Instagram introduced the Music sticker for Stories in 2018.
The sticker lets people add licensed songs to Instagram Stories, often displaying the track title, artist, album art, or synced lyrics. Instagram began rolling it out in June 2018, initially in selected countries where music licensing agreements were available. Availability therefore varied by region and expanded over time.
The feature grew from Instagram's broader effort to make Stories more expressive and competitive with Snapchat and other short-form platforms. Users can generally select music from the Story sticker tray or choose a song before recording, then select the portion that accompanies the post.
A common confusion is Instagram's earlier Spotify integration, which allowed users to share what they were listening to but was not the native Music sticker. Later additions, including lyric displays and newer music-related stickers, built on the original 2018 feature.