Are you a bit lost in the world of Reels, overwhelmed everytime you go to post? Lost on where the buttons are or how it all works?
If you’re looking to learn more about Instagram Reels, this one’s for you. Today we’re talking about audio for Reels.
Alright, let’s start with the basics. There are two types of audio you can use in your Reels: what we call Instagram audio and original audio. Instagram audio is music or sounds that you can search for in the Instagram app. You can also use your own original audio by simply recording a reel and publishing it.
This is using Instagram Audio (You can tell because there is a song selected here that is clickable)
This is using Original Audio – Sue is talking to the Camera and it’s stored as it’s own original audio.
Instagram audio is really a creative treasure trove of sounds available on the platform. It could be music loaded into the Instagram audio library, snippets from TV shows, or even audio from other users’ Reels.
Every Reel has an audio file associated with it. It is located in the bottom left corner of the Reel. It is clickable, and the audio opens up into its own little hub, to show information about the audio and the other posts that have already used it.
Identifying Trending Music
When an audio is “trending” it means lots of users are using the same audio.
Identifying trending audio is pretty simple. While scrolling through Reels, look for the little arrow next to the audio—if you see it, that means the song or sound is trending. If you click on the song, it will take you to the song’s hub – where you can save it for later use, or select “Use Audio” to create a Reel using the song.
See the arrow pointing up? That means this song is trending.
But this is important – what’s trending in one place might not be the same in another. We’ve found that different users can sometimes see different songs trending at a given time. This is most likely location-based, for example one of our clients might have a trending song in Canada that isn’t trending here in the US.
That does bring me to the fact that trending audio is a cool feature and could be a way to get seen by more people, but don’t hang your hat on this being the most important thing. Trending audio won’t save you from bad content. Focus on quality hooks, and engaging content, and let the trending audio be the cherry on top.
Trending Music Library
Instagram’s made it even easier to know what audio is trending. There’s a list of all the trending audio accessible in the app.
We’ve found it in a few places. Head to the Explore page, scroll through Reels, find that arrow pointing up, click on the audio, then hit the Trending arrow at the top. This will take you to Instagram’s library for trending music, and this is a relatively new feature.
How to Use Trending Music and Sounds
So, now that you know where to find it, how can you use Instagram music for your Reels? One way trending audio can be used rather easily is by adding it to what we call a “reality” Reel. This is a Reel format that we’ve named. These Reels use videos that show you in your real life.
These are so easy to create! You can use a video of you working at your desk, getting coffee, taking a walk, playing with your dog… and then add the music over the video with a Hook.
Here’s an example of a ‘reality reel’. A video of something behind the scenes, hook added, and then trending music!
Conclusion and Next Steps
You now know more about audio in Reels, where you can find trending music, and hopefully have some ideas on how to use it…we hope this makes posting way easier!
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We can’t wait to see how you use the Instagram Audio for your Reels!
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