Instagram Adds Music for Carousel Posts with Video

Instagram’s keen to provide more ways for users to engage with music in the app, this time via the addition of music in carousel posts that include video clips.

As you can see in this example, now, you can add music tracks to accompany your carousel updates, even if they include a video frame.

To be clear, you’ve been able to add music to still image carousels for some time, but you couldn’t add a track to carousels with a video component. But now, you can, providing another means to put together more specific image, video, and music packages for your I.G. posts.

Instagram’s been looking to add more music elements, likely with an eye to a future in the U.S. without TikTok. TikTok has fast become a key element for music promotion, to the point that TikTok is now considered essential for many music publishers, with some artists even changing the names of their songs to align with music trends.

But if TikTok ends up getting removed from the U.S., all of that music promotion work will need to shift elsewhere, and Instagram’s looking to position itself as the best alternative for such within the social media sphere.

Instagram also added its “Add Yours Music” sticker back in May, which enables users to respond to a Story with a track, while it’s also added music in Notes, song lyrics display in Reels, and other music elements, as it seeks to offer similar music engagement options as TikTok.

And right now at least, it does seem realistic that TikTok could be removed from the U.S.

The Chinese Government is standing firm in opposition to the White House’s move to force the app into U.S. ownership, and if that holds, TikTok will be gone from America as of early next year.

Which could leave a big opportunity for Instagram, if it can align its tools as TikTok alternatives.

There are other motivating factors here too, but providing more music-related elements is a key way that Instagram could win out in this shift.