Selling UTAU Banks

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stormylullaby

Always Watching You
Global Mod
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
So, this has DEFINITELY been discussed before, at least on the old forum but after coming across this nightmare & hearing the voice, I feel the need to bring it up again.

What are your feels on selling UTAU banks?
 

Hika421

Teto's Territory
Well, Windows 100% does it I guess, but to me, there's loads of better free voicebanks, so I don't bother with buying them.

But if people who are doing it are getting people to buy, good on them.

A VB would have to be wonderful sounding, easy to tune, and have a billion tones in CV/VCV/-- well, it might as well be a VB from GOD for me to buy it though, if you know what I'm saying.
 

poundthemochi

Teto's Territory
UTAU is a free program and selling banks sounds weird.
I think of it as this:
If a company plans to sell any voicebank (vocaloid or utau) they should:
1. Hire an artist to the work on the design.
2. Remember extra sounds (way more than a VCV voicebank) :holy--:
3. Be aware of torrents.
4. Have there own domain (not a webs domain)
5.Have trademark of their own name. Rina Tachibana is stolen:
http://www.animevice.com/rina-tachibana/18-17048/

------------------
Note:
Are they/he/she allowed to this concert (taken from the website):
FREE Concerts take place mostly in the summer.  The venue that the concert will be held is free and we make no money from it, except for Donations and Glow Sticks. As a result of these concerts being completely free, most take place outside.  The Free Concerts include guest UTAU, since I'm pretty sure it would cost money to charge money for them. Such Guests include Uta Utane (Defoko), Teto Kasane, Momo Momone, and others.
Whoever is behind this, I'm pretty sure it's one person.
 

Ono

Teto's Territory
UTAU, being a free software and all, shouldn't have users selling voicebanks for profit.
Even if it's your own voice. But since there's no written rule saying you can't, I suppose users can try. I don't really see the point in doing so because there's many other UTAUs for FREE and with better quality. I wouldn't want the whole Utau fandom to follow this bandwagon. It defeats the purpose of, I'll say it again, a FREE software. If I wanted to pay for a synthesized voice, I'll just buy a Vocaloid.


/RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT
 

Asteriski

Teto's Territory
Do it if you want, just do it WELL. Find a good reason to charge for it. Don't look sketchy.

Honestly, the only time I've ever seen it done right is with Win100. They're all VCV except one, some have append banks. Quite a handful are voiced by popular utaite like Lon(Sora Amaha) and Kouhei(Hey Hagane). Some are pretty generic but still cute(Sana Asane, Mone Ane), and they seem to be mostly set up to be paired off(Mizuo and Akeko, Sora Amaha and Kaon Sakurai). So, in buying the pack, you get the voices of your favorite singers to use, cool designs, duet partners already set up, and the price isn't so bad. THAT is how you sell voicebanks.
 

Ciel Phantomhive

Teto's Territory
Honestly if you're going to even TRY to sell an UTAU voicebank, make it WORTH BUYING.
That entire UTAUloid is a nightmare @_@

//has nothing else worthwhile to say ;;;;;;
 

Sylphique

Momo's Minion
Well it shouldn't really affect much in reality; Although I personally prefer UTAUs as freeware. UTAUs were partly made due to Vocaloids being generally expensive, and a free/cheaper alternative. Many Utau owners do not permit commercial use of their Utaus without permission (which is reasonable, they are the owners), but there may be someone out there who wishes to do that but doesn't have the money to afford a Vocaloid- so they may buy an Utau. There is no need to worry about whether people choose to buy or sell Utaus. By the principles of trading, people will naturally choose not to pay for something that they can otherwise find better or for free. A lack of professionalism will also make people reluctant to buy; thus separating 'ambitious individuals' from 'serious production' (this would probably be easily recognizable through the product's appearance and quality, [People can generally tell professional/unprofessional through general aesthetics). So seriously speaking, If someone created an Utau that wasn't worth it; simply no-one would buy it; doing no harm whatsoever. If someone created a high grade Utau for sale, it's worth would reflect in it's sale. In the end its the buyer's decision as to whether they buy it or not. We have all bought things that we haven't liked after buying, and that wont change when applied to other products. People being able to sell Utau isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it allows people to be paid for their time and efforts; as long as they have the ability to manage and produce it professionally.

And as regards to the example of the Utau being sold: Personally I don't think Its of a sell-able quality. And in regards to its outcome, I doubt it'll get many sales if any at all. So its not really bothersome. In the end it doesn't really hold a strong impact, as the ratio of free Utaus far outnumbers those who aren't free.
Hope I wasn't too confusing (^O^☆♪
 
P

PurinPuff

Guest
Ono link said:
I don't really see the point in doing so because there's many other UTAUs for FREE and with better quality... If I wanted to pay for a synthesized voice, I'll just buy a Vocaloid.

I can't agree with these more.
 

Hentai

Technical Admin
Administrator
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I am of the opinion, that if you are going to sell a bank, it better be a damn good one to make it worth buying. You must differentiate yourself from all your 'free' competitors, so you better make it something special.

