Geoffrey John Davies, founder of The Violin Channel Photo: Supplied
Geoffrey John Davies possibly had the right idea at the right time.
In 2009, the entrepreneur began noticing videos on the then fledgling social media website YouTube. He wondered if anyone else might like to see some of his old VHS recordings of classical musicians in action. Turns out they did.
After coupling his YouTube efforts with that other precocious child of social media, Facebook, Geoffrey soon had a following in the thousands. That was enough to convince him to take his idea for a classical music platform to New York.
He won backers and subscribers. He has over a million of the latter so far.
He calls his website The Violin Channel, not so much because it focuses on the fiddle, but it just had a better ring to it.
The Violin Channel has made it one of its missions to cover – and at times live stream – violin competitions around the world, which is why Geoffrey is in New Zealand: to follow (and broadcast) the final rounds of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.
Geoffrey spoke with Three to Seven’s Bryan Crump. They talked about the Violin Channel, the Michael Hill, and why he’s not likely to change his website’s name, even though it’s way more than a fiddlers’ retreat.
