How to Use Your Own Music on Instagram

Adding your own music to your Instagram content is one of the best ways to make your posts stand out, build a unique brand identity, and even promote your work as an artist. This guide breaks down exactly how to do it, from the official method for musicians to clever workarounds for brands and creators. We’ll cover the step-by-step processes for Reels and Stories, explain why business accounts have music restrictions, and share tips to make your custom audio shine.

Why Bother Using Your Own Music Anyway?

In a sea of content using the same 10 trending songs, using your own audio is a powerful move. For musicians, the benefit is obvious: it’s direct promotion. Every time someone hears your Reel, they're hearing your song, potentially leading them to your Spotify or Apple Music profile. For brands and creators, custom audio helps build a distinct sonic identity. Think of it as an audio watermark that makes your content instantly recognizable. It also frees you from the limitations of Instagram's music library, giving you complete creative control and helping you avoid potential copyright headaches.

The Big Hurdle: Copyright and Business Accounts

If you've ever tried to add a popular song to a post from a Business Account, you’ve likely hit a wall. Most of the trending tunes are gone, replaced by a library of generic, royalty-free tracks. Why? It all comes down to licensing.

Instagram has agreements with music labels that allow for the personal, non-commercial use of popular music. This is why Personal and Creator accounts have access to the full library. Business Accounts, however, are considered commercial entities. Using a popular song in a promotional post (even an organic one) would be a form of advertising, which isn't covered by Instagram’s standard music licenses. To protect themselves and the music rights holders, Meta restricts the library for businesses.

Understanding this is important because it sets the stage for the solutions. The following methods are your way around this restriction, allowing you to use sound you own the rights to, regardless of your account type.

Method 1: Get Your Music into Instagram's Library (The 'Official' Way for Musicians)

If you're an artist and want your music to be officially available for everyone to use in Reels and Stories, the right way to do it is through a digital distributor. This process pushes your music to major streaming platforms and, most importantly, to Meta’s own sound library for Facebook and Instagram.

This is the ideal path if you want to make it easy for fans to discover and use your songs in their own content. Here’s a general overview of the process:

• Step 1: Choose a Digital Music Distributor. You need a third-party service to get your music onto streaming platforms and social media libraries. Popular options include DistroKid, TuneCore, and CD Baby. Each has different fee structures (annual fees vs. one-time fees), so research which one fits your budget and needs.
• Step 2: Prepare Your Music for Distribution. When you sign up, you'll need to upload high-quality audio files (usually WAV files), your album artwork, and metadata (song title, artist name, genre, etc.). Follow your distributor's specific requirements closely to avoid any delays.
• Step 3: Opt-in for Social Media Delivery. During the upload process, there will be an option to distribute your music to various stores and platforms. Make sure you select the options for Instagram and Facebook. This tells the distributor to send your tracks to Meta's Sound Collection.
• Step 4: Wait for Your Music to Appear. This part requires some patience. It can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for your song to process and become available in the Instagram music sticker library. Once it does, you and any other user can search for your song by title or artist name and add it directly to a Story or Reel.

The biggest advantage of this method is legitimacy and reach. Your song will have your official artist and track name attached, creating a professional look and allowing it to potentially become a trending sound used by thousands of people.

Method 2: Add Music to Your Video Before Uploading (The Universal Workaround)

What if you're not a musician with distributed music? Maybe you're a brand with a custom jingle or a creator using royalty-free music you downloaded from a different source. This is the most common and flexible method for adding any audio you own or have a license for, and it works for any account type.

The strategy is simple: edit your video with your chosen music before you ever open the Instagram app. By adding the audio directly to the video file, you are "baking it in," so Instagram sees it as the video's native sound.

