Instagram adds music from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music to messages

Instagram has added a number of significant new features to its messaging platform. Most useful for musicians and music marketers is the addition of 30 second song previews from Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

In addition to music, new messaging include the ability to send a message silently, the ability to see who’s online to chat and more. Instagram’s addition of quick polls could also be a useful tool for artists.

While these tools were designed for use with “close friends,: we’ve increasingly seen them used to grant super fans special access – often via a second invite only Instagram account – and then communicate with them.

Here is how Instagram describes the new song preview feature:

Play, pause, and re-play: Enabled by integrations with Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify coming soon, you can now share a 30-second preview of that song you just can’t get out of your head, and your friends can listen directly from the chat window.

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.