Making your music available on Instagram Stories is a fantastic way to help your friends and fans share and interact with your releases. Your release will also be linked on the screen, making it easy for followers to continue listening to your song and save it to their streaming library.
When you submit your release via BeMajor, your song will be live on Instagram within a week of your chosen release date. Users can then search for your artist name or song via the music sticker on Instagram Stories.
How to publish your song on Instagram Stories:
- Open the Instagram app
- Click on the camera for Instagram Stories
- Take or select a picture or video
- Click on the icon with the square face
- Press "MUSIC"
- Search for your song title or artist name
- Scroll down until you find the desired song
- ... and you're ready!
Add your lyrics to Instagram Stories
Instagram now allows you to create Stories that contain your song lyrics. MusixMatch is the partner that provides data to Instagram so your lyrics can be paired with your music. Artists like Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, and A$AP Rocky all use MusixMatch — so it's totally safe. The service also gets your lyrics on Shazam, Apple Music, and Google, so you can take care of all the major platforms at once.
Here's how it works:
- Sign up at Musixmatch.com and get verified (note that it takes a few days to approve your request - so be patient!)
- Download the Musixmatch desktop or mobile app to add and edit your time-synced lyrics
- Once your lyrics have been approved and added to Instagram, you can find them in Stories:
- When in "Story" mode, add lyrics by selecting the music sticker from the sticker tray after taking your photo or video.
- Select your song and use the scrubber tool to choose the part of the song that best captures the moment you're sharing. The scrubber tool also allows you to find the lyrics for the exact part of the song you want to use.
- Choose between different lyrics, animations, font designs, and colors. Move, resize, and rotate the lyrics to share your story.
Fans viewing your story will see the lyrics pop up as the music plays. When they tap on the lyrics, they'll see a sticker with the song title and artist name that links back to your Instagram profile.
Use hashtags
Hashtags are still an effective way to reach new fans. The best-performing hashtags are usually niche tags within your music genre - like #lofi, #drill or #techhouse.
Start by using about 10 hashtags so you don't appear spammy to your fans. If you can't think of any hashtags that fit your project, check Instagram accounts of similar artists or record labels and see which tags they use.
You can also hashtag places (like your city or local live music venues), similar artists, and anything else relevant to your music.
Pro tip: Hashtags work better when added as a comment under your Instagram post instead of in the caption itself.
Run contests
Running an Instagram contest is an easy way to engage your fans, increase engagement, and get your content noticed by the Instagram algorithm. You can give away things like merchandise, tour passes, or backstage meet-and-greets.
Think about your goals for the particular campaign, and consider what type of contest makes the most sense for your artist project. Do you want to expose your profile to new potential fans? Get more followers? Build a library of fan-generated content for later use?
Different types of contests:
- Like/comment to win: One of the most common Instagram contest ideas and one of the easiest for your fans to participate in. Ask them to comment something related to a song, a picture, or ask for their help in naming your new release.
- Photo caption contest: People love to show their wit and humor, and even more - fans love to show their loyalty and how much they know about your music. Post a picture on your Instagram feed and ask fans to write their caption in the comments.
- Tag-a-friend: This type of contest is a good way to expose your artist project to people who share similar interests and music taste as your fans. The concept is simple: ask your followers to tag their friends in the comments of your post for a chance to win. Each person who gets tagged receives a notification that they've been tagged by a friend, and chances are they'll click through, check out your profile, and maybe even listen to some of your music.
- Knowledge-based contest: These contests bring a lot of love as fans answer questions and show how much they know about your music. Followers who don't know much about your music might end up researching the answer and listening to your music in the process.
- User-generated contest: This is an easy way to collect content from fans that you can save and use as social media material in the future. Ask fans to show themselves wearing your merchandise or attending one of your shows. Make sure it's clear in your contest rules that you may share the photos people submit.
Before you start your Instagram contest, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Follow the law: It sounds obvious, but most artists don't follow the law when running Instagram contests (and we've seen a few get into serious trouble). Make sure you understand the laws and rules in your country.
- Publish terms and conditions: Every Instagram contest must have a set of rules, and you need to publish them on your website. Include a link to the terms in your Instagram bio throughout the contest or post the link in the comment section. Wherever you post your Instagram contest rules, they need to include a statement that releases Instagram from any liability for the contest (details here).
- Disclose any partnerships: If you're working with influencers or other artists on an Instagram giveaway (e.g., if you're giving them some merchandise in return for them promoting your contest to their followers), make sure to follow the relevant disclosure rules.
BeMajor: Your partner in music promotion
By making your music available on Instagram Stories and engaging with your fans through contests and hashtags, you can strengthen your social media presence and reach a wider audience. At BeMajor, we help you take control of your music career by offering tools and support to finance and promote your music projects. Create a project on BeMajor today and start reaping the benefits of an engaged fanbase.
About Jules Wolfson
CEO at BeMajor and Nexus Music
Jules Wolfson is a Danish record producer, songwriter, and music executive active since 2001. He's earned over 150 gold and platinum certifications, multiple Danish Music Awards, and collaborated with international stars like Usher and Timbaland. Wolfson is known for developing top Danish acts like Nik & Jay and Cisilia, consistently ranking as one of Denmark's most-played musicians on radio.