Every few months, a new version of the same conversation starts making the rounds in marketing circles. Someone shares a tip about trending audio. Someone else posts their results from testing a specific sound. A guru announces that voiceovers are back, or gone forever, or back again. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, brand owners and marketing teams are spending a disproportionate amount of time and energy on a single element of their content — while the actual fundamentals of what makes a video worth watching go largely unaddressed.
So let’s have an honest conversation about audio on social media. Not a definitive ranking of which sounds are trending this week, but a realistic look at what role audio actually plays, what the data really says, and where most brands are getting it wrong.
First, the data — and why it’s confusing on purpose
You’ve probably seen the statistic before: 85% of social media videos are watched without sound. It gets quoted everywhere, and it’s been doing the rounds for years.
And I agree, most people watch with the sound off. But I also recognise that once you start diving into the reports, the numbers aren’t consistent, and it’s worth knowing before we go any further.
A 2019 study by Verizon Media and Publicis Media found that 92% of mobile viewers and 83% of desktop viewers watch video with the sound off. Facebook’s own data puts the figure at around 85% for its platform. LinkedIn sits at 80%.
Instagram, interestingly, tells a different story depending on who’s speaking. Internal data shared by the platform claims 80% of Reels are watched with sound on — essentially the inverse of every other figure out there. And yet the head of Instagram has publicly stated that approximately 50% of people watch Reels and Stories without sound.
Those two positions cannot both be right. And the fact that Instagram’s own figures contradict each other depending on the context should tell you something about how much certainty anyone should have here.
What we can say with confidence: across social media broadly, a very significant proportion of people (somewhere between half and the vast majority, depending on the platform and format) are watching without audio. On Instagram Stories specifically, one data point puts the figure at 40% watching without sound, which is the most conservative estimate for the platform. Even at that number, you’re still talking about nearly half your audience.
The takeaway isn’t a precise percentage. It’s that designing video content with the assumption that everyone will hear it is a mistake that affects a large portion of your reach, every single time you post.
What this actually means in practice
If a significant chunk of your audience is watching on mute, then a video that relies on audio to make sense (to convey its message, land its hook, or tell its story) is a video that’s already failing a large part of the people who see it.
This shows up in a few specific ways that are worth naming.
The voiceover problem. Voiceovers can be genuinely powerful. A well-crafted voiceover that tells a real story (not just narrating what’s on screen, but adding something personal, unexpected, or emotionally resonant) creates a layer of connection that’s hard to achieve any other way. I’ve seen it work beautifully: someone making something by hand, whether it’s decorating a cake or throwing a pot, telling a story in their own voice while you watch them work. That combination of doing and telling is compelling in a way that text alone can’t replicate.
The problem is when the voiceover becomes the only vehicle for the message. I’ve worked with clients who spent hours going back and forth approving audio for a video, agonising over the tone and pacing of a voiceover — content that could have communicated the same thing just as effectively with text on screen and a good caption. The voiceover added nothing that a well-written text overlay wouldn’t have done, and half the people who watched it never heard a word.
If you’re going to do voiceovers, make them earn their place. Make them personal, make them a genuine part of your content style — not a one-off experiment sandwiched between two months of silent Reels. Your regular audience will learn to turn the sound on for you. New viewers need to be hooked visually first.
The music problem. More on this in a moment, but the short version: music should support what’s already working visually. It cannot rescue a video that doesn’t work without it.
The trending audio conversation, honestly
Trending audio on Instagram has a real function. When a sound is being used widely on the platform, Instagram’s algorithm tends to push content using that sound to a broader audience — including people who don’t follow you. For a period, this was genuinely one of the more effective reach tactics available, and it was worth paying attention to.
That period is not entirely over, but it’s significantly less reliable than it used to be.
I remember when the trending audio section wasn’t even visible in European markets. At the time, I had access to accounts on both sides of the Atlantic (some in the US, some in Europe), and the information gap was real. I could see what was trending for US accounts directly in the platform, test it, watch it work, and then bring that knowledge back to European clients who were otherwise relying on newsletters, weekly recaps from US-based accounts, or just scrolling and noticing what sounds kept appearing in other people’s content. Having direct access made a meaningful difference.
Now that trending audio is widely available everywhere, it’s also widely used by everyone. The competitive advantage has largely flattened. It’s still worth knowing about, still occasionally worth using, but it’s not the shortcut it once was. Reaching for it out of habit (without considering whether it actually suits the content) is a habit that’s running on outdated logic.
