Instagram is keen to give users more ways to engage with music within the app, and now it will be adding music to carousel posts that contain video clips.
As you can see from this example, you can now add a music track to accompany your carousel updates, even when it contains video frames.
To be clear, you’ve always been able to add music to a still image carousel, but you couldn’t add a track to a carousel that contained a video component. Now you can, giving you another way to put together a more specific image, video, and music package for your IG post.
Instagram has been trying to add more music elements as it looks to a future where TikTok is gone in the U.S. TikTok has quickly become a key part of music promotion, to the point where it’s now considered essential by many music publishers, leading some artists to change song titles to match music trends.
But with TikTok being removed from the US, all music promotion activity will have to move elsewhere, and Instagram is trying to position itself as the best alternative for that activity in the social media space.
Instagram also said,“Add your music” sticker New features released in May let users reply to Stories with tracks, as well as add music to notes, show lyrics in Reels and add other musical elements, aiming to offer music engagement options similar to those found on TikTok.
And for now, at least, the possibility of TikTok being removed from the US seems real.
The Chinese government is adamantly opposed to any White House efforts to bring the app under US ownership, which would see TikTok disappear from America early next year.
If Instagram can position its tool as an alternative to TikTok, it could have a big opportunity.
While there are other motivating factors, offering more music-related content is a key way for Instagram to win during this shift.
