WildKat: As one of the most established names in classical and contemporary music, how has your digital marketing strategy evolved since the VOCES8 Foundation’s inception?

Paul Smith: I think if Barney and myself look back twenty years to how we began, and to the approach we have now, we’d say that it’s hard to truly quantify the difference from day one to present day. It’s too big. The world we live in now simply didn’t exist in the same way when the VOCES8 Foundation began. Today, we spend much of our time with our team thinking about how to use what digital tools we have available to us to best share our music with the world. That’s always at the centre of our discussion, and asking the critical question beyond that – how will this digital strategy encourage people to come and attend a concert in real life?

It’s a constant dialogue, and we are always learning, and as the world around us steps into the next ‘AI’ inspired phase, we are thinking about the future more than the past. I suppose that’s our key message – learn from the past but always be looking forwards. Standing still is never enough in the digital world.

WK: The pandemic was responsible for a huge uptick for organisations to invest more in the digital world, yet some organisations have fallen behind on this again since. What do you see from your continued investment in digital?

PS: We found ourselves in a position to adapt to the pandemic because we were already well along the curve of investing in the digital world. If we hadn’t been doing that work for the previous decade, I think we would really have struggled. I don’t see this sort of link with the digital world as being curved or linear, but a little more rocky. In our current world we are creating content with the awareness that we want to use each thing we create in as many ways as possible. I think we always, again, focus on the interaction between live music and the digital sphere, and how to create those intersections in as many ways as possible. Ultimately, what we do is about people getting together in real life, and in some ways, that feels like going against the flow of a world which enables us to spend more time on screens and less time with people in real life. With that in mind, I think our approach is going to be ever more important in the years and decades ahead.

WK: From your perspective, what digital tool or investment has had the greatest impact?
PS: From our perspective, our biggest impact space, anecdotally, would be YouTube. We have big numbers of streams and interactions on many other channels too, but that, for us, feels like the biggest driver for people to come and see us in real life. But will that remain true in the future? We shall see!

The VOCES8 Foundation will host their annual International Summer School and Festival at Milton Abbey next month. VOCES8 will perform at this year’s BBC Proms and next year, they will host a spectacular 20th anniversary celebration at London’s iconic Barbican Centre. 

This special event will also feature performances by APOLLO5, VOCES8 Scholars, and our friends at the BBC Singers. In addition, the day will include a community singing session led by Paul Smith. Find out more.