreds of fun effects.
Not sure where to start? Heres a list of some of our favorite Instagram Story effects to search for:
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Presentation by rendi_vendi
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How To Add Your Own Music To Instagram Story
Apart from how to add music to the Instagram story, the other question that numerous GenZs and millennials are searching an answer for is how to add your own music to the Instagram story. The following steps will help you unearth the answer.
What To Do To Add Music To Instagram Story Without Sticker?
Undeniably, some people wish not to use any song stickers on their stories, and we are here to teach you easy workarounds for that. Let us start!
- Initiate the entire process by creating a story in the Instagram application. Whether you want to upload a video or an image, the process will work for both. The moment you select a picture or a video, you will see the preview screen.
- Here comes the magic now, you will hear the music on your story but wont see any stickers!
How to add music to Instagram story in your business account?
METHOD1
METHOD2
Feature 1: View Alternative Sticker Versions In Stories
Stickers in Instagram Stories are a fun way to liven up your photos and videos. While they’re easy to access, there’s a helpful feature you might have missed.
If you add a sticker to a photo or video in the Story Editor, and it says “Tap for more” , you can tap on the embedded sticker to change its styling. The changes range from color shifts and colored backgrounds to completely different icons. Even when a sticker doesn’t have that “Tap for more” option above it, you can still tap on the embedded sticker to flip it horizontally.
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Instagram Stories Hacks #: Change Your Instagram Story Background Color
To change the background color of an Instagram story, tap the draw tool in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and select a color.
Next, tap and hold on the screen for 1-3 seconds. If youve shared a feed post to stories, the background will fill with your chosen color behind the post.
If youve created a new story, the whole screen will fill with color, creating a layer of color on top of your photo or video:
You can then use the eraser tool to create a scratch card effect to reveal part of your image or video.
Tap the eraser icon on the upper right-hand corner of the screen and select the size of the eraser using the slider on the left-hand side of the screen. Now tap or swipe on the screen where you would like to reveal the underlying image.
And thats it! If youre looking to entice your audience and share just a tiny highlight, this Instagram Stories hack should come in handy.
Part 3 Were You Able To Fix Instagram Story Sound Not Working Problem
If your Instagram music feature is not working, then we have suggested you the possible ways to get it on your profile. Talk to us and let us know if any of the methods worked for you in the comment section below.
If you know any other workaround to fix Instagram Music Sticker not working on your Android or iPhone, share them with us!
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Instagram Stories Hacks #1: Use Create Mode To Add A Gif Background
Instagrams collaboration with GIPHY has been a huge win for businesses and regular users alike.
To create a GIF background, head over to Instagrams Create mode by tapping the letters icon in the Instagram Stories camera screen, and scroll across to the GIF tab.
From here, you can search from thousands of fun GIFs. Theyll either layer up or display in full length, depending on their aspect ratio.
This is a great way to share content with your audience if youre running low on original content.
Center Your Text And Stickers

When you’re moving around text and stickers on your Story, you’ll see blue lines appear vertically or horizontally in the frame. These are guiding lines you can use to make sure you’re keeping everything centered.
Don’t put your text too high or too low on the screen.
That said, make sure you don’t add anything to your Story too high or too low in the frame or it will be cut off when viewers scroll through your Story, when Instagram adds things like your name and how long ago your Story was posted that could block out your carefully-crafted text.
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Publish The Instagram Story
Once you are done with the above-mentioned steps, your Instagram Story is almost ready with music. In addition to the Music Sticker, you can also add other Stickers to your Stories before publishing.
Confused about which stickers to use and how they will appear?
You can get inspiration from other Stories on your feed.
After choosing the Sticker of your choice, click on Done. You can also choose to reposition or resize the sticker as you see fit.
Lastly, click on Send To to post your Story.
Image via Instagram
How To Add Music To Instagram Story With The Music Sticker
The steps to do this are:
1. Press on the + icon at the bottom or long-press your profile picture and select Add to your Story.
2. Select the image or video that you would like to add to your story. Add the filters, text, and everything you want to your story.
