How To Use Instagram for Musicians

Just like other social media platforms, such as Facebook or TikTok, Instagram offers two types of accounts — a personal profile and a business account (also called the 'professional account'). The ultimate advantage of a business account is the access to real-time insights that can help you measure and track your performance and better understand your target audience. However, there is much more to this feature! Instagram business accounts can grow their reach and fanbase with sponsored posts and Instagram ads, schedule their content in advance (with a scheduling tool or via Meta Business Suite), earn money with Instagram Shopping, or drive more traffic by adding contact buttons to their Stories.

There are no special requirements to convert your personal profile into a business account, and it’s free!

A fully completed Instagram account is key to your success on the platform. Ideally, your profile immediately reflects your artistic identity and music at a glance. The goal here is to promote your music by grabbing the user's interest. For this reason, it’s important to work on your personal branding — presenting yourself and your music as a package — to differentiate yourself from others and get heard through the noise.

The first things visitors will notice when landing on your profile are your handle and profile picture. Start by choosing a name that helps your fans recognize you easily. It’s crucial to secure your handle as soon as you settle on a name, as sharing your artist name with other musicians can create confusion. Be sure to read Instagram’s trademark policy to avoid any potential disputes or legal issues. Additionally, using the same name across all platforms will make the search for your profiles faster and more precise.

The same goes for your profile picture, which should maintain consistency across different platforms. Since the image appears small, opt for a vibrant and colorful headshot. Most importantly, choose a profile picture that reflects your identity and resonates with your target audience.

Your Instagram bio is a snapshot of who you are as a musician. It should be short and sweet, focusing on the essentials, like what you do and what drives you. There is a limit of 150 characters, so it’s key to keep it simple, catchy, and concise.

You might also want to include your location and contact details. Integrating hashtags is not necessarily a no-go (e.g., you can add #pop or #rock to define your music genre), but it’s not as popular as it used to be. Instead, consider sharing upcoming event dates, gig information, or new releases to keep your audience engaged.

Including smartlinks in your profile description is crucial for directing followers to key platforms like your website, music stores such as Bandcamp, Beatport, or Soundcloud, or music streaming networks such as Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and more.

Keep in mind that Instagram is not fond of links, and your bio or story are the only places where it lets you share them! With services such as Artist Pages from iMusician, you can share a single, customizable link that guides fans to multiple platforms, making it easier to reach your music, merch, gigs, and other information! You can find out more about Artist Pages on our website!

Instagram Highlights are a powerful way to visually showcase your music journey. They act as quick access points to your content, music, and overall artist brand. Highlights can effectively promote your work and introduce you to new followers who have heard your music but don’t know much about you yet.

There are two ways to create Highlights — from an active Instagram Story or from an archived one, which will automatically save if you have the ‘Archive option’ activated. When setting up a Highlight, you’ll choose a name and cover image.

While there are no strict rules for highlights, ensure that both, especially the cover image, align with your overall content style and artist identity to help you emphasize the story you want to tell. If you’re looking for tools to create your own Highlight icons, we would recommend using graphic design platforms such as Canva or Vista Create.

Instagram is all about visual storytelling. It’s your chance to creatively share your story, but it’s important that each post feels purposeful and cohesive. There are many ways — and Instagram features you can use — to capture your life as a musician. You can share clips from your live shows, photos of your music gear, nostalgic childhood snapshots, your performance looks, promo graphics, or images of what inspires you musically.

Sharing more personal content can also make you appear more relatable and approachable. And don’t forget that memes remain a popular and engaging type of content! However, be mindful when using overused memes — that might annoy users or fail to capture their attention.

What’s important is to set a consistent tone and mood to make your feed look unified and more visually appealing to new visitors. Think about it: when you first land on a profile of someone else — if its feed aesthetics are consistent, it is more likely to catch your eye. What’s more, a polished, cohesive profile invites people to spend more time exploring your profile.

Instagram presets can be a game-changer for creating a cohesive look. These are preset filters that you apply to your photos, combining various photo settings that help you achieve a very specific look in your images. You can re-use these filters anytime you want to post something, helping you establish a recognizable and attractive look for your profile.

There are two ways to get a preset filter. You can create one yourself – most creators create these in Adobe Lightroom, which now also offers community presets – or purchase them from other creators. In fact, there’s a thriving market for Instagram preset filters, with prices typically ranging from $2 to $5. Just remember that you cannot save these custom filters directly in Instagram. You can use the Lightroom mobile app to save your preset there and apply it when editing your images.

