Instagram launches official community called @Music

Instagram has launched a new official community called @music. The community is aimed at music lovers, dedicated to exploring music around the globe, from both the musicians and the listeners. The tech company says that the community is a place where people across the musical spectrum come to share stories, reveal their creativity and connect directly with fans.

The service appears to be a pseudo-publishing platform more than anything else. Instagram is a publisher of narratives in photos and videos but with the new community layout it wishes to transcend this and embrace text. There has already been such moves by users, documenting stories in pictures. The best pictures from the Baltimore Riots have been from an Instagram account. Moving towards text or at least longer text, considering that they have captured photo narratives, might be next logical thing to do.

There is a large contingent of musicians on Instagram, established and emerging, and this could be the reason for this move.

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Instagram explains that the account will each week take a look at the musical experience on Instagram, showing users a different side of artists that they know and love. The company notes that users will also participate in the account with a new, music-themed monthly hashtag project.

The first artist featured on the account is Questlove of The Roots drummer and bandleader of the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. The Questlove feature appears more a blog post than anything else, making Instagram essentially a publisher. It is not clear if this is the direction that the platform is going to. Whatever Instagram’s plans, this opens possibilities not just for music but for other disciplines like fashion, art, food and the like.

In a blog post, Kevin Systrom, Instagram founder and CEO, says that the @music account will highlight more than just the artists.

It means highlighting music photographers, album illustrators, instrument makers and, of course, fans. In the Instagram tradition, we will also welcome community participation with a new, music-themed monthly hashtag project.

He further goes to say that “Music is a huge part of all of our lives here at Instagram. It’s a passion of ours, and we know it’s a passion of yours. So follow along at @music. We think you’ll discover something new.”

Image: @jaredeberhardt