Spice up your Instagram feed with music and Reels

Instagram is one of the top social media sites and apps available. People make full-time livings on Instagram these days. Throughout the years, the platform has added great features and has also become an e-commerce landscape. It’s even looking to get into NFTs. From launching video chat for the masses to letting people record videos and post them in the form of Reels, Instagram has so much for its users. But if you’re just looking for a few of the simple features, you can learn how to use them.

Instagram now allows you to put music in your stories with a few simple taps to add a bit of extra flavor. Of course, these aren’t full songs, but rather 15-second clips that you can use over your photos and videos. These aren’t instrumental or royalty-free tracks though — you’ll find popular songs from top 40 radio and beyond in a library of thousands of songs. How exactly do you do it? Here’s how.

How to put in your favorite music clips

Adding music couldn’t be easier. First, tap to add a sticker while viewing a photo or video on your story. This will pull up a page full of stickers that you can slap on to your content. Next, find the new sticker labeled “Music” in the third row. You will immediately see a long list of popular music, though you can also sort by moods and genres if you’re not sure which song you want. If you have a song in mind, you can search for it.

Once you’ve selected a song, you can choose what part of the song you want to play over your story, and then drag it over whatever photo or video you deem appropriate. Clips can be up to 15 seconds, but they can also be as short as you want. Once the music clip has been inserted, the name of the track and artist will appear whenever your friends view the story, so they can find the track on their own if they happen to like it. You can also choose to show the lyrics of the clip you chose in different fonts. There are also options for a link to the song on Spotify or just a photo of the album cover art to go along with the song.

How to create a Reel

Creating a Reel is a similar experience to creating a video or post. You just have to swipe over to Reel at the bottom. Once you do, you’ll see you can adjust the time of your video and choose between 15, 30, and 60 seconds. You can add music before you start shooting as well, so you can perform your video according to the song. It lets you pick how fast you want the video to play, so you can speed it up or slow it down. 

There are also effects you can add or filters you can turn on. You can choose a specific layout as well. There’s also a timer feature that will count down to let you know when it is recording. That helps you get ready for a video. 

Editor’s note: This article originally ran on July 1, 2018, and has since been updated.