Instagram offers a variety of content formats to keep your feed dynamic, including Stories, Reels, Instagram Live, or simply in-feed images and videos. Video content, in particular, has proven to perform well. According to Statista, videos had an audience reach of 92% worldwide in Q2 2023.

Don’t hesitate to get a glimpse at the profiles of other artists, especially those in your genre. They can be a great source of inspiration and help you spark new ideas to refine your own aesthetic.

Instagram Stories are perfect for sharing quick content and maintaining an active online presence on the platform. You can post “behind the scenes” photos and videos from your rehearsals, tour and gig snapshots, or snippets from your latest writing sessions. Use interactive stickers such as polls, emoji sliders, quizzes, or questions to engage your fans instantly.

You can also include links in your Stories to direct your followers to your website, online music stores, or streaming platforms, making it easy for your fans to discover your music and follow the newest releases.

Good to know: The maximum length of an Instagram Story is 60 seconds!

Instagram Reels are short-form video clips with a maximum length of 3 minutes. You can edit them by using audio, special effects, filters, and other creative tools and share them in your feed. If your account is public, your Reels can be featured on the ‘Explore page,’ helping you reach new potential followers and fans on a global scale.

Reels provide a great way to keep your audience engaged and entertained. Use them to create fun clips of you and your band (following a current trend or a challenge) or put together multi-clips showing scenes from your tour, concerts, or day-to-day life as a musician. Additionally, Instagram allows you to increase the speed of your Reels, which can potentially make your content even more engaging and, more importantly, help you show as much content in a short period of time as possible.

When it comes to sound, you can create original audio by recording directly into the Reels video or creating a voiceover while editing (allowing you to record audio over the video). This allows you to use your own sounds — instead of using tracks from the Instagram music library for commercial use – and build your own catalog of original audio that can be reused in future videos.

As the name suggests, Instagram Live is a feature that allows you to do live broadcasts on the platform. It lets you connect with your fans in real time. You can live-stream your concert straight from your home or your studio, broadcast scenes from your photo- or video shoot, host a Q&A, or share exclusive news, such as a new release.

If you’re planning a live stream, you can tease your fans and schedule a broadcast directly within the feature, making the upcoming event visible on your profile. You can schedule a Live Broadcast anywhere from one hour up to 90 days in advance. Additionally, Instagram allows you to invite up to three guests to join your ‘live room’ or ask to join someone else’s broadcast. Once your live session is over, you have the option to save the replay to your feed right away or share it from your ‘Live Archive’ later..

Carousels present an effective way to keep users on Instagram by offering them more content in one post. This benefits both the platform and the creators, as swiping through the slides counts as a form of engagement.

In up to 20 various images AND videos, you can create dynamic slideshows that showcase your music and artistic journey. Plus, the trend of ‘photo dumps’ remains popular — sharing a series of casual, often unedited images that can be thematically connected or completely random.

The wonderful thing about carousels is that they have multiple chances of being shown. Let’s say you post a carousel with photos from your tour, and someone following your account either misses the post or simply scrolls past it. Later, when they are on the app again, Instagram may re-surface the same carousel post but with a different slide shown first. This increases the chances of your post catching attention and thus boosting engagement.

Captions are more important than you think! They provide context, add depth to your visuals, and offer details that your followers would otherwise miss. Ask yourself: what's the story behind the post? Why is it meaningful to share?

Be creative, authentic, and relatable in your captions, as this will help you connect with your audience on a more personal level. Relatable posts are likely to drive higher engagement, as they make you seem more approachable and genuine.

Remember to always credit the photographers if they’ve taken the photo, tag people in the post, and use geotags for the location. These small steps can help you expand your reach, making your posts more discoverable across Instagram and thus potentially boosting your follower count.

When writing a caption, make sure to include the most relevant information at the beginning to catch the attention of your audience. Instagram shows only 125 characters before cutting off the rest of the text, so it’s key to grab users’ attention right away and encourage them to click on ‘more.’

While many sources may claim that a short and concise caption is more effective than a longer one, the length of your content description depends strongly on the preferences of your target audience as well as the purpose of the post. Longer captions can provide more valuable information about your story and dive deeper into a specific topic.

Important to know: An Instagram post caption can include up to 2,200 characters.