There are also a lot of variables that most brands aren’t accounting for. Original audio, remixed audio, AI-generated music (that’s unfortunately not labelled as such), and licensed tracks all behave differently within the algorithm. What counts as “trending” is specific to a region, an audience, and a moment in time — it doesn’t translate globally or last beyond a short window. And trending right now on Instagram is a very different thing from a song being genuinely popular or culturally relevant.
The bakery that ignored all of it
A few years ago, I came across a bakery on Instagram that was doing something I’d never quite seen before. Their videos used only rock and metal music: not ironically, or as a one-off, just because that’s apparently what the people behind the account liked. No trending sounds, no house music or pop hooks. Just bread, cakes and very loud guitars (I immediately decided to hit the follow button).
Their reach was fantastic. And people kept tagging them, sharing their content, mentioning them as an example of a brand doing something different. The music wasn’t the reason their content worked — the content worked because it was good, real, entertaining, and genuinely theirs. But the music was part of the personality: it was coherent, and it made sense for the brand they’d built.
I still mention this example because it illustrates something that gets lost in the audio conversation: consistency and authenticity tend to outperform tactical optimisation over time. A brand that knows who it is and shows up that way will build a more loyal, engaged audience than one that’s constantly adjusting its soundtrack based on what’s trending this week.
The “pop, fun, exciting” default
One of the most common patterns I see across food and wellness brands (really across all categories) is a default to upbeat, fast-paced, “young” sounding music, regardless of what the brand actually is or who it’s talking to. The logic seems to be that exciting music makes people feel excited about the product or service on screen (spoiler: it doesn’t).
It rarely works that way. What it usually signals (to the viewer, even if they can’t articulate it) is a disconnect between the brand’s actual identity and how it’s trying to present itself online. A premium, considered food brand soundtracked with the kind of music that usually accompanies a gym montage doesn’t feel “elevated”. It feels like nobody sat down and thought about what this brand actually sounds like.
This tends to happen when too many people are involved in the process without a clear strategy in place, or when the people making the decisions aren’t willing to trust the people with the expertise. Audio is one of those areas where everyone has an opinion and feels qualified to weigh in, which is exactly why it eats so much time and produces such inconsistent results.
Captions are non-negotiable
If there’s one concrete recommendation that comes out of everything above, it’s this: add captions to your videos. Every time.
Not because it’s best practice or because someone told you to. Because a meaningful proportion of your audience is watching without sound and deserves to understand what you’re saying. Because captions increase watch time. Because they make your content accessible to people with hearing impairments, non-native speakers, and anyone watching in a situation where they can’t use audio. Because they work.
On Instagram, auto-captions are built in and take about thirty seconds to apply and review (please, review them), and there is genuinely no good reason not to use them. The brands that don’t are choosing to communicate with a fraction of the people they could be reaching.
The same logic applies to text overlays on Reels more broadly. If your video relies on audio to make sense (meaning someone watching on mute would have no idea what it’s about), that’s the problem to solve before you think about anything else.
A framework worth keeping
Here’s the way I think about audio for any video content: does this video work on mute? Can someone watching silently understand what they’re looking at, why it’s interesting, and what they’re supposed to do with that information?
If yes — great. The audio is a layer on top of something that already works. Choose something that suits the brand, the mood, and the content. Trending or not trending is a secondary consideration.
If no — fix that first. No amount of the right song is going to carry a video that doesn’t have a clear visual hook, a legible message, or a reason to keep watching.
That’s really the whole framework. The trending audio section, the voiceover debate, the argument about whether classical music is too old-fashioned for a food brand — all of it comes after this.
A note on my own content
For my own page, I mostly pick audio based on what I like or what I want to test out, and treat the results as an experiment. Sometimes a non-trending choice seems to help — though whether that’s the audio or simply the algorithm having a good day for that piece of content, it’s genuinely hard to say. Sometimes it makes no difference. Occasionally, I’m fairly sure it cost me reach, but I can live with that. The alternative (spending significant time finding the optimal trending sound for every piece of content I make for myself) is not a trade-off I’m willing to make every single time.
For client work, the conversation is more considered. Audio supports the brand identity, builds atmosphere, and yes, discoverability is part of the brief. But it comes after everything else is already working.
The bottom line
Audio matters on social media, but not as much as most brands are treating it. The time and energy going into finding the perfect sound, approving every voiceover, and chasing trending audio would almost always be better spent on the visual hook, the caption, the message, the strategy, and the consistency of showing up.
Design your content to work in silence. Let the audio be a pleasant surprise for the people who do listen.
Ready to think more strategically about your brand’s content?
I work with food, drink, and wellness brands to create photography, video, and social media strategy that’s built around what actually works — not what’s trending this week. If you’re looking for a more considered approach to your content, I’d love to hear about what you’re working on.
A MATTER OF NOURISHMENT 