How to Make a Slideshow with Music on Instagram

According to Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app. So how do you share your photos in a way that gets noticed? Turn them into a slideshow!

With Animoto, it's easy to transform multiple photos into an engaging and professional video with music. Today about 70% of Instagram Stories are watched with the sound on. And music can be a nice way to surprise and delight sound-on viewers.

In this article, we’ll show you specifically how to post a slideshow of pictures with music on an Instagram Story, feed post, or Reel using Animoto.

How to Make an Instagram Video with Music

There are three ways to share your slideshow videos on Instagram. First, and the most popular way, is Instagram Stories. While you can create individual stories one by one, you can't play continuous music between them unless you create a slideshow video.

Instagram Reels are a great way to share your slideshows. Reels are short, sweet, and catchy videos that take off and often go viral. Like Stories, Reels should be created in a vertical 9:16 aspect ratio.

Finally, regular in-feed video posts are another way to share your slideshows. These videos will appear on your personal feed. It's recommended that you create square and landscape videos if you're sharing them in your feed.

Ready to get started? We’ll take you through the process of creating a video featuring a picture, or multiple pictures, with music. From there, you're free to share your video in Stories, Reels, or in your feed. Or better yet, all three!

Step 1: Choose a template

The quickest and easiest way to create a slideshow with music is by using an Animoto template! There are plenty of vertical templates that you can use for work and life. Or, if you come across a square or landscape template, all you need to do is select the Vertical aspect ratio to transform it for Instagram Stories or Reels.

Choose a template

Step 2: Add your picture or pictures

To post a slideshow with music on Instagram, you’ll need to decide which photo or photos you want to share.

Browse through your phone's photo album or upload your files directly from the cloud storage platform of your choosing. You can also choose from Animoto's thousands of licensed stock images and videos!

Once you've selected your images, simply drag and drop them into your video template. For a quick and flashy slideshow, add a Photo Burst block to your video and fill it with your favorite photos. Just click the "Add a Block" button and select "Burst".

Step 3: Start customizing

Next, it's time to make your video your own. You can add an intro or outro to your video, overlay text on your photos, apply brand elements and logo, or simply keep your videos as-is. With Animoto, there are plenty of easy-to-use customization tools right at your fingertips.

Check out this short video to explore your options!

Step 4: Add music

The final step, add music to your slideshow. Tap the Audio icon at the top of the screen to get started.

We've got a growing library of music, hand-picked by our team with social media videos in mind. The tracks are all licensed for commercial use, so feel free to use them for fun or for your business.

Browse by mood and genre to find the track that bust suits your video. Or, upload your own track straight into your video workspace! Professional users can add up to eight music tracks to match all the moods and transitions of their slideshow videos.

Once you've selected your music, you're done! Simply publish your video and your Instagram slideshow video is ready to share. When you share, tag @animoto and we may just share your video to our audience as well!

Happy video making!

Make a video