Hashtags are an essential part of your caption and are defined as a combination of letters, numbers, and emojis that are preceded by the hash symbol (#). They are generally considered a powerful tool for organic growth, helping your posts be discovered by new audiences and potential fans interested in your music and the content you create.

It’s key to approach hashtags with a strategic mind. While they are very often placed at the end of a caption, you can include them at the beginning or in the middle, too. Be mindful of the number of hashtags you use – 3-10 hashtags in a post are generally considered optimal. Too many hashtags (30 is the limit) can make your post look spammy and cluttered.

It’s also crucial not to use overly popular hashtags such as #love or #happy. Millions of users use these, so your post will likely get lost in the noise. Instead, go for top Instagram hashtags that have an engaging community related to your audience. Take note of the hashtags used by your favorite artists and your competitors, and analyze the posts you’ve already published to see which hashtags have performed the best.

Tools like Hashtagify.me, RiteKit, or Hootsuite can also help you find the right and effective hashtags that align with your music and audience. Want to know more about hashtags? Check out our guide on how to promote your music on social media.

Here’s a tip for you: Start a hashtag for your band and tell your fans to use it at your live shows. In your insights, you can see how many times your post was circulated, thanks to the hashtags.

Consistency is key when it comes to sharing your content on Instagram — arguably, one of the most important factors influencing the success of your online presence. It’s vital to be active and post regularly to promote your music on Instagram effectively. Some sources generally advise posting at least 1-5 stories a day and 3-7 regular posts a week (not more than one post a day). While we don’t necessarily recommend sticking to these numbers, we do feel it’s important that you post on a regular basis, at least a few times a week (especially Instagram Stories).

Looking for ways to plan your posts? We recommend using social media scheduling tools such as Hootsuite, Monday, Brandwatch, or the scheduling function of Facebook. These will allow you to schedule your posts in advance and thus help you remain consistent.

Regarding the best times and days to publish your content, different sources may offer different information and recommendations. While some suggest that the best times to post are on Tuesday and Wednesday between 10 AM and 1 PM, others may argue that Sunday mornings around 6 AM can drive the most engagement. Ultimately, the ideal timing depends on your specific followers and target audience.

To determine what works best for you, use Instagram insights! This is an incredibly useful tool to understand your viewers’ intentions and behavior and gain data about what time and on which day your followers are most active on the platform. This will hopefully give you clear instructions on when to share your next post or announce exciting news on your Stories and ensure that it reaches your audience when they’re most likely to see it.

When it comes to the best times and days to publish your content, you may come across plenty of various information and suggestions. While some will say that the best times to post are on Tuesday and Wednesday between 10 AM and 1 PM, others may claim it’s the posts published on Sunday around 6 AM that will generate the highest engagement. That’s because the publishing time is strongly dependent on your followers and target audience.

It’s therefore key to check your insights! This is an incredible tool to understand your viewers’ intentions and behavior and gain data about what time and which day your followers are most active on the platform. This will show you when it is best to publish your next post or announce your new release, without it being missed by your fans.

We already know that Instagram Insights is a powerful analytics tool that gives you a deeper understanding of your followers and their demographics — like age, gender, location, and hobbies and interests. Instagram Insights can also help you learn more about your performance and success by tracking metrics such as reach, engagement, impressions, likes, shares, and comments. You can review and compare insights for all content types, including in-feed posts, Stories, Reels, and Live videos that you’ve created. This allows you to see what resonates most with your audience.

As emphasized at the beginning of this article, Instagram Insights is free but available only for business and creator accounts. This means that it can only track data for the content you’ve published after you’ve made the switch to such an account.

You can view the insights for a given time frame or a custom time period within the past 90 days.

Instagram Collabs, first introduced in 2021, is an increasingly popular feature on the platform. It allows users to collaborate with other accounts on Instagram Feed posts or Reels by inviting them or being invited to co-create content. When using this feature, the handles of all collaborators are displayed on the post, and the content is shared directly to the Feeds or Reels of each account involved.

Using Instagram Collabs is a great way to expand your reach, boost your artist brand awareness, and drive engagement by connecting with both your audience and that of your collaborators. The feature also ensures transparency in artistic partnerships and prevents content duplication. So, if you’re working with another musician (or a group of creators) or planning a partnership, collaborating on a post with Instagram Collabs can be a strategic move!

An important thing to know: Currently, you can collaborate with up to 20 different accounts.