3. Now, to add stickers to your story, select the third icon on the top. You can choose one or more from the many stickers and emojis as shown below. But for now, our focus is the Music sticker.
4. Select the Music sticker upon which Instagrams collection of music gets opened. You can select any song of your choice. You can either search for a song in the search tab or browse for songs based on Genre, Mood, and Theme.
5. You can select the portion of the song that you want to play in the background. You can also adjust the duration of the song . If lyrics are available for the song, you can customize its appearance in six different ways. If lyrics are not available, you can customize the appearance in two ways, as in the first two images.
After selecting one from the different options, you can post the story by clicking on Your story or by selecting Send to -> Your Story.
That was easy, wasnt it?
Also Check: How To Add Music To Multiple Instagram Stories
Want To Add 30 Second Reel On Instagram Story
Now, what if you want to share full 30-sec reels on Instagram Story? Though, it isnt officially possible to share reels of more than 15 seconds to Instagram story. Thats because has a certain limitation that forces viewers to view complete reels within the Reels interface. This makes sense since watching a reel in the Reels tab boosts engagement and lets users explore more Reels.
That said, there is a workaround that you can use to share longer reels to your story on Instagram. The trick involves downloading the reel to your gallery and then posting it to the story. This means a long reel of 30 seconds will automatically split into two parts when you upload it to your story. Your followers can then watch the clips back to back in two segments, each segment being 15 seconds long. The only downside is that the reel you post wont carry a link to the original reel.
Now lets see how you can share full reels on Instagram Story on iPhone. Using the below method, you can share someones long reel or your own reel to .
Option : Use Animoto Online
It’s easy and free to create vertical videos with Animoto. Keep scrolling to preview some popular vertical templates. However, keep in mind that you can start from scratch or use any template that you’d like – all Animoto projects can be made into a vertical video, which is optimized for Stories.
Learn more about the power of vertical video with our guide for creating vertical video in Animoto and our tips for shooting vertical videos. If you’re in need of inspiration, look no further than our list of .
New Post Teaser TemplateUse this template to bring your audience back to your feed for the fresh content you’ve shared.
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How To Edit The Music Sticker In Your Story
When adding a music sticker to your Story, youll probably notice that there are a few options to edit the song you chose. In addition to rewinding and fast-forwarding through the song to select the precise clip you want to use, you can also choose:
- The length of the clip
- The color of the music sticker
- The size and type of sticker
- Whether you want the lyrics displayed instead of the sticker
- The color and font of the lyrics
Heres how to edit your music sticker:
If you want to have music on your Instagram Story but dont want a sticker to be visible, you can drag the sticker off the screen. It will disappear from the Story preview display, but after it publishes, youll still hear the music and see the song title and artist at the top of the screen.
Best Practices When Adding Music To Instagram Story
If youre looking to get the best experience out of the music on Instagram Story, its advisable to always start a song at the beginning of the chorus. How will you be able to tell where the chorus starts? Easy!
If youre keen, youll see a tiny tick mark in every song which acts as an indicator of where the songs chorus starts. Just think of it as a green light in traffic. The moment you see it, youre clear to go.
Also, its best to preview your Instagram Music Story just to get a feel of what message it sends. Youll be glad to know that making adjustments is not all that difficult. Therefore, if you feel like it doesnt resonate with what youre feeling, you can delete the sticker or choose a different song.
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Great But Have An Improvement For You To Fix
This app is great, and I havent had any problems lately, but I am finding it a little hard trying to add music that I want, without the portion of the music being selected for me such as picking a song, and having a 30 second snippet of the song. For instance maybe in the next update, fix it to where you can pick any part of the song, instead of trying to pick 15 seconds from the 30 second snippet of the song. If so, you would probably get a 5 star rating, in all great job
Manually Cutting Your Videos

If the method above doesnt work for you, then you will need to manually cut your videos into either 15 second segments or 60 second segments and let Instagram do the rest. By default, your smartphone will come with some basic video editing tools that will let you cut and trim the video to your desired length.
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