Virtual Singer Uses Crowdsourced Songs To Become a Star In Japan (bloomberg.com)

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Virtual Singer Uses Crowdsourced Songs To Become a Star In Japan (bloomberg.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday October 29, 2017 @03:34PM from the Idoru dept.

An anonymous reader quotes Bloomberg. [Alternate version here]: During her 10-year career, she's released more than 100,000 songs in a variety of languages and opened shows for Lady Gaga. And yet Hatsune Miku, who boasts 2.5 million Facebook followers, doesn't actually exist -- at least not in the typical way we think of a flesh-and-blood diva. Miku is a computer-simulated pop star created more than a decade ago by Hiroyuki Ito, CEO of Crypton Future Media in Sapporo, Japan.

She started life as a piece of voice-synthesis software but since has evolved to become a singing sensation in her own right -- thanks to the creativity of her legions of fans. Crucial to Miku's success is the ability for devotees to purchase the Yamaha-powered Vocaloid software and write their own songs for the star to sing right back at them. Fans then can upload songs to the web and vie for the honor of having her perform them at "live" gigs, in which the computer-animated Miku takes center stage, surrounded by human guitarists, drummers and pianists.
Bloomberg's article includes some video clips of the virtual artist -- as well as her real-world fans.

96 comments

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Still. by Templer421 · 2017-10-29 15:41 · Score: 1, Informative

She isn't real.
1. Re:Still. by freeze128 · 2017-10-29 16:23 · Score: 1
  
  And still, she is better than many organic performers.
2. Re:Still. by SeaFox · 2017-10-29 16:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Her vocals are based off samples of an actual person.
  Now, consider modern pop stars: who can only sing (not play any instruments), are singing songs written by someone else, and are having their vocals put through filters and auto-tune in production, and live out a personality in public groomed by their marketing agency.
  How big is the difference really?
3. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 17:23 · Score: 0
  
  I didn't know organic pop stars were still a thing.
4. Re:Still. by sheramil · 2017-10-29 19:34 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  She isn't real.
  I've seen videos of Hatsune Miku. I've heard sounds that give the impression that she can sing. You, you're just text on a screen.
5. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 19:43 · Score: 0
  
  I didn't know organic pop stars were still a thing.
  Yup. And cage-free.
6. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 20:29 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  "Now, consider modern pop stars: who can only sing (not play any instruments), are singing songs written by someone else, and are having their vocals put through filters and auto-tune in production, and live out a personality in public groomed by their marketing agency."
  Like say, Bing Crosby and Doris Day?
  Do you know whom we can blame for this modern phenomenon that has lasted over a Century so far?
  John Philip Fucking Sousa.
  Sousa made quite a good living Composing, Arranging and Conducting, and significantly, selling Sheet Music. He loathed the Phonograph, especially Edison's version of it. He called it "Canned Music" because of the cylindrical shape of Edison's recordings. They cut into his Sheet Music sales.
  Sousa also loathed Jazz, not only for the usual Racist reasons, but because he had no patience at all for any improvisation. Musicians should do only exactly as they are told. "Tonal hooch, the substitute for real music, beloved of apes, morons, half-wits, cake-eaters, professional pacifists, gold-diggers and other loiterers along the highway of life." He quite liked conducting Military Bands; as members of the Armed Forces, he didn't have to pay the musicians.
  But if you can't beat them, join them. Sousa built a Business Empire base on the concept of total control. He owned the Rights to everything connected to him, even the later Film and Radio performances. He created the modern concept of The Producer, for whom everybody else worked. Before then, Producers were more like Impressarios, hired by Theaters to manage Productions on a singular or Seasonal basis, with no Intellectual or other Property Rights.
  Sousa was largely responsible for the Tin Pan Alley model, and that awful organization of thieves called ASCAP.
  So the next time you here about the latest Disney Pop Tart de Jour, remember that they are just fresh meat, soon to go bad, because the Sousa System demands it.
  OK, for real Music lovers- Christine Schafer, Bach: "Sich Uben Im Lieben". Beautiful Woman, beautiful voice. The Video for this is impossible to find online; the ARTS Network has the only Rights to it. The Video is called "The Gallery Opening"; it is quite surreal as Schafer wanders around taking pictures of the Gallery attendees who are mouthing her singing. She uses a Mamiya 6 Rangefinder.
  It was just on as I was writing this.
7. Re: Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 21:19 · Score: 0
  
  Cock in your butthole is real
8. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 23:11 · Score: 0
  
