How audio selection works on Instagram Reels when you upload a video edited on desktop or inside Sked
If you’ve edited your Reel on desktop—or edited it inside Sked’s Video Editor and added your own custom audio—you might notice Instagram handles the audio slightly differently compared to creating a Reel directly in-app. Here’s how Instagram decides which audio to attach to your video, and how Sked fits into that workflow.
How Instagram identifies your audio
When you upload a Reel with audio already baked into the file—whether that’s from Premiere, CapCut Desktop, Final Cut, or Sked’s Video Editor—Instagram runs your file through an internal audio-matching system. Think of it like Shazam working behind the scenes.
From there, one of two things will happen:
1. Instagram recognises your audio
If your baked-in audio closely matches a track in Instagram’s library or an existing user-generated audio page, Instagram will automatically attach that audio to your Reel.
This is common when:
- You’ve used a popular or trending track
- Your audio hasn’t been altered (no pitch/speed changes or heavy effects)
- The audio is clean, balanced and easy to identify
If Instagram can match the audio, your Reel will link to the correct audio page—including trending audio.
2. Instagram can’t identify your audio
If the audio doesn’t match anything in Instagram’s system, it creates a new track called:
“Original audio – @yourusername.”
This usually happens when:
- The audio has been heavily mixed, layered, or modified
- You added multiple sound effects or voice layers over music
- The source track doesn’t exist in Instagram’s library
When this happens, your Reel won’t be tied to an existing or trending audio page.
You can still override the audio manually
Even if your exported file includes audio, you can set a specific track during upload on the Instagram app:
- Create a post with your video
- Tap Add music
- Search for the track you want
- Adjust the audio levels
- Set Instagram’s audio to 0–1% to preserve your original edit
- Or mute your baked-in audio entirely
- Set Instagram’s audio to 0–1% to preserve your original edit
This ensures your Reel attaches to the correct audio page every time and is a great method to pair with a notification post from Sked, where automatic recognition of the audio in the file is unlikely to be successful.
Best practices (and why Sked works beautifully with Instagram’s system)
Here are a few tips to get the smoothest results—plus some reassurance on how Sked handles audio behind the scenes.
✔ Keep your baked-in audio clean and consistent
Whether edited externally or inside Sked, clear audio with minimal distortion makes Instagram’s matching more accurate.
✔ Sked exports audio in a format Instagram can recognise reliably
Sked’s Video Editor is built to maintain clean, high-quality audio on export—so if you add a known track or clean custom audio, Instagram has the best chance of identifying it correctly.
✔ Instagram’s auto-matching is more accurate than most creators expect
The system is designed to detect widely used or trending tracks even when added in external editors. As long as the music hasn’t been significantly altered, Instagram will often match it.
✔ Trust that your Reel will be correctly attributed when using Sked
Sked doesn’t modify or compress your audio in a way that disrupts detection. Your exported audio remains intact, predictable, and fingerprint-friendly—giving Instagram the best possible input to work with.
✔ Want precise control? Add the audio manually during upload
This guarantees you’re linked to the exact audio page you want, regardless of your edit.
Why this matters
Getting the right audio attached affects discoverability, how your Reel appears on audio pages, and how your audience engages with it. Knowing how Instagram chooses audio—and how Sked supports that process—helps you publish confidently, no matter where your Reel was edited.