Instagram Stories, the short-form video-showcasing sideline on social media platform Instagram, now offers its users a library of licensed music.
The news announcement is a direct result of new licensing deals signed by Insta parent Facebook – which has announced agreements with the likes of Universal Music Group, Sony/ATV and Warner Music Group in the past 12 months.
Instagram users in 51 countries can now access a library of potential soundtracks for their videos, containing thousands of songs.
Users can search for a specific track, browse by mood, genre or what’s popular.
The company explained in a press release: “When you tap to add a sticker to a photo or video in Stories, you’ll now see a music icon. Tap on it to open a library of thousands of songs — you can search for a specific song, browse by mood, genre or what’s popular and tap the play button to hear a preview. When you’ve selected your song, you can fast-forward and rewind through the track to choose the exact part that fits your story.”
“When your friends are watching your story, they’ll hear the song playing as they’re viewing your photo or video. They’ll also see a sticker showing the song title and artist name.”
However, the the ability to choose a song before capturing video is available on iOS only, with Android functionality ‘coming soon’.
Instagram further explained: “When your friends are watching your story, they’ll hear the song playing as they’re viewing your photo or video. They’ll also see a sticker showing the song title and artist name.”
Meanwhile, Instagram has confirmed that Instagram Stories now has 400m daily users, up from 300m in November.
That piece of news comes a week after the app confirmed it has 1bn monthly users overall.
In contrast, Snapchat has 191m daily users.Music Business Worldwide
