How to Add Music to Snapchat Stories in Under 5 Mins: A Step-by-Step Guide in 2024

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.

Not just this but we will also show you how you can add your own music or audio to your Snapchat videos using InVideo’s intuitive editor. 

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

1. How to add music to a Snapchat story from the app’s in-built audio library?
2. How to record your own audio on the Snapchat app?
3. How to add your own background music to your Snapchat videos? 

Sounds useful? Let’s jump right in!

(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.

Lastly, use the preview window to trim your clip as needed, dragging it to customize which part of the sound you’d like to use on your Snap. 

(3) How to add your own custom background music to Snapchat videos?

Unfortunately, adding music to Snapchat is restricted to the app’s in-built library or recording an audio clip on the app itself. Suppose you’ve set your heart on adding your own music to Snapchat. That’s when things get trickier. There is no built-in feature that will allow you to pull music from other platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music. Plus, it becomes super cumbersome when you want to align the video to the hook of the music or do a proper edit.

This is where an online video editor like InVideo can save the day. You can create professional-quality stories by adding custom music or stock music for branded content to your Snapchat.

Here’s how you can add music and edit your Snapchat stories online for free using InVideo.

Step 1: Sign-up for a free InVideo account if you haven't already! We’ve got more than 5000 templates to choose from. There’s also an option to add text and music to an existing video. But if you want to do it all from scratch, simply start with the Blank Canvas option. Make sure to select the 9:16 aspect ratio for Snapchat stories. Now click on the “Make a Video” button

Step 2: You’ll now be taken to the InVideo editor. Click on the “Upload Media” button or drag and drop your files to upload your video to the editor

Step 3: Once uploaded, drag your video to the center in the workspace to begin making your changes. A pop up will ask you if you want to trim your video. Make any changes you want to or use the full version. And now your visuals are all set

Step 4: With the visual component done, it’s time to add music to your Snapchat video. Simply click on the music icon located on the left of the screen. Pick from InVideo’s in-built collection of music across moods, genres, sfx and more

Step 5: If you’d like to add your own music to this project, simply click on the Upload music option on the right of the search bar to upload files from your system

Step 6: Drag and adjust the timeline of your music to align with the visual elements of your video

Step 7: Once you’re done tinkering, click on the Download & Share button and then Export. Once rendered, your bespoke Snapchat video is ready to be shared on the app

Wrapping up -

And there you have it- we’ve covered all the ways for you to add music to your Snapchat videos, whether it’s from the app’s in-built library, recording a custom audio on the app or creating a completely new background audio from scratch. 

If you want to learn more about the best sources to get free music for your videos for Snapchat, Instagram and other social media platforms, check out this guide where we cover the top 8 sources for free music in 2024. Also, check out this blog if you want to start advertising on Snapchat.

And if you have any other questions or want to continue the conversation, hop on over to the IV community where you’ll be able to collaborate and learn from 25K other creators and marketers just like you.

FAQs

1. Can you add music to Snapchat after recording?

Yes, you can add music to Snapchat after you’ve recorded a video. In the preview window before you hit Send, there’s the music note icon on the right hand side. Click on the button and head to the app’s built-in library to add whatever track you’d like. 

2. Can you look up music on Snapchat?

Yes, Snapchat has now included a search option. Earlier, the way to add background music was to play a track from another app while recording in Snapchat. However, now all you have to do is open the app, click on the music note on the right and search any artist or track that you’d like to incorporate. 

3. How to add background music to Snapchat videos?

Adding background music to your Snapchat videos depends on the kind of music you’re looking for. If it’s a popular tune that’s available in Snapchat’s in-built library, simply look for the artist or track name in the search bar. However, if it’s your own music you’d like to add to your Snapchat, you cannot just upload the track to the app. Instead, simply use an online video editing software like InVideo to create a custom video with bespoke background music by following these steps.

4. Why can’t I add music to my Snapchat videos?

If you’ve ruled out a hardware issue with your phone, then this could be caused by you not having updated the app for it to include the recently launched Sound feature. Simply go to your app’s store, based on Android or iOS systems, and tap the Update button.