Bringing in new companies

Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
I was and still am seriously considering to contact companies that provide sound samples/effects (Zero-G, PFX, and Crypton are good examples) about their interest in Vocaloid. Yamaha is trying to push for more traction and popularity with fans AND producers in the U.S., but obviously that won't work unless more companies join the bandwagon and make their own Vocaloids.

What do you think of this--asking some companies about vocaloid--and would you help me if I actually start to inquire about Vocaloid with some companies?
 

수연 <Suyeon>

Your friendly neighborhood koreaboo trash
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Sorry to say, but I doubt that a random child on the internet is going to convince companies (particularly western companies) to invest in such a risky venture. Vocaloid is a lot of costs without the guarantee of return: $10,000 to invest in the dev kit alone, paying an agreed amount to the voice provider, paying for studio time as well as equipment, paying the team who works with the dev kit, testing, and recording list, paying for marketing... Considering that the average vocaloid that isn't by Crypton, AHS, or BPlats doesn't sell well - and the sale tides are even more rocky for an English voice (or any non-Japanese voice period), you're not looking at a very desirable investment down the road from a business perspective.

There's also the hurdle of a still prevalent anti-technology mindset for those who would be more likely to seriously use vocaloid at a professional level: people in the industry (who tend to be older than your average gen-Y and gen-Z). The west still values heavily a live performance done with real people, which includes the front man/singer. There's also the additional hurdle of anti-animation. Anything that's drawn in general (regardless of art style) is seen as childish (or for kids) and is frowned upon. The fact that any large example of vocaloid work involves Japanese styled animation is even more of a deterrent - no company will want to seriously invest in what's seen as a very very niche geek culture (people who care about animation, art in general, and Japanese animation in particular).

Speaking of the culture that actually buys/cares about vocaloid currently, there's still the need to appeal to the fickle consumer: most people say they want more adult, realistic, high quality voices... We say that, but who do we still invest our money and ears to? Teenage soprano vocals and the occasional young adult tenor or baritone male - which again, most western audiences aren't fond of the former. We generally listen to voices and artists that are older than us and have an air of maturity that the main big sellers (Crypton, Bplats, AHS) simply don't have. What vocaloid audiences say they want and what they actually purchase needs to be in alignment if companies are to seriously invest in vocaloid.
 

bearhack

Disciple of Aoede
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I agree. The anime and manga culture here in America at least is a very niche demographic and aside from that, the big business perspective doesn't regard the investment in anything other than mainstream as being desirable to investors. Then, there's the practicality of the whole vocaloid development - Why pay all sorts of money to record vocaloid banks in development time, testing and production, when a producer can hire a singer to do 10 takes of a single in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost? And, there are way too many people in the market who want to be noticed, good talent, live talent, that producers have no trouble finding people to sing songs for them just to get their names out there. Unless the mindset among americans changes to appreciate a paradigm shift in synthesized vocals, vocaloid won't gain traction in the mainstream, and therefore the big business market is going to be limited in that respect.
 

Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
Sorry to say, but I doubt that a random child on the internet is going to convince companies (particularly western companies) to invest in such a risky venture.

I'm sorry, but this is the first time anyone has mentioned trying to convince anyone. You've completely missed the point of this--it's about asking about interest out of curiosity, not some teenager trying to convince a company to invest that much money into Vocaloid.

There's also the hurdle of a still prevalent anti-technology mindset for those who would be more likely to seriously use vocaloid at a professional level: people in the industry (who tend to be older than your average gen-Y and gen-Z). The west still values heavily a live performance done with real people, which includes the front man/singer. There's also the additional hurdle of anti-animation. Anything that's drawn in general (regardless of art style) is seen as childish (or for kids) and is frowned upon. The fact that any large example of vocaloid work involves Japanese styled animation is even more of a deterrent - no company will want to seriously invest in what's seen as a very very niche geek culture (people who care about animation, art in general, and Japanese animation in particular).

Speaking of the culture that actually buys/cares about vocaloid currently, there's still the need to appeal to the fickle consumer: most people say they want more adult, realistic, high quality voices... We say that, but who do we still invest our money and ears to? Teenage soprano vocals and the occasional young adult tenor or baritone male - which again, most western audiences aren't fond of the former. We generally listen to voices and artists that are older than us and have an air of maturity that the main big sellers (Crypton, Bplats, AHS) simply don't have. What vocaloid audiences say they want and what they actually purchase needs to be in alignment if companies are to seriously invest in vocaloid.

I'm just gonna say this: one point in this reaching out to customers is so that Vocaloid won't just be those anime girls and completely bizarre Japanese voices. If an outside, western company decides that Vocaloid is a thing they might be willing to go into, they will not only provide different voice styles (hopefully, since they are not based in Japan), they will also expand the community surrounding Vocaloid through their customers.

(However, it seems so ingrained into your mindset that nothing can change. This isn't true. But I fully understand that some customers will ignore me and say no.)

The anime and manga culture here in America at least is a very niche demographic and aside from that, the big business perspective doesn't regard the investment in anything other than mainstream as being desirable to investors.

Which is why these companies would deviate away from the anime world. What makes you think that this software will lose customers because of a picture? These companies that work for producers work with producers because of the way they work--these companies can give western Vocaloid's a new face.

And of course the view on synthesized voices isn't that good, but the Vocaloid scene is still evolving, although very, very slowly compared to two or three years ago.