One of the biggest ways to harness the power of short form video is to use the right trending Instagram Reels songs — and the right trends.
Brands that use outdated sounds, or use them improperly (the ‘tiny violin’ trend of 2022 showed many creators weren’t familiar with the ‘playing smallest violin ever’ concept) can come across as out of touch, inauthentic, and rushed.
Brands can leverage Instagram Reels to engage with their audience more effectively, gain more reach, and ultimately gain new viewers if they use the right sounds at the right times.
That being said, there are many trends to choose from, and the lifecycle of a trend can range from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. To aid social marketers’ Instagram Reels strategy, we’re sharing the top monthly trending sounds to use on Reels.
Curious about how to find trending Reels sounds outside of this blog? To drive engagement, social marketers should:
The virality of sounds on Reels is most popularly thought to be influenced by momentum. In this case, momentum is influenced by use and how often it’s saved.
Sometimes, you just need a song that enhances your Reel — whether this is a song that matches whatever you highlight in your Reel, or simply provides a pleasant background atmosphere.
Here are some tips to find trending Instagram songs:
Wondering how to find trending Reels audio? Follow these steps to help you stay on top of trending sounds on Reels for your brand:
These are the trending Instagram Reels songs that users can’t get out of their heads — or off of their Instagram feeds this month:
Boy’s a Liar Audio has taken over Instagram Reels, TikTok, and our personal playlists — this song is perfect to flex an outfit, makeup look, or anything else you want to highlight.
Flowers by Miley Cyrus is still popular from its January release, users on Reels and TikTok alike love this inspiring self-love anthem.
Even if you don’t like soda, you’re bound to enjoy this catchy song, Coca Cola by LIL M. If doing the trending dance isn’t the right move for your brand, use this song for upbeat, memorable background music in your Reels — bonus points if you’re promoting a Coca Cola product.
This bouncy, upbeat song by Yall and Gabrielle Richardson started trending in January, and it’s still popular on Instagram Reels. Perfect to lip-synch to or as background music to highlight a product release, how-to, or anything else your brand wants to promote.
Here’s the audio trending on Instagram this month:
This trending audio, Big Subwoofer, doesn’t have a specific trend attached, making it the perfect audio to flex a recent trend or anything else your brand wants to show off.
Still riding the Rihanna Super Bowl halftime show high? So are Reels users, with this Rude Boy remix one of the top audio sounds to use in March.
You might be familiar with this Stephen Sanchez song from TikTok — this remix is reimagined in a slower, dreamier audio that suits a Reel highlighting a featured product, or used to highlight something you love — anything that made your life better when you found it.
This inspiring original audio from Gymenity says “what’s the best advice you ever received”, “what if it turned out better than you can even imagine” — by all means, use this for a video that’s truly inspirational, or use it to showcase a brand best seller or new release in a tongue-in-cheek way.
One of the challenges of staying on top of trends is the 24/7 nature of social media — and even social marketers and managers need a break.
Dash Hudson’s Multi-Channel Social Media Scheduler feature makes it easy to stay on top of trends, and avoid any rush. When your boss inevitably reaches out about that new audio trend they read about or scrolled by, you have the pleasure of telling them it’s already in the pipeline.
In addition to the scheduler feature, Dash Hudson’s Creative Intelligence features tell you what visual platforms have the best likelihood of performing well.
You can find trending audio on Instagram by navigating to the Audio tool in Reels, and searching through the Instagram audio library — look for arrows that indicate an audio is trending.
One of the most used audio on Reels is ‘As it Was’ by Harry Styles with 3.4 million uses, and ‘Wait a Minute’ (Remix) by DJ Exe is the second-most used Instagram Reels song at 1.3 million uses.