Instagram Adds Music to Profiles

It’s 2007 MySpace all over again, with Instagram adding the capacity to include your favorite song of the moment on your IG profile, so that you can highlight your music taste to profile visitors.

Because music defines you, right? Because the song you choose says so much about who you are, as a person? Right?

This was the impetus behind MySpace’s songs on profile feature, which included autoplaying tracks that would spark to life when people came across your MySpace presence.

IG’s version isn’t quite the same, in that the song won’t autoplay in the app (thankfully). But it will provide a means to showcase your track of the moment.

As per Instagram:

“We’re excited to announced that you can now add a song to your profile, giving you more ways to express yourself through music. Your profile song selection will live on your profile until you swap out the song.”

So, cool, right? Now you can promote your favorite bands and artists, while also, ideally, showing something of yourself with your music curation.

Instagram’s actually been experimenting with the option for some time, with initial tests of songs on profiles spotted back in 2022.

Facebook has also tried out the same, to seemingly minimal response. But now, it’s available on IG too, with younger users, in particular, likely the key target of the addition.

So why launch it now?

Well, Instagram’s been looking to add more music elements overall, likely with an eye to a future in the U.S. without TikTok. TikTok has become a key element for music promotion, to the point that TikTok is now considered essential for many music publishers, with some artists even changing the names of their songs to align with music trends.

But if TikTok ends up getting removed from the U.S., all of that music promotion work will need to shift elsewhere, and Instagram’s looking to position itself as the best alternative for such within the social media sphere.

On that front, Instagram has also added “Add Yours Music” stickers, which enable users to respond to a Story with a track, while it’s also added music in Notes, song lyrics display in Reels, and other music elements.

So really, this addition makes sense in the broader scheme, and it may well prove popular with younger audiences, especially those who aren’t old enough to remember the cringeworthy days of MySpace profile editing.

Maybe, then, it’ll prove to be a valuable update, though you should also reserve judgment of people based on their music tastes.