If you’re unsure of where to start the process, this step-by-step guide will help you learn how to add lyrics to Instagram.
Instagram launched the Music Sticker in 2018, which allows users to embed officially released music in their Story Posts. For some time you’re now also able to add lyrics as well. Although many distributors allow you to also add lyrics to your next release, you have no guarantee that they make it to the new Instagram feature. In order to be 100% certain that the lyrics make it there, you should use Musixmatch.
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Why add your Lyrics to Instagram and Facebook?
Adding lyrics to songs on digital music platforms is beneficial for fans and artists alike. Lyrics are precious — artists spend a lot of time and energy crafting the perfect words to accompany their music.
Uploading your lyrics makes sure that there are no mistakes or mix-ups online, and allows fans to connect even deeper with your music. It also makes sure they’ll be singing every track word-perfect at your live shows.
Requirements to get your lyrics on Instagram and Facebook
There are, however, some rules you’ll need to follow before you begin. Formatting, punctuation, and capitalization are just some of the topics that you’ll have to think about when working with Instagram Music lyrics. Here’s a quick rundown of the lyrics guidelines:
- Transcribe your lyrics on Musixmatch
First, you need to listen to the song. If it’s yours, you might need to skip this step but if you’re the manager or the label, or even the fan, you can listen to it again so you can add the lyrics and not copy-paste them from an unreliable source. More information is in the Musixmatch Guidelines.
- Formatting lyrics
You have to break transcriptions up into individual lines and double breaks for separations. All first letters and proper nouns need to have capital letters, the rest should be small letters. The back vocals can be added in parenthesis and you have to respect the punctuation. More information is in the Musixmatch Guidelines.
Once you have finished adding the lyrics following the guidelines, you can click on “Send Lyrics” and they’re online on Musixmatch!
- Capitalization
Lyric capitalization follows traditional grammar rules. All lines must begin with capital, and proper nouns must be capitalized. Acronyms, locations, and title casing all follow the traditional rules too.
- Repeated lyric lines
The lyrics need to match the audio. If a line is repeated by the performer, it should be written out that way. At the moment, the time-synced lyrics feature is added to songs chosen by Apple’s editorial team.
- Sync your lyrics with Musixmatch
To sync the lyrics, you need to download the desktop Musixmatch App. Open Musixmatch and from Musixmatch, click on “Open Spotify”. Play the song you want to sync and you should have the lyrics on the app. Now, it’s time to listen several times to this track to sync the lyrics with the timing and to add the instrumental parts / leave them blank.
Once you’ve checked it again and corrected the time, you can send it. It’ll be on Instagram a few days later and you’ll be able to share your music with the lyrics! Not just for you, your fans will love it too!
How to add lyrics to Instagram and Facebook
Facebook works with Musixmatch — a third-party company that provides the features to show lyrics on both Instagram and Facebook. If you want to submit your lyrics on these platforms, the first step is to create a Musixmatch profile and get verified.
For new releases, the lyrics and timestamp details for tracks need to be added via Musixmatch’s verified artist link once the track is released. If you want to add lyrics to a song that is already released, search to see if it is already available in the Musixmatch catalog. If you’re not able to find track lyrics in Musixmatch’s catalog, log in via the verified artist link and submit the lyrics.
If you do find the lyrics you’re looking for in the catalog, but the lyrics are not appearing on Instagram, use this form to report a lyrics issue to Facebook. The Facebook team will then investigate the issue and notify Musixmatch if needed.
To get your lyrics available on Instagram you need to publish your lyrics on Musixmatch by following the steps below.
1. Sign up as a Verified Artist
Sign up on Musixmatch.com and then Get verified on Musixmatch. It will take just a few minutes to register and our content managers will contact you to confirm your artist profile.
2. Add or verify your lyrics on Musixmatch
Download the Musixmatch desktop or mobile app to add your time-synced lyrics to have them available on Instagram.
3. Share your story with lyrics
Sharing lyrics with your Instagram story is easy!
Instagram provided some step-by-step directions below:
- Once in “Story” mode, add lyrics by selecting the ‘music’ sticker from the sticker tray after taking your photo or video.
- Choose a song and use the scrubber tool to select the part of the song that best captures the moment you’re sharing. The scrubber will also enable you to find the lyrics of the exact part of the song you want.
- Pick between different lyrics, animations, font designs, and colors. Move, resize and rotate the lyrics to share your story.
- Fans that watch 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 to the artist’s Instagram profile.
4. Let your fans know
Lyrics can be one of the most valuable aspects of a song and are often the reason why fans form a long-term bond with an artist. If they can relate to the message of a song they very likely feel like sharing it with their followers, which in turn might lead to new engaged fans.
If you want to go even a step further you can raffle free tickets for your next shows for everyone sharing your new lyrics to their story.
In case your songs are not on Instagram & Facebook yet, check our distribution service here!
How To Get Your Music on Instagram & Facebook Stories
1710Media will upload your music to the Facebook/Instagram Audio Library where users can select your tracks to include in their photos or videos via Music Stickers. Then we register your tracks with Facebook & Instagram Content ID so that if your music is uploaded into user-made videos, you will then be eligible to claim earnings on those videos. Being on Facebook & Instagram makes sense because it allows you to monetize your tracks on the service. Adding your music to Facebook & Instagram can open up new opportunities for your online music sales.
We can distribute your music to Facebook and Instagram. You can simply select the “Instagram & Facebook” checkbox when uploading your music on 1710Media.
