Short-form concepts
Trending audio
What is Trending audio?
Trending audio is a sound clip, whether a song, voice line, sound effect, or remix, that is being used at a rapidly increasing rate across a social platform at a given moment. Creators often use trending audio to improve discoverability, because platforms surface content that uses popular sounds and viewers already associate those sounds with a particular format or feeling.
When you'd use it
- 1When a sound is gaining rapid usage on a platform and the content can fit the format naturally.
- 2When organic reach has plateaued and you want the platform algorithm to surface the video to a wider audience.
- 3When the audio's tone or tempo matches a clip you already have ready to publish.
- 4When a campaign asset needs a low-cost way to feel current without a production overhaul.
Example
A small clothing brand uses an audio clip trending in the morning routine format during its peak week, reaching 200,000 views on a video that would typically see 8,000. When the brand posts a similar video two weeks later using the same sound after it has saturated, the video reaches only 6,000 views.
Use cases
- 1Syncing a product reveal cut to a trending instrumental that matches the pacing of the edit.
- 2Pairing a behind-the-scenes clip with a widely used audio track to enter an active format.
- 3Layering a trending voice-over sound over b-roll footage to participate in a running platform meme.
FAQ
Can brands use any trending audio, or are there licensing restrictions?
Commercial accounts on TikTok and Instagram are restricted to sounds in their respective commercial music libraries, which are subsets of the full trending audio catalog. A sound trending for personal accounts may not be available to business accounts, and using it anyway can result in the post being muted or removed.
Make on-brand short-form video from the footage you already have.