  Why do lunatic types Randomly capitalize Words in their Rants? It is an interesting phenomenon. It takes more Effort to Randomly capitalize Words.
9. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 23:23 · Score: 0
  
  > She isn't real.
  Oh, she's real, no doubt about it. That's too basic, but there's real and then there's concrete (meaning not abstract).
  She's not concrete -- but even of that I'm in doubt, since obviously we can hear her, which is some kind of "concrete". But she's not an imaginary thing like a ghost.
  OTOH, this has been going for some... what? 7 years? Perhaps even more? (oh, 10-year career...) I, for one, cannot stand such things which my daughter are too fond of... wait, does she feel about Linux that way? 8-)
  Really, /. , I hope this is one of those "last 20" years articles, because if not this is literally being late to the party (== show)...
  I also wonder if we can make the same in other fields, like having a virtual project leader "who", instead of singing, mirrors the community participants wishes...
10. Re:Still. by sheramil · 2017-10-29 23:31 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  "Tonal hooch, the substitute for real music, beloved of apes, morons, half-wits, cake-eaters..."
  Hey! There's no call for that kind of language.
11. Re:Still. by AmiMoJo · 2017-10-29 23:32 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Vocaloid technology was originally designed for backing vocals and harmonies. It wasn't very good at doing real lyrics in most languages, including Latin-descended languages like English.
  However, Japanese has some unusual properties that meant Vocaloid could sing in Japanese surprisingly well. The most important of these is that Japanese is basically a string of unconnected and discreet sounds. In English the sound the characters make depends on the other characters in the word, for example the different 'c' sounds in "cat" and "choose". That doesn't happen in Japanese (with a couple of minor exceptions for certain local accents/dialects).
  So for an English voice synth when you type in "example", it has to run through a complex system that converts it into the vocal sounds for that word, before it even starts to consider adding expression. In Japanese it just takes each character of "tatoeba" (ta, to, e, ba, they are single characters in Japanese) and plays back one of about 50 samples at the selected pitch. People actually play Japanese vocal synths in real-time on a keyboard.
  Remember that this was a decade ago. Nowadays English vocal synthesis is a lot better and probably could do lead vocals on a song.
  Anyway, I don't think any music producer would have used Vocaloid for lead vocals. It took indie artists doing it to prove that people would actually listen to them. Part of the attraction is that indie artists could suddenly add lyrics to their work without any recording equipment or singing ability, and part of it was that she ended up singing about memes and the true, honest feelings of the nerds producing those songs. It was more real than real singers.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
12. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 00:14 · Score: 0
  
  Now, consider modern pop stars: who can only sing (not play any instruments)
  Name Ten.
  
  are singing songs written by someone else
  Oh noes! Like Happy Birthday?
  
  and are having their vocals put through filters and auto-tune in production
  And then they're not even putting the songs on vinyl!
  
  and live out a personality in public groomed by their marketing agency.
  Not that, anything but that!
13. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 00:17 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, it isn't so random. It's just out of favor. Read some Journalism of a Century or so back. Read Mencken.
  Sometimes Every Word In A Sentence Is Capitalized. This actually came out of Typography; otherwise the lower tray for small slugs would need to be vastly larger than the upper tray for large slugs.
  The French on the other hand, often did not capitalize the titles of things; Schafer would be singing "sich uben im lieben". The English had, for historical reasons, a dislike for a Capitalized "the" except at the beginning of a sentence, as in "Schafer Sings Pop Songs Fired From the Bach Canon."
  Read the Chicago Manual Of Style, understand it, and then defenestrate it with vigor.
  There are no Rules Of Capitalization. There is no L'Academie d'Anglaise. Chicago is just a City In Flyover Country to the French.
  It is all a matter of Style, and if you have nothing at all to contribute on the Subject of Artifice in Popular Music, find that Chicago Manual Of Style, and promptly follow it.
14. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 00:25 · Score: 0
  
  You can't have your cake, and sousa eat it too.
  soUSA! soUSA! soUSA!
15. Re:Still. by geekmux · 2017-10-30 01:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "Now, consider modern pop stars: who can only sing (not play any instruments), are singing songs written by someone else, and are having their vocals put through filters and auto-tune in production, and live out a personality in public groomed by their marketing agency." Like say, Bing Crosby and Doris Day?
  No, not like Bing Crosby or Doris Day. Stars of yesteryear actually had a recognized talent. A natural ability to sing anyone's songs.
  We have mostly entertainers today, who are more valued for their porn star looks and ability to dance around on a stage. Many rely on lip-syncing and Autotune because they cannot actually sing. Society accepts this because they now value entertainment more than natural talent.
  The rise of a virtual singer only clarifies just how far we've fallen. Regardless if Hatsune's vocals are based on a "real" person, it's still a manufactured product at best. I don't even call an Autotuned human voice authentic, because it's not.
16. Re:Still. by Gr8Apes · 2017-10-30 01:27 · Score: 1
  Now, consider modern pop stars: who can only sing (not play any instruments)
  Name Ten.
  I just gotta:
  