That being said I think it is more than reasonable to have multiple licencing tiers. A 'free' non-commercial one, a 'supporter' donation supported extended bank, and maybe a 'commercial' type licence for people wanting to sell songs based off your work.
 

Shinaichivocaloid

Teto's Territory
Completely agree with all the comments. If you sell a voicebank please make it good and worth selling. We want to see and hear something we haven't heard before. The example given just wasn't good enough....
 

Iscabird

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
At the very least, learn how UTAU works and how voice banks work in the program before considering creating a commercial voice bank.

If I were a company selling voice banks to be used in UTAU, I would want to do my research first.
 

baye

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
Ant link said:
[quote author=Fuuko link=topic=2244.msg17059#msg17059 date=1339291014]
For reference, this is what the bank sounds like.
IMHO, I wouldn't buy it.
http://soundcloud.com/fukokun/rina-tachibana-an-utau-being

LOL. Are you serious? Come on.

The only reason I could see buying an UTAU over using a free one is if you wanted one of the MacNes (yes, I know they were made for garageband, but most people use them for UTAU).
[/quote]

I am serious! I downloaded the bank and put all the sound files end to end in UTAU. This is what they actually sounded like!
 

Ant

Teto's Territory
Defender of Defoko
Fuuko link said:
[quote author=Ant link=topic=2244.msg17087#msg17087 date=1339342480]
[quote author=Fuuko link=topic=2244.msg17059#msg17059 date=1339291014]
For reference, this is what the bank sounds like.
IMHO, I wouldn't buy it.
http://soundcloud.com/fukokun/rina-tachibana-an-utau-being

LOL. Are you serious? Come on.

The only reason I could see buying an UTAU over using a free one is if you wanted one of the MacNes (yes, I know they were made for garageband, but most people use them for UTAU).
[/quote]

I am serious! I downloaded the bank and put all the sound files end to end in UTAU. This is what they actually sounded like!
[/quote]
And they want ten bucks for that?

Rainbow Dash - (laughing)
 

System_Error

Momo's Minion
Selling UTAU banks seems like something people should shut up about and go along with it if there are anybody complaining about it. Like Abortion or Windows 100% MMD models. UTAU is supposed to be a free program, but the voicebank itself that is made by the owner OWNS it, and they can do whatever they want with it. There's not much to say about it honestly.
 

System_Error

Momo's Minion
Ant link said:
[quote author=Fuuko link=topic=2244.msg17097#msg17097 date=1339347163]
[quote author=Ant link=topic=2244.msg17087#msg17087 date=1339342480]
[quote author=Fuuko link=topic=2244.msg17059#msg17059 date=1339291014]
For reference, this is what the bank sounds like.
IMHO, I wouldn't buy it.
http://soundcloud.com/fukokun/rina-tachibana-an-utau-being

LOL. Are you serious? Come on.

The only reason I could see buying an UTAU over using a free one is if you wanted one of the MacNes (yes, I know they were made for garageband, but most people use them for UTAU).
[/quote]

I am serious! I downloaded the bank and put all the sound files end to end in UTAU. This is what they actually sounded like!
[/quote]
And they want ten bucks for that?

Rainbow Dash - (laughing)
[/quote]

DUDE. I wouldn't buy that for ten CENTS.
 

Cdra

possibly dead
Global Mod
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I'd fully support making professional-quality UTAU with optional donations for the banks or maybe paying for a commercial license, or something like that.  But the bank better be stunning--CV and VCV and maybe CV VC, excellent recording technique, almost no background noise, multiple tones, HQ microphone, excellent oto, possibly bilingual or more.

But given the sheer number of free UTAU out there, yeah.  I wouldn't pay for anything sub-par.  But the Macnes and Win100% UTAU sell fine, which is understandable, as they have those things!  So, yep, pretty much what the rest of the thread said.

tldr?  IF YOU'RE GONNA SELL AN UTAU, MAKE DAMN SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
 

Nikiten

Momo's Minion
Ono link said:
UTAU, being a free software and all, shouldn't have users selling voicebanks for profit.
Even if it's your own voice. But since there's no written rule saying you can't, I suppose users can try. I don't really see the point in doing so because there's many other UTAUs for FREE and with better quality. I wouldn't want the whole Utau fandom to follow this bandwagon. It defeats the purpose of, I'll say it again, a FREE software. If I wanted to pay for a synthesized voice, I'll just buy a Vocaloid.


/RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT

I think utau voicebanks should be treated like most art. You can show it and distribute it for free, but you have the option of selling it. It's up to the consumers/viewer/whatever of they want to buy it. They want to sell a voicebank? Let them.

About free software, however, I disagree. There are people out there selling commercial works and commissions using free software.

Anyway, the problem with selling an utau voicebanks is mostly quality. Sturgeon's Law. Being that utau is a free software, it's easier to find crappy works amidst some good ones, because there's no such thing as a quality check.

If it was good, why not? I'd be able to use it in utau, which has some advantages over vocaloid, in some way. As long as it's not too overpriced, as most of the target consumers are young/not very rich.

//sorry for not making sense but this is what I think I'll go away now
 
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