Instagram Stories Get Soundtracks, Users Can Choose From Thousands of Licensed Songs

Facebook-owned Instagram has introduced a new feature on Stories that would allow users to add a soundtrack to their content from a library of thousands of songs. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing service also announced that it now has 400 million daily active users, while its total user base was recently shared to be 1 billion.

As part of the new feature, a new music icon would be visible under the record button in Stories that would let users "search for a specific song, browse by mood, genre, or what's popular and tap the play button to hear a preview," Instagram said in a statement on Thursday.

The selected song would also come with fast-forward and rewind options for users to choose the exact part of the song that fits their story.

"Instagram 'Stories' is now used by 400 million every day, and we're excited to give our community new ways to feel closer to their friends and followers," the statement added.

Viewers would be able to see a sticker showing the song title and artist name, while watching a "Story".

"We're adding new songs to our music library every day. The 'music sticker' is now available as part of Instagram version 51 in select countries and the ability to 'choose a song before capturing video' is available on iOS only, with Android coming soon," Instagram said.

Last week, Instagram launched its new long-form video hub - IGTV - which will give users and brands a chance to share longer videos than before: up to 10 minutes for regular users and up to an hour for brands.

Written with inputs from IANS