Olivia Rodrigo has kicked off the launch of new music features on Instagram. Photo Credit: Instagram
Instagram has unveiled several new music features, including the ability to add tracks to photo carousels, with Olivia Rodrigo. Additionally, the platform intends to expand its song library into other markets in the approaching weeks.
A representative for the Meta-owned service emailed DMN today about the debuting music tools, which Rodrigo is said to have plugged in a post about her latest single. Meanwhile, Instagram went ahead and incorporated the track, “bad idea right?”, into the images featured in its official release.
As mentioned, the most noteworthy of these features is the option to equip photo carousels with music. “Building off our launch of music for feed photos,” indicated Spotify-partnered Instagram, “anyone can add a song to capture the mood and bring their carousel to life.”
Next, the platform communicated that users can now invite up to three others “to co-author” feed posts, carousels, or short-form videos. The resulting content, music and all, will then appear on each contributor’s profile.
Finally, artists and creators can with the “Add Yours sticker” invite fans to participate in “a fun prompt or challenge” via Reels, per Instagram, before proceeding to “hand-pick their favorite submissions to celebrate their fans’ creativity.”
Tucked away at the bottom of the appropriate release is a promise to deliver music to Instagram users in different nations sooner rather than later. “We’re excited to bring our music library to more countries over the coming weeks,” the service relayed, albeit without listing the involved markets.
Instagram’s music-centered expansion has arrived amid stiff competition from the highly controversial short-form mainstay TikTok, which partnered with Warner Music Group last month.
Despite the relative reach of Reels (which reportedly boasts a staggering 200 billion daily views) and the above-noted Spotify tie-up, TikTok is continuing to tout its perceived potential as a leading music-discovery app. To be sure, the ByteDance subsidiary has even teed up a multi-round music competition, dubbed “Gimme The Mic,” for unsigned acts.
Notwithstanding the positive headlines, though, recent months haven’t been without difficulties for TikTok and Instagram. The former is still grappling with ample regulatory scrutiny – including a legal showdown in Montana. And Instagram, for its part, has reportedly suffered a substantial usership decline within its connected Threads offering.
Billed as a competitor to Twitter/X, Threads has faced criticism over its perceived lack of features, and its MAU woes raise interesting questions about exactly how many social services can maintain massive communities simultaneously.
