How to Save Music on Instagram Reels & Stories

Now, in addition to saving Reels and photos, Instagram users can save audio and music for later use. With this feature, you can collect all your favourite music and create a sort of audio library on Instagram.

How? This is what we’ll talk about in this article. We’ll also cover the way to find the saved audio on Instagram and how to share it.

Music not just makes a Reel or an Instagram story more engaging and entertaining. If the content piece has a trending sound, it can get into others’ suggestions. By saving music from popular Reels and adding it to your own content, you stay ahead of the curve.

Or, perhaps, you simply like the song, want to save it, and later add it to Spotify or Deezer playlist? Whatever the reason, saving an audio on Instagram is worth using.

Now, without further ado, let’s go straight to our guide.

How to save music on Instagram Reels

Instagram does everything to compete with TikTok in this field and win at least a fraction of the TikTok audience. This is why Instagram initially introduced Reels with the ability to add music to them and now lets users save tracks, which is good news for content creators and influencers.

Here’s how to save music from an Instagram Reel:

First of all, you can’t do it on a desktop; to save audio on Instagram, you need to install or update a mobile Instagram app. When you do so, follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Instagram mobile app on your smartphone.
2. Find the Reel you want to save the music from. We recommend you save the Reels, too, for quicker access.
3. Click on the song title in the Reel in the lower left corner of your screen.

All popular Reels that contain this track will open.

4. Click on the bookmark icon above the song title.

That’s it! The song is saved.

If you’ve never saved music on Instagram before, a new collection in your Saved will be created. There, you can find all the audio and music you’ve saved from Reels or stories.

How to save music on Instagram story

The instruction above describes how you can save audio from a Reel, but if the track you liked is added to an Instagram story? Here’s how to save it, too, before it gets too late and the story disappears:

1. Open the story that contains music in it.
2. Click on the track at the top of the story right below the user handle.
3. Find the box that appears at the bottom of the screen when you click the music link.
4. Click on the bookmark icon.

How to search for a song & save it on Instagram

Another option to discover and save music on Instagram is to… simply look for it!

To do that, just press on the magnifying glass icon in the bottom menu of your screen to head over to a search page. Then, in the search bar, enter the name of the song or artist and find the Audio tab among the Top, Accounts, Places, Reels, and Tags tabs.

Choose one of the songs (or versions of it), find the one you like, and click on the bookmark icon.

How to find saved audio on Instagram

As mentioned above, Instagram creates a special tab with all the tracks and songs you’ve saved. To find it, do the following:

1. Head over to your Instagram profile page.
2. Click on your profile picture icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
3. Click on the burger menu (three horizontal lines) on the top right corner of your screen and select Saved.

You will see a special tab with all the saved audio called Audio.

1. Click on Audio, and you’ll see the track you’ve just saved.
   

If you want to play it, tap the Play button next to the track.

How to use saved audio on Instagram story

Now that you’ve saved audio you like, you can use it in your own content. Thus, you’ll help to promote the track and draw attention to your video, story, or feed post (yes, feed posts now can be played with music, too!).

To add a saved audio track to your story, start making an Instagram story as you normally would. Select the music sticker, and, instead of searching for a song, click on the Saved tab. Then, just choose the track from the list of the saved audio. Edit the music sticker as you wish and tap Done.

How to use saved audio on Instagram Reels

Reels without music are like a hamburger without a sauce; they’re not captivating enough if they have no sounds.

The good news is that you can add saved audio to your Reels, too! Here’s how:

1. Start making a Reel as you normally would.
2. Click on the music note icon, and you’ll see the list of tracks, as well as the tab with your saved audio.
3. Tap Saved and select the audio you want to add.

1. Before adding the audio, click Play to listen to the part of the audio track you want to use in your Reels.
2. Edit the Reel as you wish.
3. Add the audio.
4. Customise the Reel’s description, location, etc., and post the Reel.

Alternatively, you can go to Saved from your profile page -> Audio. Then, select an audio track by tapping Use Audio at the bottom of the screen. Start recording a Reel while the audio plays in the background.

How to use saved audio in Instagram post

It's a new feature that Instagram has rolled out just recently. Adding music to your post won't take long but might contribute to the post's engagement and even attract new followers. Here’s how to do that:

1. Upload a single photo and apply the edits you want.

Currently, you can add music only to single photo posts, not carousels

2. Hit Next.

3. Click Add Music on the caption screen below the geotag.

4. Choose a track.

5. Find the Saved option and click on it.

6. Choose a song from your Saved collection.

7. Choose a part of the song and its length.

Here, you can also set the desired length of the track; you're free to choose between 5-90 seconds. Once the part you've chosen ends, the song loops. To choose the length, hit the circle that says 30.

8.  Tap Done.

Once your post is live, your followers will see the song’s name and artist below the geotag and a volume icon on the bottom right.

How to share saved audio & music on Instagram

You can share the track you’ve saved with your friends on Instagram, and it’s not at all hard to do. Just follow these simple steps:

1. On the Instagram app for iOS or Android, head over to Saved -> Audio.
2. Open the song you want to share and find the paper plane icon. Press on that icon.
3. You’ll see the list of users who you can share the audio with.

If you want to share an audio track in other apps, you can do that too by copying the link of the audio (click on the three dots in the top right corner of your app and choose Copy Link). Then just share the link in any other app, platform, or messenger.

How to unsave a song on Instagram

If you no longer want to keep the song in your saved list, you can easily remove it. To do so, just open the page where all your saved content is stored, go to the Audio tab, and select the song you want to remove. Swipe left and tap the bookmark icon to unsave it.

How to save music on Instagram: Troubleshooting

How to save & add music to your Instagram Business Account

On Instagram mobile apps, you can’t use saved audio if your account is Business. The reason is to protect the rights of the creators, and owing to that, businesses can’t use the entire collection of music stored on Instagram.

However, there are workarounds:

1. Use the original audio posted by other Instagram users. Press on the Original Audio label when you see one.
2. Change your account category to Entrepreneur (Edit Profile -> Category -> Entrepreneur).
3. Hide your category on the Instagram business account label altogether (Edit -> toggle off the Display label).
4. Change your Instagram account type to Personal or Creator. This is the best approach since it still allows you to track your account performance in Insights that are available only to Business and Creator accounts. You can do that by following the path: Settings -> Account settings -> Switch account type -> Switch to creator account.

Why can’t I save music on Instagram?

There are plenty of reasons. One of them is that you might be using a Business account. In this article, we’ve mentioned several workarounds to lift this issue if that’s the reason.

Another reason is that you might be using an old version of an Instagram mobile app. Update the app to see if the issue is gone.

And remember that saving music only works on Instagram mobile, so if you can’t save audio on Instagram desktop, that’s due to the native Instagram functionality.