Sawyer Hill Went Viral on Instagram — And Everyone Wants to Know How

Like many modern artists, Sawyer Hill is constantly scrutinizing the social media platforms that impact music discovery. In January, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter sensed a shift in the digital winds. 

“I used to scroll through TikTok and my whole feed was musicians,” he says. “And then I started noticing all my videos on Instagram were getting distributed at a way greater rate — for the same video, the ratio of likes to views was way higher on Instagram than it was on TikTok.” 

This was true despite the fact that Hill was treating Instagram Reels as an afterthought at the time — often just re-posting TikTok clips there, as many artists do. “I wonder what would happen if I really put effort into an Instagram video,” Hill remembers thinking. He started promoting his 2023 single “Look at the Time” – a caustic, grungy rocker delivered in somber baritone – on the platform, and it rose to No. 1 on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart in the U.S. in February. 

This sort of breakthrough would be an exciting moment for any musician. Hill’s story has also taken on additional weight at a time when the music industry is casting around for marketing alternatives to the app that’s been ground zero for pop virality for a half-decade now. Some artists are unable to use TikTok to promote their recordings since negotiations between the platform and Universal Music Group fell apart at the end of January.

Historically, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels have not been able to match TikTok’s impact on streams, so most artists and marketers have not prioritized them to the same degree. (Even with the success of “Look at the Time,” Instagram users’ passion hasn’t led to the type of streaming explosion enjoyed by TikTok favorites like Djo’s “End of Beginning.”) Some optimistic marketers believe that, in a world where TikTok is no longer an option for many acts, artists will finally be able to figure out effective strategies to use elsewhere. It’s like a point guard being forced to tie his right hand behind his back to build strength dribbling with his left.

“Focusing on one or two platforms instead of three could result in better impact,” says Johnny Cloherty, co-founder of digital marketing company Songfluencer.

This climate helps explain why, after “Look at the Time” began to take off on Reels, “all these people on the industry side were like, ‘this is unbelievable,’” Hill says. 

Virality was far from Hill’s mind when he started playing guitar as a kid in Fayetteville, Arkansas, using an instrument abandoned by his brother. By the time he was a freshman in high school, he was good enough to join a band full of seniors. “Whenever they all graduated, they’re like, ‘We’re playing bars now, so you’re either going to do that with us or hit the road,’” Hill recalls. 

The choice was easy: He started playing bars around the age of 15. “I was always hanging out with 30- and 40-year-olds at the bar who were telling me their whole life story,” Hill says. 

But he eventually realized there was a ceiling on the local circuit. “We’ve been playing all these bars for years, and it hasn’t really gotten us very far,” Hill remembers feeling. “We want to play for the masses. And the only real way we saw to do that was through social media.” 

He started with TikTok, since “all music-related things were extremely TikTok-specific at that point.” It didn’t come to him easily. “I started out feeling what a lot of musicians do: ‘These social media platforms are lame, and it seems so fake,’” he says. 

But the imperative to reach a wide audience eventually overruled the cringey moments. “There are people making their careers on these platforms,” Hill says. He wanted to be one of them: “I became borderline obsessed with figuring out these platforms.” 

His first popular video was popular for the wrong reasons; users were making fun of his singing. Hill remained calm. “One day you can have thousands of people in your inbox telling you that you’re the worst thing in the world, and then the next day you have thousands of people in your inbox telling you that you’re the best in the world,” he says. 

His equanimity was rewarded not long after, when he posted a live performance video of “Look at the Time” that was well received on TikTok. (At the time, he had not recorded the song.) After a few more successful videos, Hill caught the attention of AWAL, a label services company acquired by Sony in 2021, where he signed last year. When he turned his attention to Reels earlier in January, he wanted to push “Look at the Time” again because he already knew it was “super reactive.”

Many artists who benefit from a sudden surge of attention on social media and get record deals then have to go and learn how to perform. For Hill, this is not a problem. “I’m so grateful for having spent my teenage years playing all these bars,” he says.  “We’re ready to take advantage of the moment and to go on tour.”

His advice to others hoping to crack the code on Instagram promotion boils down to “try hard” and stay flexible. “They’re pushing musicians like crazy on Instagram for now,” Hill says. “But that can change in one software update.”

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