Here’s how to do it:

• Step 1: Choose a Video Editing App. You don't need fancy desktop software. Most mobile video editing apps make this incredibly easy. A few great options are:
  • CapCut: Free and extremely powerful, with tons of features for syncing audio, adding text, and effects.
  • InShot: Another user-friendly mobile editor that's great for quick adds of music, voiceovers, and basic edits.
  • VN Video Editor: A free mobile app with a clean interface and multi-track editing, giving you more precise control over audio layers.
  • Adobe Premiere Rush: A great cross-device option if you want to start editing on your laptop and finish on your phone.
• Step 2: Import Your Clips and Music. Open your chosen app and start a new project. Import the video clips you want to use. Then, look for an "Add Audio," "Sound," or "Music" button. From there, you can import the audio file (like an MP3 or WAV) from your phone’s files.
• Step 3: Edit Your Video. Sync your video clips to the music. You can trim the audio to start at the perfect moment, adjust its volume, and cut your video clips to match the beat. This is where you have total creative freedom to make the audio and visuals work together perfectly.
• Step 4: Export a High-Quality Video. Once you're happy with your edit, export the final video. Most apps have export settings for 1080p and 30fps (frames per second), which is perfect for Instagram. The app will merge your visuals and your custom audio into a single video file, saved to your phone's camera roll.
• Step 5: Upload to Instagram. Now, open Instagram and upload the video you just created. Whether you're posting it as a Reel, a Story, or a video on your Feed, it will upload with your custom music already embedded.

A Quick Warning: This method should only be used for music you have created yourself or have a license to use commercially (like stock music from Artlist or Epidemic Sound). If you use a famous copyrighted song and bake it into your video, Instagram's algorithm might still detect it, mute your video, or take it down for copyright infringement.

Method 3: Turn Your Track into a Trending "Original Audio"

This is less of a technical method and more of a strategic extension of Method 2. It's the secret to how many of the unique, viral sounds on Reels are born.

When you upload a Reel with sound that isn't from Instagram's official music library (like the kind you create using Method 2), Instagram labels the sound as "Original Audio." At the bottom of the Reel, it will say "Original audio" with your username right next to it.

This is where the opportunity lies. Anyone who sees your Reel can tap on that “Original audio” link and use your sound in their own Reel. This is incredibly powerful for both artists and brands.

Here’s how to leverage this feature:

1. Create a high-quality Reel with your custom music baked in, as described in Method 2.
2. Make the audio snippet catchy, memorable, or highly shareable. A signature beat, a funny soundbite, or the best 15 seconds of your new song work well.
3. When you post the Reel, the audio will automatically become your "Original Audio." You can even name the audio track for a more professional touch when people go to use it.
4. Encourage your followers to use the audio! Write a call-to-action in your caption like, "Use my sound to show me your best dance moves!" or "Tap the audio to make a Reel with our new brand jingle."

By creating a desirable Original Audio, you can organically get hundreds or thousands of people to market your sound for you.

Tips for Making Your Custom Audio Shine on Instagram

Now that you know how to get your own music on Instagram, here are a few best practices to ensure your content performs well:

• Prioritize Audio Quality. Make sure your audio is mixed well and sounds clear and crisp, even through tiny phone speakers. Avoid distortion or audio that is too quiet.
• Hook Them Immediately. Don't bury the best part of your track 30 seconds into the video. The first 3 seconds are vital. Start with a strong beat, lyrical hook, or intriguing sound to stop the scroll.
• Add On-Screen Text and Captions. Remember that many users browse with their sound off. Use on-screen text to convey your message or add auto-captions so your video is understandable with or without audio.
• Create a Repeatable Format. If you're a brand using a specific sound, create a consistent video format that goes with it. When people hear the audio in the future, they'll immediately associate it with your brand and style of content.
• Give Your "Original Audio" a Clear Name. After you post your Reel, tap the "Original audio" text and choose to rename it. Instead of "Original audio by @YourUsername," you can name it something like "Summer Chill Vibe - Your Artist Name" to make it more discoverable and enticing for others to use.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're formally distributing your music to Instagram's library or embedding custom sound design into your videos before you upload, using your own audio is a game-changer. It unlocks complete creative freedom, helps you build a more memorable brand, and protects you from the complexities of music licensing on business accounts.

Creating great content with unique audio is half the battle, the other half is managing it all without the chaos. We built Postbase to solve the frustrating parts of social media management, especially for teams juggling short-form video. Once you’ve edited that perfect Reel with your custom track, you can use our visual calendar to plan weeks of content, schedule it in advance, and trust it will actually publish reliably, every single time.