How to Add Music to Instagram Story (Fix Music Sticker Missing)

Cecilia Hwung
8 min readAug 3, 2020

Instagram Music Sticker missing? Try 6 tricks to bring it back or add music to IG story w/o sticker.

Photo by Instagram Announcements

There are more than 500 million accounts that use Instagram Stories every day. Besides adding text and filters, stickers surely have a massive influence to make an IG story more appealing and engaging. You can use a Poll sticker to interact with the viewers, or the GIF sticker to tap into the vast resources from GIPHY.

Most excitingly, now you can add music to Instagram Story directly inside the Story page, with trendy works from artists such as Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars, Calvin Harris, Guns N’ Roses, etc. The library is still growing, and Instagram is striving to bring this feature to more countries and regions.

(Tips: If you cannot find a suitable soundtrack from the stock music library, you can download creative commons and royalty free music from top 19 free music sites.)

Was the music sticker gone? You can find solutions to enable it in part 3. Let’s first get into the how-to part.

1. Add Music to Instagram Story via the Music Sticker

Instagram introduced the music sticker in 2018, possibly a strategy to compete with music.ly which is popular among teens. You can add a music sticker to your Story the same way you add stickers like a poll, location, and gif. For iOS devices, you can also choose a song before snapping a video, and in that way, you can film your action to the beat of the soundtrack.

Brief guide: go to the Story feature, and choose the music sticker.

Detailed guide:

Step 1. Make sure your Instagram is the latest version.

Step 2. Go tap the plus icon beside your profile photo or click the camera icon on the top right.

Step 3. Press down the button to take photos and videos, and release it when you finish recording.

You can also import existing files from your camera roll.

It’s brunch time when I was putting this together, so I snapped the Panini from @krumvillebakeshop for the Story.

Add music to Instagram Story

Step 4. Tap the sticker icon and find the music sticker inside. If your music sticker is gone, go to part 3 for fixes.

Step 5. Select any song you like. You can also use the search option.

I planned to go with #RainOnMe. But then I got a light bulb moment and searched for a song titled Hungry Like The Wolf.

Step 6. Preview the song and scrub forward to select a section you like.

  • The default length of the soundtrack over a picture is 15 seconds
  • For videos, the music clip will last as long as the video ends, though IG Story will break your video into several 15-second segments.
  • Most people find 15 seconds not enough, but if you want it to be shorter, go tap the timer at the bottom.

Step 7. Place the music sticker over your footage or picture.

  • You can change the size of the music sticker by pinching and zooming in and out.
  • You can also change the style of the music sticker by double-tapping.

Step 8. Publish the Story.

Optional: You can also add music to Instagram Story with lyrics. Plus, if you want your stories to stay below the bio, go add your music Story to the highlight.

Want to add a music sticker to your post? Here is the trick:

Though there is no music sticker feature when you post videos and pictures to your feed, you can circumvent it. The secret is to edit everything through the Story option and save the video to your camera roll. Then you can import that video, upload it to your feed, and post Instagram from a computer.

2. How to Add Music to Instagram Story Without the Sticker

The music sticker is not available to all IG users due to regional differences or account types. Plus, you might fail to find the desired song. If you prefer to add your own audio to Instagram Story, you can use Instagram video editor apps and put music to your video before uploading. Here is a list of 3 easy-to-use editing apps for iPhone and Android.

#1 InShot

InShot is made with IG Story in mind. You can add stickers, music, and fantastic text to your video. It also allows you to enable ghost and glitch effects. On top of trimming, cutting, and splitting, you can also add filters to enhance the color of your content.

#2 Animoto

If your Instagram Story is all about the picture slideshow, Animoto fits in right away. Besides adding music to your content, you can add multiple photos and videos, and make collages out of them. The free version grants you all the features and the only limitation is a video length of up to 10 minutes.

#3 KineMaster

KineMaster offers more possibilities for skilled users. The best thing is, you can add multiple music clips to the video, together with text layers and filters. It also allows you to record a voiceover and trim it to fit the IG Story. It can be too robust if you are new to the skill set.

3. Music Sticker Not Showing Up? Here Are 6 Workable Fixes

While video editing apps make it possible to add any song to you, it is not as quick and instant as posting directly. A music sticker is the easiest way to capture the moment you are in.

