The short version: tap the audio name on the original Reel, hit "Use audio", and it drops straight into a new Reel for you to film over. It only fails when the original poster used a voiceover instead of music, used a licensed track that's since been pulled, or has a business account with restricted sound rights. If that happens, you've got three workarounds, and I'll give you all of them.
The basic method that works 90% of the time
Open the Reel with the audio you want. Tap the small spinning record icon in the bottom left corner, or tap the audio track name that scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Instagram will take you to an audio page showing every Reel using that sound, plus a "Use audio" button near the top. Tap it, and you're dropped straight into the camera screen with that track already loaded and ready to film to.
That's it. No downloading, no screen recording, no third-party app. If the button is there, you're good.
A worked example
Say you run a small candle business account and you spot a Reel using a trending 15-second audio clip, a bit of spoken comedy mixed with a beat drop at the eight-second mark. You tap the audio name, land on the sound's page, see it's been used in 40,000 Reels, and tap "Use audio". You film three clips: you pouring wax, you labelling a jar, and the finished candle lit. You trim your clips so the beat drop lands exactly as you reveal the lit candle. That timing match is the entire trick to why trending audio performs, your visual payoff needs to sync with the audio payoff, not just sit underneath it.
Why "Use audio" sometimes isn't there
This is the bit most guides skip over or gloss past. The button disappears or greys out in four common situations:
- The original creator recorded a voiceover rather than selecting licensed music, and Instagram doesn't let you lift someone's spoken voiceover as reusable "audio" in the same way.
- The track was pulled for licensing reasons after the Reel was posted, which happens constantly with major label music.
- The original account is a business or creator account in a region with restricted Instagram music library access, meaning the track was never fully licensed for commercial reuse in the first place.
- The poster has turned off remixing or audio sharing in their settings, which also affects whether others can build on their content, similar to how Instagram Remix can be switched off entirely.
Here's the uncomfortable bit nobody wants to say out loud: if you run a business account, you are far more likely to hit these walls than a personal account is. Meta has quietly tightened commercial music licensing for business profiles over the past couple of years, which is exactly why the "Use audio" button vanishes more often on brand pages than on your mate's personal account using the identical sound. It's not a glitch. It's deliberate, and it's about licensing fees, not about you doing something wrong.
What to do when the button isn't there
You've got three realistic options, in order of how much I'd bother with each.
- Search the sound by name instead. If you recognise the song, search for it directly in Instagram's own audio library when creating a new Reel. Often the same track is available there under direct licensing even when the specific Reel's audio link is blocked.
- Recreate the moment with text-to-speech or your own voiceover. If the original used a voiceover you can't lift, write out roughly what was said and redo it in your own voice, or use Instagram's built-in voice effects and text-to-speech tools to get a similar tone without copying audio you don't have rights to.
- Use a trending template instead of the exact audio. Plenty of viral formats work because of the structure, not the specific track. Swapping in a different but similarly paced sound and following a proven Reels template gets you 80% of the effect with none of the licensing headache.
The step most people skip: checking usage numbers first
Before you build anything on a borrowed sound, tap through to the audio page and look at how many Reels are using it and how recently. A track with 2,000 uses climbing fast this week is worth your time. A track with 800,000 uses that peaked three months ago is dead weight, you'll be shouting into a room everyone already left. I'd set myself a rough rule: if the most recent Reels using that audio were posted more than five days ago, skip it and find something fresher. Audio trends on Instagram move in a window of roughly one to two weeks before the algorithm stops giving them an extra push.
A quick note on saving audio for later
You can bookmark a sound for later use by tapping the save icon on the audio page, which adds it to a "Saved audio" folder in your own profile. This matters if you spot a good track at 11pm with no time to film, since you can save it and come back within your usage window rather than losing it in your scroll history.
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And one more thing worth knowing: reused audio alone won't rescue a weak Reel. The sound gets you discoverability inside that audio's own feed of content, but watch time, replays and shares still decide whether Instagram pushes it further, exactly the same mechanics behind what gets a Reel to 100k views in the first place. Audio is the door, not the room.
Frequently asked questions
Can I reuse audio from any Instagram Reel?
Not always. If the original creator used a voiceover rather than music, if the track was pulled for licensing, or if their account has restricted audio sharing turned off, the "Use audio" option won't appear and you'll need a workaround like searching the song directly or recreating the format with your own voice.
Why can't I see the "Use audio" button on a Reel?
This usually comes down to licensing. Business accounts in particular often have narrower music rights than personal accounts, so a sound that's freely reusable on one profile may be blocked on another even though it looks identical on screen.
Does reusing trending audio help a Reel get seen?
It helps with discoverability because your Reel joins the feed of everyone else using that sound, but it won't fix weak content. Instagram still weighs watch time and shares heavily, so the audio gets you noticed while the content has to earn the rest.
How long does trending audio stay worth using?
Roughly one to two weeks from when it starts climbing. Check the audio page before using it, if the most recent Reels posted with that sound are more than five days old, it's likely already past its peak.
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