How to get your lyrics on Spotify and Instagram 

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As independent artists, it’s easier than ever to get your lyrics online and use them to connect with your fans on a deeper level. By getting your lyrics on platforms like Spotify and Instagram, you can reach millions of users to boost your audience and grow your fanbase. 

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Here’s how you can do it using Musixmatch:

Get your lyrics on Spotify and Instagram

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You’ve probably noticed lyrics displayed alongside your favorite tracks on Spotify or on someone’s Instagram Stories and thought, how do I get mine to do that?!

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Good news is, yours can be there too! On top of that, you can sync them so that your fans will be singing along to the right lyrics (at the right moment) in no time. We’ve listed step-by-step instructions below to help you get started:

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1. Sign up and verify your account on Musixmatch

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First, head over to pro.musixmatch.com. Create a new account or log in if you already have one. If you haven't created a verified profile yet, add a new artist, fill in your Spotify and Apple profile links, and hit send. Once you’ve submitted your verification request, Musixmatch aims to get back to you within 48 hours with a confirmation email. 

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After that’s landed in your inbox, you’ll be a verified artist! This means you’ll be able to upload or update your lyrics across platforms like Spotify, Instagram Stories, Apple Music, Google, Amazon Music, and more.

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(If you have any questions or need further information about the verification process, you can check out our guide here.)

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2. Add your lyrics

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Before adding your lyrics, you should double-check that:

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• You’re logged into your verified account (i.e., if you logged in using Facebook the first time, you’ll need to do that every time)
• You’re using Google Chrome as your browser
• You’ve read the Musixmatch Guidelines (regarding format, punctuation, etc) on how to transcribe your lyrics in the best way possible
• You have a Spotify Premium Account (this is required both for adding lyrics through our website or via our mobile app)

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Now you’re ready to go! 

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Choose the song you want to transcribe and pull up your lyrics from wherever they’re saved or the audio file you’re going to transcribe them from. Since you’ve connected your Spotify and Apple accounts, your song should appear automatically. (In case they don’t, follow the instructions here.)

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A couple of quick do’s and don’ts from our guidelines include:

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Do’s:

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• Always listen to the entire song you’re transcribing
• Type the songs out yourself

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Don’ts:

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• Copy and paste from other sources
• Transcribe in romanization

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If you have any doubts that the Guidelines didn’t address, you can always ask the Musixmatch Community on Slack or check out our Academy video lesson on it here.

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3. Sync and tag your lyrics

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Next, it’s time to sync your lyrics. Click the Sync button to get started. If you need any help with syncing, we have a handy support article that goes into more detail about the process here. 

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After you’re done with syncing, tag the lyrics and hit send. If our platform has any recommendations about how to make the transcription better, you’ll see them pop up on your right-hand side now. 

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Once your lyrics are verified on Musixmatch, they will automatically be sent to all major DSPs who will process them and make them available on Spotify and Instagram stories.

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* Please note that each DSP must process your lyrics before they appear on their platform and Musixmatch has no control over how this takes. It can be as quick as two days, and sometimes it takes a couple of weeks.

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It’s currently not possible to transcribe and sync lyrics for unreleased music (pre-releases).

How to add lyrics to your Instagram Stories

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So your lyrics are available on Instagram — but now what? How do you actually get them ON your story? 

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Just follow the simple steps below:

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1. Start a new story
2. Either take or choose your photo or video for the background
3. Go to the sticker tray and select the ‘music’ sticker
4. Choose which song you want to play and display the lyrics of
5. Select the scrubber tool to pick which part of the song is best suited for the photo or video you’re sharing
6. Use the scrubber tool to find the exact lyrics from the song you want to appear too
7. Now you can choose the lyrics and how you want them to appear, as well as animations, font sizes, colors, etc
8. Move, resize, and rotate the lyrics till they appear exactly as you want them to on your story
9. Hit share and you’re done!

When people watch your story, they’ll see lyrics pop up in sync with the music as it plays. If they tap on the lyrics, a little sticker will pop up displaying the song title and artist name, linking to their Instagram profile. Neat, huh?

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Just in case you want to see it done before trying it yourself, here’s a video we made to walk you through the process of adding song lyrics to your Instagram story. 

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Check it out and let us know how it goes!

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