Making lyrics available on Instagram and other social media – here’s how it works!

Again and again recordjet passengers ask us how to upload the lyrics of their releases to the respective stores, e.g. on Instagram for use in Stories. Since the process as it is isn’t easy to understand, we’ll guide you through it step by step.

One thing first: a distributor like recordJet cannot send your song lyrics to the stores since they don’t have any rights to them. So in that case, who can send them?

Option 1: The publisher

Normally, uploading lyrics, for example, to stores, social media and also the relevant lyrics websites, is taken care of by publishers, quite simply because a publisher generally has the rights to your song lyrics. If you have a publishing deal, you can simply get on the phone and ask an employee you trust to take care of this for you. Many publishers won’t get on it right away as it’s generally not a top priority. But stay on it: after all, this is the publisher’s job.

If you don’t have a publisher, you can simply take care of it yourself:

Option 2: Publish your song lyrics yourself

So how does it work, having song lyrics on Instagram and Facebook? Instagram users will have surely noticed that not only can you add songs to Stories, but the lyrics can also be shown at the same time. Many passengers have previously assumed that this feature was only available for “established” musicians. But that is not the case. Any musician can do this with their own lyrics. It takes just a few steps for your lyrics to be shown on your songs, but a little patience is needed too. The first prerequisite is that your songs are available in the platform’s music library. If that’s the case, portals such as “MusixMatch” or “LyricFind” can help you pair up the songs with the lyrics.

Option 3: Use the MusixMatch portal

Step 1: Verification

Head to the website and register. Once you’ve done that, two buttons will appear in your browser: “I am at artist” and “I manage one or more artists”. Select the appropriate one. Then you will need to complete your profile so that it can be verified. You will then be asked which channel your music is used, i.e. listened to, the most on. Google, Spotify, Apple, Deezer or Instagram? Choose the right one. You have probably chosen Spotify or Instagram.

Now you have to answer a couple of questions: How many followers do you have on your platforms? Are you self-published?  Finally you need the links to your Spotify for Artists profile and your Apple Music profile. It’s a good idea to have these links ready.

Unfortunately, you’re not done yet. MusixMatch allows a processing time of 48 hours to clarify and confirm the verification of your data. So, at this point, a little patience is needed. Nevertheless, MusixMatch’s verification process has made a great impression on us and it is simple to use.

Step 2: Add your lyrics

Once your verification is successful, you can add your lyrics to your song. At this point, it is essential to check the guidelines once again. For example, it is important that the full text be entered, including repetitions. An example:

Incorrect: Gucci (4x)
Correct: Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci

Step 3: Synchronise lyrics

After your lyrics have been added, there is still work to be done. Now your lyrics need to be matched with your song so that the text appears in the correct place and time. You can do this on MusixMatch.

Step 4: Post your song with the lyrics on Instagram

Next, your lyrics have to be submitted to Instagram, which in turn may take several days. Unfortunately Instagram doesn’t notify you when this has been done, so there’s nothing else for it but to check every now and then to see whether the lyrics are there. Until they are, the message “Lyrics are not available for this song” will appear. But as soon as your lyrics have been added, you can now finally post the excerpt of the song you want with the appropriate lyrics.

Step 5: Share your Story with song lyrics

Once you have successfully registered with MusixMatch, sharing song lyrics in your Instagram Story is very easy! Instagram has a step-by-step guide for this purpose:

• In Story mode, you can add your lyrics by selecting the sticker “Music” from the sticker section after taking your photos or videos.
• Select a song and use the Scrubber tool to select the part of the song that best captures the moment you want to share. With the Scrubber you can also find the text of the point in the song you want.
• You can move, re-size or rotate the text to add it to your Story.
• Fans who watch your Story will now see the text during music playback. If you tap on the text, you will see a sticker with the song title and the name of the artist which then leads you to the artist’s Instagram profile.

P.s.: Instagram’s staff add new song lyrics on a daily basis. So don’t worry if your lyrics are not yet available after registering for Facebook & Instagram monetisation. They will be available shortly.

Step 6: Tell your fans!

Once you have shared your first Story with song lyrics with the world, it’s time to encourage your fans to do the same. With Instagram, engagement is all important. Through the use of lyrics, your fans get the chance to tell their friends what your lyrics mean to them, how they are perfect for their mood and they can point out how much heart and soul you put into writing your songs. This feature provides a lot of entertaining and creative possibilities. You’ll be surprised at what verses, hooks and refrains your fans like and share the most.

Note from the recordJet crew: in addition to MusixMatch, there are other portals such as LyricFind, however the process for registering and adding lyrics there is much more complicated and not so easy to handle. So using a publisher or MusixMatch is much less stressful.