Add audio to an Instagram post

Attach a sound to an Instagram post from the post builder, without opening the Instagram app.

Before you start

Audio needs an Instagram account linked to a Facebook Page — the same requirement as tagging and analytics. Without it, the music note opens a card reading Update Instagram account to ADD MUSIC instead of the picker. Select Activate on that card to run the Facebook-linked sign-in.

Add a sound

1. From Calendar, select Create Post and add your Instagram channel.
2. Upload your media.
3. In the toolbar under the caption, select the music note to open Add sound.
4. Choose a track from Music or Original audio, or search by keyword or artist.
5. On an auto-post video, set Original media volume and Music volume, and turn on Loop the sound if the track is shorter than your video.
6. Select Save. To take a sound off later, use Remove sound.

Music and Original audio

Music is Instagram's licensed catalogue. Many of those tracks arrive without artwork or a preview, so rows show a music note and a title rather than a sleeve you can play.

Original audio is sound taken from other creators' reels, shown with the creator's username. Most of these can be played in the picker. Whether a track previews depends on the track, not the tab: Instagram withholds playback on its commercially licensed tier, which is most of Music and the occasional original sound built on a licensed track.

Each tab searches its own catalogue.

What the picker cannot do

• No trimming. A sound always starts at 0:00.
• No preview on most Music tracks, because Instagram does not license them for playback outside its own app.
• Not every trending sound appears. Only tracks Instagram makes available to third-party apps reach Planoly.

Reminder posts

On a channel set to Reminder you can still search and save a sound, but the volume sliders and the loop switch are not offered: nothing attaches automatically, because a reminder post publishes by hand. The track name travels with the reminder, so the notification tells you which sound to add.