Instagram now lets you add a soundtrack to your Stories by choosing from a library of thousands of pre-loaded songs
- Soundtracks can be added to a story in the same way a sticker is attached
- Songs play automatically whenever a person watches the Instagram Story
- Artists including Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris and Guns N' Roses are available
- Users in the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and Sweden are the only people with access to the music features for now
Instagram users can now add music tracks to their Stories, adding a soundtrack to their videos and photos.
From today, Instagram users will be able to add an entire track – or short snippet of their favourite part of a song – to posts on their Story.
Users can add a soundtrack to their post using the stickers menu, which is where Instagram includes the ability to add emoji, GIFs, and geographical tags and time and date stamps to their Story posts.
When watching an Instagram Story that has musical accompaniment, a small rectangular sticker will display the track title, artist and album artwork.
Instagram today rolled-out the new feature in Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK and United States, with more countries to follow.
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Instagram's quest to revolutionise Stories continues as the app rolls out the ability to include music. Starting today, users will be able to add background music to their posts on their Stories
There are two ways to add a soundtrack to an Instagram Story post.
If users have yet to take the photo or video, they can swipe along the bottom of the screen in the main camera interface until they reach 'Music'.
This newly-added option is included in the same carousel as other Story recording options, including 'Live', 'Boomerang', 'Type' and 'Rewind'.
To retroactively add a track to a photo or video that has been imported into Instagram, users will need to add the music sticker.
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After selecting the music sticker from the designated menu, a list of potential songs will pop-up. These can be sampled from within the menu by tapping the play button.
Instagram divides the music library into three categories: popular, moods and genres.
Once a song has been selected, it can be fast forwarded to start at a specific point.
When a viewer comes across the post on Instagram, the song will immediately start to play from the chosen spot, like a chorus.
When people watch a story with an added musical accompaniment, a sticker will appear showing the appropriate song and artist. The update is currently only available in Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US
Rumours first appeared about the feature back in May, when a pair of tech enthusiasts discovered the feature hiding in the code of the app's programming (pictured)
The roll-out is currently limited to a few countries, due to music licensing and copyright restrictions which affects the library of tracks available to users.
Facebook has secured the rights to include thousands of tracks in Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK and United States.
These include well-known artists like Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris and Guns N' Roses.
In a blog post announcing the new feature, Instagram also revealed its Stories feature now boasts 400 million daily users.
It said: 'Instagram Stories is now used by 400 million every day, and we're excited to give our community new ways to feel closer to their friends and followers.'
Rumours of the ability to add music first surface online back in May, when fans unearthed references to the then-unannounced feature within the code of the app.
Instagram has now announced that the feature is available as part of the Instagram 51 update, which is currently only available in select countries.
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