Music has the potential to improve the appeal of any visual content such as images or videos which is the prime reason for which Instagram is introducing a feature to add popular songs to their Instagram stories. Instagram had informed about the prototype of the music feature in early May, and now the feature is being launched for all Android and iOS users across 6 countries involving the US.
This launch is supposed to improve the interactivity of the Instagram stories alongside making them more fun to post as well as watch the stories without any copyright issues similar to that of Snapchat. The new feature would also provide an opportunity for Instagram to compete with ‘Musical.ly’ which has become a favorite of teenage users.
The announcement of Instagram also involved information regarding 400 million daily users of Instagram Stories with 1 billion monthly active users. In the past as well, Instagram Stories has consistently added novel and popular features such as resharing of public feed posts, Highlights, and Superzoom.
Instagram also stated that users could add a suitable soundtrack to their story enabling them to express their feelings effectively. To access the new feature, users could select a special song sticker after shooting a photo or video for searching songs according to mood, artist, genre or popularity.
After selection of the desired song, users could associate a particular snippet of the song with their Instagram Story.
It is interesting to observe that iOS users have the option of selecting a song even before shooting a video or an image. This feature would enable users to sync their actions to the selected song, and it is expected to be available for Android eventually.
However, the major question lies in whether the users would be accepting of the songs that would be made available through today’s launch. On the other hand, with a widened catalog and few more enhancements, Instagram Music could pave the way for artists to gain popularity.
