Sound on social is now as important as the visuals

I can’t remember a time when music wasn’t at the center of things for me. The Now That’s What I Call Music CDs that were my prized possessions in the 90s. The aux cord I always seemed to end up with at parties. I loved the way a song could shift the air and make people feel something together.

That never left me. And while I didn’t grow up to be a DJ, I never stopped being a listener. I’ve always relished the way sound changes a room, connects strangers, makes an ordinary drive with the windows down feel cinematic.

Today, it feels like everyone else has discovered that same joy. Audio became just as important as the words and visuals on social media, prompting us to find ways to use sound to connect and communicate with one another.  

When social found its soundtrack

For a long time, social media was a quiet scroll of status updates and static images. YouTube cracked the door open but was often treated as its own thing instead of a social platform.

It was TikTok, and the strange, suspended time of 2020, that made sound inseparable from the feed. Suddenly, the scroll wasn’t silent. We layered voiceovers on songs. We synced dances to audio clips and passed snippets around like inside jokes. Young artists and musicians found their voice on the platform.  

We found joy in the call and response of our endless posting, remixing and dialogue. The same way a song can shift the mood in a room, it began shifting the mood online.

Why sound sticks

Part of it is science. Music releases serotonin and dopamine, which is why a trending audio clip repeats until you’re humming it in the car. And with algorithms so curated to your behavior, all it takes is a few seconds of watching one sound and you’re hooked, watching dozens more. (For me right now, it’s Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need.”)

But sound is also about connection. Musicologist Christopher Small once wrote that “musicking is connecting: tone with tone, person with person…in a spiraling web of relationships.” That’s exactly what social audio can be—thousands of people tied together through the same fifteen seconds of sound.  

The numbers also back this up. Instagram Reels that use trending audio see on average 29% more reach and 42% more engagement compared to those without (Adobe Express). And now that Instagram allows audio on carousels and single-image posts, that discovery loop extends beyond just Reels.

Think about Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams and the Ocean Spray guy. Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill revival through Stranger Things. Saltburn’s Murder on the Dancefloor craze. These songs became collective experiences.

The trap of chasing trends

Beware: Trending audio matters, but not every trending audio is right for your brand.

A sound trends because it resonates. It carries emotion, subtext, and cultural relevance. Brands and creators make the mistake of chasing sound only for discovery, but the algorithm won’t save you if the audio feels pasted on.

The brands that win are the ones that take sound and make it their own. They use a snippet to tell a story only they could tell, and they treat sound as the score of a complete composition.

6 lessons from brands: How to think about sound

• Start with your brand. What is true to you? What do you want people to feel? What action should this piece of content inspire? Let that guide your audio choice. This J Crew reel used an 80s classic to connect with the nostalgic feelings they wanted to provoke.

• Think score, not soundtrack. Sound should set the mood, not feel like wallpaper. This simple example from Glossier does so with ease.
  

• Design the experience. ASMR, a beat that makes people move, a calm instrumental, each creates a different emotional response. Picture the user on the other end. Are they bopping or taking a deep breath? Score the moment accordingly. Take this Zara Kids campaign: Bet you can’t help but tap your toes. Or this ASMR-style reel from a clothing store – I dare you to watch it only once.  
  

• Make the first seconds count. The scroll these days is brutal, especially for brands. The right audio hooks attention fast. This restaurant in Australia has an epic social media presence. Social cinema at its finest.  
  

• Take it and make it your own. Trends are invitations. The point is to reshape them so they sound like you. See how Graza made a Justin Bieber song their own in a product-launch video.

• Play. Organic social has always been a runway to test and learn. Audio is a powerful variable – use it, experiment, and see what resonates. Dipping a chicken finger to smooth jazz? Raising Canes went there.

• Make sound an extension of the core idea. Shameless plugs go last. When we created the “Yay to You” campaign for our client Quantum Fiber, we made five custom tracks based on original characters. But these weren’t just songs—they were musical love letters to our Quantum Fiber users.

In each of these examples we can see how every post is its own short film, its own scene. And the audio is crucial to making it land.

Don’t forget!

• Consider accessibility. Not everyone experiences sound the same way. Add captions or subtitles so the story lands even without audio. Use text overlays or visual cues to reinforce key beats. Think about legibility contrast, font size, and placement so captions don’t get lost. Accessibility makes your content easier to consume for everyone, and it broadens your audience.

• Plan for amplification. If you want to put paid dollars behind a post, you can’t use copyrighted audio. Consider original audio, voiceovers, or licensed music from platforms like Facebook’s Sound Collection. Think about intent up front, whether a piece is meant to live only organically or also to be scaled through media.

• Post native audio when possible. If you want your content to tap into discovery via trending sound pages, feed the algorithm correctly — upload the audio natively in-platform so it’s indexed as a clip instead of “Original Audio.” That way your post has a shot at being surfaced to users exploring that sound increasing discoverability. When amplification (paid media) is in the mix, also plan for licensing or original sound so you don’t run into copyright blocks.
  

Music has always been the score to our lives. Social has made it the score to our shared lives.

For brands, the opportunity is simple. Don’t just chase trends. Choose sound with intention. Because in today’s feed, audio isn’t optional. It’s the difference between being scrolled past and being remembered.