Instagram adds soundtrack option to ‘Stories’

A new Instagram feature might be music to certain marketers’ ears.

On Thursday, the social media app announced a new feature that enables users to add soundtracks to Instagram Stories.

In a blog post, Instagram wrote:

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.

You can also choose a song before capturing a video. When you open the camera, swipe to the new “Music” option under the record button. Search for a song, select the exact part you want, and record a video as the song plays in the background.

 

Bustle reported:

When your followers watch your Story, they'll hear the song you picked play automatically. If they want more info on it, there will be a tappable sticker they can click. This is a really fun way to add some more interesting elements to your Story, and it's also a cool way to listen to new songs. You might find your new favorite jam thanks to someone you follow adding it to their Story!

The feature might be a fun addition for the average Instagram user, but for marketers, it represents yet another way to capture and keep consumers’ attention. For those representing musicians or record labels, the feature might further boost brands and artists.

TechCrunch reported:

Listenable music stickers would make Instagram Stories much more interesting to watch. Amateur video footage suddenly looks like DIY MTV when you add the right score. The feature could also steal thunder from teen lip syncing app sensation Musically, and stumbling rival Snapchat that planned but scrapped a big foray into music. And alongside Instagram Stories’ new platform for sharing posts directly fromthird-party apps, including Spotify and SoundCloud, these stickers could make Instagram a powerful driver of music discovery.

The announcement of music stickers was only one interesting piece of information the mobile platform shared. Instagram also revealed that its Stories feature has twice as many daily users as Snapchat’s similar offering.

CNBC reported:

The Stories feature, which allows users to share ephemeral photos with their followers, is up to 400 million daily users, Instagram said on Thursday. Snapchat pioneered the photo stories model and reported 191 million daily active users for the first quarter of 2018, according to Snap's most recent quarterly report.

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The influx of users to Instagram Stories has highlighted a major opportunity for marketers. Whether or not you use the new feature to add music to your content, there are ways to make your videos and visuals appealing to viewers.

In its Business Blog, Instagram wrote:

The audience we surveyed perceived similarities and differences beyond these. Across all four countries, people strongly see both Instagram Stories and Instagram Feed as visually beautiful places to revel in creativity. But people also tend to associate each with different use cases. For instance, they're more likely to say they visit stories to see live, unfiltered content—think behind-the-scenes clips from Fashion Month or Boomerangs of athletes getting ready for a big game. On the other hand, they're more likely to say they go to feed for a broader range of reasons, the most common of which are to find information and discover products and brands.

Based on these findings, a marketer might use feed to introduce people to or share updates on a brand or product, and stories to engage them more deeply through real-time, authentic content.

Instagram suggests that marketers focus on telling their organizations’ stories while keeping consumers’ expectations in mind. By fulfilling these expectations and catering to consumers’ desires, you can highlight your brand and continue to capture attention through the platform.

“We found that strategies such as including branding early, moving quickly from scene to scene and including product demos made stories ads more effective,” Instagram wrote.

What do you think of the feature, PR Daily readers?

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