Instagram's New Feature Lets You Add Music To Your Photo Dumps

Picking a song for your IG Story is no simple task. The track has to pass a series of vibe checks, including, but not limited to: “Does it convey just the right amount of emotion? Will my followers want to add the song to their Spotify playlists? Will people think my taste in music is cheugy?” Well, prepare to bring the Story struggle to your Grid posts, because Instagram introduced a new feature on Aug. 10 that finally lets you add music to your photo dumps.

Get ready to agonize over your Grid posts even more than you already do. As if the new music feature wasn’t exciting enough on its own, the Music in Carousels tool made its debut in tandem with Olivia Rodrigo’s latest single “bad idea right?”, when the pop star hard launched the song (and the feature) in a Main Feed post that included a series of BTS photos from the music video shoot. Unsurprisingly, stans went wild in the comments section, with one fan writing “NEXT LEVEL,” while another listener replied, “So iconic.” It’s unclear whether they were more excited about the song or the new tool, but let’s just call it an even split for now.

Your followers will know you’ve featured a song in your post because the name of the track and artist will appear underneath your handle next to a music note icon. The track continues to play as you scroll through each slide, and plays on a loop.

If you want to follow in Olivia Rodrigo’s footsteps and try the tool for yourself, here’s what you’ll need to do. First, it’s always a good idea to make sure your app is up to date. Once you’ve done that, open the app and tap the Plus icon to create a new post. Change the post type from photo to carousel, select the images you want to use, then tap “Next” when finished. After making any necessary edits, tap “Next” again, and navigate to the “Add music” section to choose your song.

Tap the section and type the song you’re looking for into the search box. Once you’ve found your tune, you can pick which section you want to hear by scrolling through the song like you would on an IG Story. You can also opt to let the song play for anywhere between five and 90 seconds by tapping the 30 icon underneath the song title.

Music in Carousels launched alongside even more noteworthy IG updates, including a tool that allows creators to invite up to three friends to collaborate on a post or Reel together. The collaborated posts will reach each creator’s audience, which means likes, views, and comments will be shared, regardless if the accounts are public or private. Between the Music in Carousels and multiple collaborators features, there’s never been a more exciting time to be a creative on IG.