However, many users find that they don’t have the music sticker on Instagram Story, or they once had the feature, and somehow the music sticker is gone.

Here are 6 tricks you can try to bring back a music sticker to your IG story.

#1 “Burrow” the Music Sticker from Someone’s Story

If you are in the region where the Instagram music sticker should be enabled, yet it is missing, it could be just a small glitch in the app. A nice trick for you to try is to use the sticker from other people. After applying it to your Story, you might see the sticker appears again, and you can put the music to another IG Story again.

Here’s what you do:

Step 1. Check Story from your feed and find someone who adds music to the Story.

Step 2. Tap the sticker of the song on the screen.

Step 3. Tap “Try Music in your Story” in the pop-up window.

Then you can discard the current music, and check if the music sticker reappears in the sticker window.

#2 Put Spotify music to Instagram Story

Many music streaming apps have share-to-Instagram features built-in. Spotify is probably the most popular one among them. It teamed up with Instagram in 2018 for seamless integration in terms of music sharing.

Follow these steps to put Spotify music to IG Story (SoundCloud and Shazam work similarly).

Step 1. Find a song you love and tap the three-dot icon to find the Share option.

Step 2. Choose Instagram Story among a list of apps.

Step 3. The operation will automatically launch the IG Story and create a stylized preview of that song. You can also add text, GIFs, or hand lettering before posting.

Step 4. Hit the “Send to” icon to post your IG Story with music.

Step 5. Create another Story and check if the music sticker is triggered.

#3 Update or re-login to enable music sticker

Sometimes, an update will solve the issue. If you are using iPhone, go to the App Store and search for Instagram. If you see an update icon, tap it.

If you are on Android, you can update it or try delete and reinstall it. Remember to Clear All Data after deleting Instagram.

Also, you can try logging out of your current account and logging in again. Some users find it workable to bring back the music sticker.

Step 1. Go to your feed page and tap the top-right icon.

Step 2. Tap at settings.

Step 3. Scroll all the way down to the bottom to log out.

Log out Instagram to bring back Music Sticker

#4 Switch account to bring back music sticker

Many business account users find music stickers gone, even they were earlier using them to add a soundtrack and liven up their branding Stories. Although there is no official notification from Instagram, it makes sense from a licensing perspective.

If you have a business account, try switching it to a personal account or a creator account.

Wait at least 5–14 days to see if the music sticker shows up again. It’s less likely to happen instantly after you change your account type.

Quick guide: Go to your profile and tap the upper right corner > settings > Account > Switch to Personal Account.

# 5 Create a new account and link to the old one

We saw many successful cases to bring back the music sticker by creating a new account. It doesn’t mean that you have started afresh and lose all your followers. The trick is to trigger a music sticker in the new account and link it to the old account. Then you can enjoy the music feature in the same app using the old account.

Please do not use the same phone or email for your new account.

After automatically get the music sticker, go to settings to link your newly-created account to your existing account. Wait patiently and get back in 24 hours or so. Switch to your old account to see if the feature is available.

#6 Using Instagram through Wi-Fi

This is less likely a solution comparing to the above-mentioned methods. But there are several users claiming it workable on their side. You can give it a spin.

4. How to Make Instagram Story Music Longer

Can’t post Instagram Story longer than 5 seconds? Check the GIF sticker!

If you put a GIF sticker on Story, the music will only play 5 seconds, despite the normal 15-second per Story clip.

What if 15 seconds is still not enough? You can import a long video or keep pressing the recording icon. Instagram will chop up your clips into multiple segments in your Story. Then you can add a music sticker to see if the song keeps going and extending the 15-second limit.

Another method is to use an Instagram video splitter before posting a longer video to Instagram. The aim is to chop up a long video with background music into several 15-second clips. Then you can upload your clips in the right order to create a continuous video with music going on.

To know about how to add music to Instagram Story, please refer to the original post: https://www.videoproc.com/video-editor/how-to-add-music-to-instagram-story.htm

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Cecilia Hwung

Tech writer on AI, hardware, and software. I share reviews, trends, and tips. Visit me at videoproc.com for the latest in multimedia.