Jay-Z’s Music Is Now Available In Instagram Stories Thanks To Angie Martinez

In recent years, music licensing issues have received greater spotlight due to the use of popular music on social content creation platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch. Usually, it’s in the form of takedown requests, which can affect recorded streams and recently knocked out thousands of TikTok videos using a lofi song that sampled the Steven Universe theme song, but occasionally, users complain that they simply can’t find music from certain artists in the first place. Jay-Z was one of those artists until recently — and apparently, we have longtime radio personality/hip-hop journalist Angie Martinez to thank.

It would have been easy to miss the inclusion of Jay’s back catalog for use on Instagram Stories — and even less likely anyone would have know who to thank — without No Skips host Brandon “Jinx Jenkins, who posted a tweet notifying his followers about the change over the weekend. “fyi: we can use jigga’s music on instagram stories now,” he wrote. “thank @angiemartinez for that!” Martinez herself responded a few hours later, confirming her involvement. “haaa! not really sure how u knew that,” she marveled. “too many great ig stories to be had. you’re all welcome.”

Jay’s music has long been the subject of copyright snags thanks to his former ownership of Tidal. It was only relatively recently that Jay made his music available outside of Tidal, and he still keeps some content Tidal exclusive. However, it looks like even Jay won’t stand in the way of progress for too long, giving fans another avenue to enjoy — and discover, for those younger fans who weren’t around for his mid-2000s rap reign — his classic cuts.