How to Use Copyrighted Music on Instagram Reels the Right Way

As the world of short-form video content continues to rise in popularity for viewers and creators alike, the biggest social video platforms are fiercely competing to build the biggest audiences.

While TikTok still might be the biggest name synonymous with the vertical, short-form style, other platforms like YouTube are gaining popularity with YouTube Shorts. Plus, as we’ll explore in this article, Instagram has seen enormous growth with Instagram Reels, making it one of the best apps for creators looking to launch their channels and brands.

Yet, despite how easy it is to get started with Instagram Reels, there are still many aspects that can be confusing. Namely, how music, and in particular copyrighted music, works on Instagram Reels is quite tricky.

So, to help creators looking to launch their channels and find more followers, let’s go over how to use copyrighted music on Instagram Reels in a way that will keep your content safe from any copyright strikes or takedowns, plus give your content that extra level of quality.

The basics of adding music to Instagram Reels

To start, let’s go over the basic steps a creator would need to follow to add music to your Instagram Reels. Keep in mind, though, that the same rules on how to use copyrighted music on Instagram for regular posts are very similar to the rules for Instagram Reels.

We’ll explore these rules and guidelines below, but if you're curious about the general process, here’s how to add music to Instagram Reels.

Open the Instagram app.
Open the Instagram camera and slide the menu at the bottom over to “Reels”.
While you’re creating your reel, you can tap on the Audio button at the top of your screen.
Browse the music and original audio lists, or search for a specific track. (Or add your own music by following the steps we’ll outline in this article.)
Once you’ve picked your track, you can slide the timeline at the bottom of the screen left or right to find the part you want to use.
When you’re satisfied with your selection, tap “Done” at the top right of your screen.
Finish editing your reel and then tap “Next” at the bottom right of your screen.
You can add a caption, edit the cover, tag people, and more. When you’re happy with your reel, tap “Share” at the bottom right of your screen.

And that’s pretty much it. The whole process is quite similar to how to add music to your Instagram posts or stories. However, if you’d like to explore music besides the limited songs that Instagram offers, let’s go over how to find and properly license more music options.

Understanding the types of music copyrights

Now, we know that understanding the different types of music copyrights can seem complicated at first. But in reality, music licensing is pretty simple once you learn the basics of copyrights. Every song has natural copyrights associated with it. These copyrights extend both to the artist who recorded the song, as well as the artist who wrote the song.

If you want to use any copyrighted music in your videos or content, you’ll need to negotiate with the copyright holders for the songs. This protects the artists and is how we can ensure that musicians and songwriters are compensated for their hard and awesome work.

And, as we’ll explore below, if you try to surpass these copyrights and illegal music that you haven’t legally licensed, you could end up in serious trouble with Instagram (and any other online social content platforms as well).

How to use copyrighted music on Instagram Reels, legally

If you’d like to legally license music to use in your Instagram Reels, you’ll need to proceed forward in one of these three ways:

Only use music that you’ve written and recorded yourself
Reach out to artists directly and negotiate a way to use their music for certain uses
Use a music licensing company like Soundstripe to provide you with royalty free music that has been fully licensed and cleared for all uses

We’re going to assume that you’re most likely to be interested in the third option as it’s usually the best and most popular for most content creators. And, in truth, it’s the way the industry has been heading for many years.

This is mostly because it’s a great way for artists to be fairly compensated for their awesome music and the safest avenue for content creators to rest assured that the music used in their videos will be fully covered and safe to use for all their content needs.

Using copyrighted music on Instagram Reels

Regarding the rules surrounding copyrighted music, Instagram's platform is similar to other photo and video-sharing apps, such as YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, etc

Instagram Reels, in particular, only allow the use of original audio and licensed audio. For licensed audio, Instagram offers copyrighted audio in the Instagram audio library. This includes music, movies, TV shows, and sound effects. All licensed audio must be attributed or linked to the artist and include the name of the track.

If you don’t use Instagram’s copyrighted audio, you should always ask yourself these questions before posting an Instagram Reel.

Did I create all of the content myself?
Do I have permission to use all of the content included in my post?
Does my use of the content fall within an exception to copyright infringement?
Is the content protected by copyright (for example, is it a short phrase, a concept or idea, or a work that has fallen into the public domain)?

As we discussed above, your best bet is going to be using music from sites like Soundstripe that can offer fully protected royalty free music for your videos.

How to license copyrighted music for Instagram Reels

If you do feel that you’re ready to start using copyrighted music on Instagram Reels, here’s how you can get started with Soundstripe’s royalty free music. When you sign up with a royalty free music company like Soundstripe, you will be able to pick out songs from artists who have already had all of the copyrights fully licensed and cleared.

Instead of paying $5,000 for a song, you’ll pay $50 for a license to legally use that song in a specific project. And since no record labels are involved in the process, you won’t have to send a portion of your revenue to copyright holders. You’ll pay for a license once, and that’s it.

At Soundstripe, we also own every single song in our library, so you won’t find our music anywhere else. And you’ll have two options on how to license a song. You can pay for a single song license in our royalty free music catalog, and use that song for as many projects as you want. You can also sign up for one of our Soundstripe subscription plans, which gives you unlimited access to our entire library.

Tips for working with royalty free music on Instagram Reels

At the end of the day, finding any music to use in your Instagram Reels isn’t hard, per se. However, if you’d like to learn how to use copyrighted music on Instagram Reels, the steps above will be your guide.

Suppose you want to create videos to share across multiple social media platforms and other online purposes. In that case, you’d be best served to look into licensing music legally and securely so that you can safely share your videos as you please.

Royalty free music solves so many of these issues that can plague content creators early in their careers, plus helps you provide a solid musical backdrop to your videos that you won’t be able to find with your built-in music libraries that are often limited and of lower quality.

If you’re interested in getting started, here are some of our top selections for the best royalty free music for Instagram Reels.