How to Add Music to a Facebook Story

Adding a soundtrack to your Facebook Story transforms it from a simple update into an engaging experience. A well-chosen song can stop scrollers in their tracks, set a specific mood, and make your content feel professionally polished. This guide will show you exactly how to add music using Facebook’s built-in feature, how to customize it to match your style, and even a workaround for adding your own personal audio.

Why Add Music to Your Facebook Story?

Before jumping into the "how," it's worth understanding the "why." Music isn't just a background element, it's a powerful tool for social media. In the fast-paced world of Stories, where you have just seconds to capture someone's attention, audio plays a massive role. It can grab attention instantly, establish an emotional tone - be it exciting, calming, or funny - and make your content far more memorable.

For brands and creators, it's also about staying relevant. Using trending audio can connect your Story to a larger cultural conversation, increasing its potential reach. Simply put, pairing visuals with the right audio can dramatically improve your Story’s performance, leading to higher view-through rates and better engagement.

How to Add Music to a Facebook Story: The Official Way

Facebook makes this process incredibly simple with its built-in music library. You can add a song to either a static photo or a video clip you upload. Here’s a breakdown of the process.

A Step-by-Step Guide Using the Music Sticker

1. Open the Facebook App and Start a Story: From your home feed, tap on the "Create story" button at the top of the screen. You’ll be taken to the Story creation interface.
2. Select Your Photo or Video: Choose an existing visual from your phone’s camera roll or capture a new one using the camera within the Facebook app. Your chosen media will now appear in the Story editor.
3. Tap the Stickers Icon: On the top right side of the screen, you’ll see several icons for adding effects and extras. Tap on the one that looks like a peeling square sticker.
4. Choose the “Music” Sticker: A menu of sticker options will pop up. Find and select the "Music" sticker. This will open up Facebook's extensive music library.
5. Find Your Perfect Song: You can now search for a specific track, artist, or album. Facebook also suggests music based on what's popular, or you can browse curated lists by genre or mood (like “Upbeat,” “Chill,” or “Date Night”). Tap a song to hear a preview.
6. Customize the Clip: Once you select a song, a timeline scrubber will appear at the bottom of the screen. Drag this scrubber left or right to select the exact part of the song you want to feature. Most Facebook Stories allow for a 15-second music clip, so find the chorus or musical segment that best fits your visual.
7. Style Your Sticker: This is where you can get creative. Facebook offers several ways to display the music on your Story. You can show scrolling lyrics in different fonts, display the song’s album art, or use a simple small sticker that just shows the song title and artist. Tap through the different style options that appear on your screen to find one you like. You can also tap the color wheel icon at the top to change the color of the lyrics or sticker.
8. Position and Share: After you’ve styled the sticker, you can drag it anywhere on the screen. Use two fingers to resize it or rotate it. Once you're happy with its placement, tap "Share" to post your Story.

Getting Creative: Customizing Your Music Sticker and Lyrics

Simply adding a song is great, but customizing it is what makes your Story unique. Let’s look closer at the creative options available.

Choosing the Vibe: Lyrics vs. Album Art

The display format you choose sets a different tone.

• Lyrics: Displaying animated lyrics is an excellent way to emphasize a message that connects with your visual. If you’re posting a motivational quote, find a song with lyrics that reinforce that feeling. It creates a dynamic, karaoke-like effect that’s highly engaging. You can choose from several font styles, from classic typewriter text to bold, modern animations.
• Album Art: If you prefer a cleaner or more minimalist look, you can opt for the album art sticker. This displays the song's cover in either a square or rectangular format, along with the song and artist name. It’s a great way to shout out your favorite artist or set a mood without distracting from your main visual with moving text.

Timing Is Everything: Selecting the Right Clip

The default 15-second clip Facebook suggests might not be the most impactful part of the song. Spend a moment using the timeline scrubber to find the musical hook, the soaring chorus, or a quiet instrumental beat drop that perfectly aligns with your visual. For a video of a stunning landscape, you might want a crescendo. For a funny clip, a quirky sound byte from the song might be perfect.

Match Your Aesthetic: Fonts and Colors

Don't just stick with the default colors. The music sticker editor includes a color wheel tool at the top of the screen. Tap it to cycle through different color palettes for your lyrics or sticker background. Try to match a color that’s already present in your photo or video for a cohesive, professional look. This small detail helps integrate the music sticker smoothly into your content instead of having it look like an afterthought.

