Is VR the answer to getting audiences in concert halls?

I’ve had my eye on the Philharmonia’s Virtual Reality projects for a while now. Starting back in 2014, these immersive installations allow for audiences to turn up, put on a headset, and be transported inside an orchestra. These installations have been round the world, reaching 30,000 people at events ranging from the Rio Olympics, to SXSW, to WIRED Japan.

So, back in September, the Philharmonia had a new installation at the Southbank Centre featuring a new 360 video for their Nordic Soundscapes series, I thought it was about time to go and experience it and see what all the fuss is about.

I’ll confess, despite this being digital, innovative, and all about bringing in new audiences, I’ve always been a sceptic. VR headsets are expensive, creating bespoke software is complicated, and you’re asking people to leave their house and come to you instead of meeting them where they are. Surely it would be better to focus on creating digital content that gets to people’s phones?

Well, the good news is… I was wrong.

For the installation, I bribed a friend with the promise of food to come along. They love music, but don’t listen to classical and have never seen a professional orchestra. And although my reaction surprised me, I found their reaction more fascinating.

But first, the experience. For the installation, you’re sat down with a headset and high quality headphones. But, you’re not left to your own devices. A member of staff explains the equipment, how to use it, and once you’re inside the headset they talk you through the interface. They also then suggest which videos to watch and things to watch out for or where to look in the video.

With some videos, you’re able to move around the orchestra, pointing at the highlighted area and teleport over and see what the view is like. This was weirdly addictive. As someone who knew the music, it was great to switch to view the cello section view before the excerpts, or to the percussion section for percussion for a huge cymbal crash. But even if you don’t know the music, this idea of play and exploration is bound to be captivating for people of all ages.

The latest video in the installation was the last movement of Sibelius 5, and part of the upcoming Soundscape series. This mixed 360 video of the orchestra with 360 footage of Finland, showing the landscape that inspired the music.

The word “immersive” is used far too much in our industry, but after a while inside the headset I think that this is genuinely the best way to describe it. I found myself more engaged than watching regular videos, looking round to find special moments. My personal favourite was seeing the front desk of the viola section give each other a cheeky smile before a particularly hard passage. A wonderful human moment that I would have never seen in a normal video, and it then made me constantly spin round to try to find other moments I might have missed.

But enough about me. What do other people think of it? Well, my guinea pig friend who I had to bribe to come along absolutely loved it. To the point I had to sit there waiting for them to come out of the headset as they kept watching.

The Sibelius video itself was a particular hit. “Seeing and being in the landscape that inspired the music made it make sense”. The result was that they wanted to know more and even demanded I send them more music by Sibelius on Spotify. They went from being uninterested and tagging along for free food to a full on convert in 30 minutes.

(I’ve been told I can’t use the video of them smiling non stop and spinning around while wearing the headset)

But it wasn’t just my friend who had a great experience. While we were there, there was an elderly lady in a headset, and we found out she had come back for the second day in a row after loving it so much the day before. There were children with huge grins, moving their heads round to see every inch of the orchestra.

The feedback the Philharmonia is receiving for their VR installations is incredible. Just look at these quotes from their website.

“This was one of the most incredible things I’ve experienced – I felt like I was on stage with the orchestra. Unbelievable, brought me to tears.”
- Audience member at Southbank Centre, London – September 2024

“It was absolutely amazing to be so close to the orchestra. I felt so many emotions: I cried with the lady with her violin, smiled with the members of the orchestra, danced, applauded. Bravo!”
- Audience member at the House of Digital Art, Mauritius – January 2024

It turns out it can go further than just a great experience, and can actually drive in person audiences. While I was there, I spoke with Marta Génova, Senior Producer – Interactive & Immersive at the Philharmonia. As well as sharing countless stories of people loving the experience, she also told me about its effect to drive people to the concert hall.

A recent installation for the Edinburgh Festival gave people the chance to experience Nicola Benedetti playing the Lark Ascending with the Philharmonia in VR on the Friday and Saturday. After the experience, they were offered the chance to attend a family friendly concert of the same music with Benedetti and Philharmonia on the Sunday for a reduced fee. The result was that the whole allocation of reduced tickets were taken up and a packed concert. 

It's clear that the Philharmonia is leading the way with these VR installations. Not only in creating them, but identifying the best way to edit content to connect to audiences and how to deliver the installations to make them welcoming to people. My only critique is that after seeing the power of what their VR work can do, why on earth don’t the Philharmonia shout about it? In the last year, there have only been 3 posts on Instagram about their VR projects, each time being a generic static photo of someone wearing the headset that doesn’t convey anything about what the experience might be like. There’s so much they could do to share this more effectively on socials.

Even on the website, you have hunt to find information about it, eventually finding it hidden away three menus deep. If you have one of the most innovative projects for audience development that has been to the Rio Olympics and even had a collaboration with Playstation, why on earth would you not shout about it? I really hope that the Philharmonia gives this the backing and coverage it quite clearly deserves.

Although the Philharmonia’s product is clearly at the high end of technology, with consumer 360-degree cameras and VR headsets becoming more affordable, orchestras of all sizes could now start to experiment with doing this themselves. The Insta360 X3 camera is £379 and the Quest 3S is £289, so although being a chunk of money, it’s probably much better spent that the money wasted on bad social media adverts that we see everywhere in the sector. It couldn’t be easier or more affordable for orchestras to try this for themselves.

These VR installations give people a non-pressured environment to experience a concert. The curiosity value of VR is bound to get people to give it a go, even if they aren’t interested in classical music. Giving people the chance to experience an orchestra in a way that they would never be able to in person clearly creates meaningful and moving experiences that gets people into the concert hall. With the demand on people’s time being greater than ever, VR installations like the Philharmonia’s are certainly part of the answer to getting new audiences in the concert hall and building stronger connections people who are already fans.

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