Instagram launches music channel, @music

Instagram is a visual medium, but it’s always been a favorite way for musicians to share snippets from life on the road, time in the studio or being a bridesmaid in a totally normal wedding.

Now the service is returning the affection with a new dedicated channel, @music. The channel will host artist features, brief profiles on new acts and music-centric photography.

In its first post, the channel described the service as “a new account dedicated to exploring music around the globe, from those who create it to the community around it. Each week, we’ll take a look at the musical experience on Instagram. That means showing you a different side of artists you know and love, like Questlove (@questlove), and introducing you to up-and-coming talents from around the world, like Tricot (@ikkyu193). It means highlighting music photographers, album illustrators, instrument makers and, of course, fans.”

The channel plans to post new material every day except Mondays. The Facebook-owned service has a reported 300 million users, and popular musicians including Beyonce and Taylor Swift have audiences in the tens of millions on it. One-fourth of the most popular pages on the service belong to pop musicians.

Twitter had previously launched a similar but more muddled product, #Music, that tried to wrangle the breadth of its music content into a central destination, but it never took off with its users.

But while other new music services such as Tidal have emphasized star power (at least, at first), @Music will have a special emphasis on emerging acts (some of its first picks have been Japanese and South Korean punk and experimental bands)

“We’re looking to break artists,” Alex Suskind, the music editor at Instagram, told Buzzfeed. “One of the things we’re focusing on is emerging and unsigned talent who are using the platform to share their music and their stories in a unique way.”

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