How to add music to Snapchat stories in under 5 mins: a step-by-step guide in 2021

One of the best ways to make your Snapchat stories stand out is by personalizing it with the right music. Up until recently Snapchat’s users couldn’t add music to stories from within the app and they’d have to play a track from another app while recording their Snaps. However, by the end of 2020, Snapchat officially introduced a feature that allows for creators to use licensed music from within the app itself.

So in this step-by-step guide we’ll show you how to:

1. Add music to a Snapchat story from the app’s in-built audio library?
2. Record your own audio on the Snapchat app

(1) How to add music to a Snapchat story from the in-built audio library?

Snapchat’s sound feature allows users to incorporate popular tunes or create personalized sounds to use into snaps. Start by opening the Snapchat app on your smartphone. Tap or hold the circular shutter icon on the bottom center of the screen to take a photo or video as per your choice.

Notice, there’s a music note icon among the options on the right side of your screen.

Tapping the music note opens a menu with Featured, My Favourites and My Sounds. The first Featured list contains a selection of popular songs to pick from. You can choose from Playlists that feature a curation by Mood, New Artists, Viral, Love, Hip-hop and Snap Trending. The Recommended section offers yet another list of options, or you could also use the search option to find the artist and song you’re looking for from the in-built library. 

Tap the play icon besides a song to preview it and add to your Snap. At the bottom, there will appear a bar that allows you to select the part of the song you want to feature. 

And if you’d like to pick a different song, you don’t have to abandon your Snap entirely. Simply click on the ‘X’ icon besides the music bar and pick another tune from the music note icon.

You can add a soundtrack for a maximum of 10 seconds to a photo. However, for a video, the duration is 60 seconds, and the selected soundtrack will play for the video’s length.

Now a sound graphic sticker will appear, revealing the track and artist name. Adjust the sticker to a desirable position according to your preference. Drag the sticker out of the frame to retain your music and delete the sticker. But if you’d like to delete the track itself, simply drag the sticker to the bottom of your screen where a trash icon will appear.  

Now that you’ve got your Snap ready with just the right kind of music, you can add additional elements such as stickers and text to finalize your Snap. Then press the Send To icon at the bottom right corner to shoot it out to friends or set it as your story.

One thing worth keeping in mind is that Snapchat’s sound feature as of now only provides licensed music through a collaboration with big record labels. So you might not be able to find your favorite indie band’s music there. So how do you then add your own custom music to your Snapchat videos? Let’s cover that next.

(2) How to create and add your own audio on Snapchat by recording on the app?

In the event you’d prefer to add your own sound clip to a Snap, you can record on the app and incorporate it. As usual, hit that circular shutter camera button to record your snap and go to the music icon again. Besides the Featured and My Favourites options is the My Sounds column. 

This allows you to create and save your own audio clips. To create your own clip, tap the “+” icon. Tap the microphone symbol to begin your recording and once more to stop it. Alternatively, long pressing the key will also get the job done. However, this feature will also catch background noise and ambient sounds if your environment isn’t silent.

Add a title to your new audio clip and save it to My Sounds to incorporate it into your Snap. You can also choose to make this public to let other Snapchat users get access to your music.