How to Find Trending Audio on Instagram Before It Goes Viral

The key to massive organic reach on Instagram Reels is jumping on an audio trend before it peaks. If you wait until a sound has 500,000 uses, your video will get lost in the noise. You want to find sounds that have between 3,000 and 10,000 uses and are rapidly climbing.

1. Look for the "Upward Arrow"

When you are scrolling through the Reels feed, look at the audio track name at the bottom of the screen. If there is a small upward-pointing arrow next to the audio name, Instagram has officially flagged it as "Trending."

2. Monitor TikTok Trends

Instagram trends almost always start on TikTok and migrate over a week or two later. Spend 15 minutes a day on the TikTok "For You" page. When you hear a sound repeatedly, find it on Instagram. If it's just starting to gain traction there, use it immediately.

3. Save Audio for Later

When you find a good sound, tap the audio track and hit Save Audio.

Alternatively, if you want to use that specific audio in a third-party editor like Premiere Pro, copy the link to the Reel and use CoraClip (which works for IG as well) to extract the MP4/Audio file for your editing timeline.