Troubleshooting: Can't Find the Song You Want?

It's a common frustration: you have the perfect song in mind, but it’s nowhere to be found when you search Facebook’s library. There are a couple of reasons why this happens.

Why Some Songs Are Missing

Facebook (and its parent company, Meta) has licensing deals with major record labels and publishers to allow users to legally add popular music to their content. However, these agreements don't cover every song ever recorded. Sometimes a specific track, an indie artist, or music from a smaller label might not be included in the deal. The available library is always changing as new agreements are made and old ones expire.

Personal vs. Business Accounts: A Quick Note

If you’re managing a business page on Facebook, you might notice your music library is different and seems more limited. This is intentional. To avoid copyright infringement issues for commercial use, Facebook provides business accounts with the Meta Sound Collection - a library of royalty-free songs and sounds. While this means you won't find the latest Top 40 hits, it protects your business from potential legal issues. Personal profiles have access to the much larger library of popular, commercially licensed music.

The Advanced Workaround: Adding Your Own Audio

What if you need to use a specific audio clip that isn't in Facebook’s library - like your own original music, a voiceover, or a specific sound effect? While you can't add it through the music sticker, you can add it to your content before uploading it to Facebook.

A quick heads-up on copyright: Be responsible. This method is perfect for using audio you created or have the legal right to use. Using commercially licensed music without permission can lead to your Story being removed or other penalties. Always respect copyright laws.

Here's how to do it:

1. Get Your Audio Ready: Make sure the audio file you want to use is saved on your phone.
2. Use a Mobile Video Editor: Download a video editing app for your phone like CapCut, InShot, Splice, or even iMovie. These apps are user-friendly and give you a lot of control.
3. Combine Your Visual and Audio: Open a new project in your chosen editing app. First, import the photo or video you want to use in your Story. Then, import your custom audio track. Line up the audio with the visual, trim it to your desired length (Stories can be up to 60 seconds), and adjust the volume.
4. Save and Upload: Once you're finished, export the final clip from the video editor. It will save to your phone’s camera roll as a new video file - now with your custom soundtrack embedded. You can then upload this video file directly to your Facebook Story just as you would with any other video from your library.

Pro Tips: Making Your Musically-Powered Stories More Effective

Knowing how to add music is one thing, using it strategically is another. Here are a few tips to elevate your content from good to great.

• Match the Music to the Mood: This is the most important rule. An upbeat, energetic track can make a workout clip more exciting, while a quiet, acoustic song can make a post about a cozy morning feel more authentic. The music should enhance the feeling of your visual, not clash with it.
• Hop on Trends (Wisely): Pay attention to what songs are trending on Reels and TikTok. Using these sounds in your Stories can make your content feel timely and potentially reach a wider audience. But make sure the trend aligns with your brand’s voice - don’t force it if it doesn’t fit.
• Keep It Brand-Consistent: If you're a business, think about your brand's personality. Are you edgy and modern? Fun and playful? Calm and sophisticated? Try to choose songs that reflect your brand’s identity to create a consistent experience for your followers.
• Use Music to Accentuate Your Message: Treat the music as a storytelling component. A beat drop can be timed with a product reveal. Emotional lyrics can appear over a clip of a customer testimonial to amplify its impact.
• Balance Audio Levels: If your original video has someone talking, be careful about adding music. While you can’t lower the music’s volume within the Facebook sticker tool, you can make sure the song you choose isn’t so loud or busy that it drowns out the important dialogue. Better yet, for videos with talking head segments, use the advanced workaround to mix the audio properly in an external app.

Final Thoughts

Adding music to your Facebook Stories is one of the quickest and most effective ways to make your content stand out. Whether you’re using the simple music sticker to tap into a popular trend or layering your own custom audio, it brings your visuals to life and helps you connect with your audience on a more emotional level.

While API limitations prevent any third-party tool from adding licensed music to Stories directly, we know that creating great social media content is about more than just the final touches. With Postbase, we built a tool to handle the foundational work: planning your story concepts, scheduling your core posts, and managing all your engagement in one place. By organizing your entire content strategy in our visual calendar, you’ll free up the mental space and time to focus on creative elements - like picking the perfect song - right before you hit publish.