  Justin Beiber
  
  Selena Gomez
  
  Demi Lovato
  
  Shawn Mendes (although he does strum a guitar and "co-writes")
  
  Kesha (despite claims of writing, it seems pretty clear that she was not the main influence if she had any)
  
  Britney Spears
  
  Whitney Houston
  
  Heart (2nd incarnation)
  
  Rhianna (see below)
  
  Barry Manilow (irony abounds with "I write the songs")
  
  Milli Vanilli (who didn't even sing their own "songs")
  
  There's more than 10 that are various shades of produced singers that did not write their own songs, just off the top of my head. Rhianna is a candidate, as she certainly doesn't write all her own music, and it appears isn't the main driver in the songs she does co-write. I also spread this across several decades, as it's not a new phenomenon and one of those is actually a group that had considerable success on their own prior to going the produced let someone else write the music route.
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
17. Re:Still. by stabiesoft · 2017-10-30 01:35 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  To me one of the greatest ironies of today is on SNL, the singers lip sync for the most part and the actors doing skits sing live.
18. Re:Still. by DNS-and-BIND · 2017-10-30 01:59 · Score: 0
  
  the true, honest feelings of the nerds producing those songs
  #GamerGate
  
  --
  Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
19. Re: Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 02:23 · Score: 0
  
  No it's not, it's called a dildo you imbecile.
20. Re:Still. by AmiMoJo · 2017-10-30 02:42 · Score: 2
  
  It's pretty much the opposite of GamerGate. For a start gamers are only a small part of that community, and it's not founded on the harassment of female members. It's inclusive and collaborative and accepting. It's not anonymous either, in fact you need an account just to watch videos on Nico Nico. Contrast the comments over there with YouTube.
  If anything it was part of the movement of otaku culture away from anonymous boards like 2ch and towards more friendly places. Places were people worked together to build things, rather than just troll each other.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
21. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 02:49 · Score: 0
  
  Is Hatsune Miku a better pop star than Justin Bieber?
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kb_WBChA5U
22. Re:Still. by TechyImmigrant · 2017-10-30 03:46 · Score: 1
  
  I assure you that Whitney Houston does not sing songs.
  
  --
  I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
23. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 03:58 · Score: 0
  
  Could be worse. Could have called them milk-drinkers.
24. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 04:08 · Score: 0
  
  Why do lunatic types Randomly capitalize Words in their Rants? It is an interesting phenomenon. It takes more Effort to Randomly capitalize Words.
  He just had finger farts; it happens.
25. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 06:07 · Score: 0
  
  "How big is the difference really?"
  Put like that, the difference is simple. Miku isn't controlled by a marketing agency.
26. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 06:20 · Score: 0
  
  However, Japanese has some unusual properties that meant Vocaloid could sing in Japanese surprisingly well. The most important of these is that Japanese is basically a string of unconnected and discreet sounds.
  It's called "shallow orthography" and it not as unusual as you imply it is.
  Also, you mean 'discrete sounds'.
27. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 06:43 · Score: 0
  
  "Remember that this was a decade ago. Nowadays English vocal synthesis is a lot better and probably could do lead vocals on a song."
  It's more than just "probably could". It's fairly easy to find vocaloid songs sung by english vocaloids (And other languages) these days. Even Miku has an english voice bank. By this I mean english vocaloids doing lead vocals.
28. Re:Still. by Aereus · 2017-10-30 07:29 · Score: 1
  
  The biggest irony to me about the whole Vocaloid scene, especially once they started doing "live converts" with hologram tech, was how it is reminiscent of Sharon Apple from Macross Plus. An OVA from 1994 that includes a virtual idol hologram that sings songs at huge concert venues. It seemed so far-fetched and unrealistic at the time, and yet here we are...
29. Re:Still. by Gr8Apes · 2017-10-30 08:37 · Score: 1
  
  I'd argue half that list can't sing.
  
  --
  The cesspool just got a check and balance.
30. Re:Still. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 10:40 · Score: 0
  
  "Now, consider modern pop stars: who can only sing (not play any instruments), are singing songs written by someone else, and are having their vocals put through filters and auto-tune in production, and live out a personality in public groomed by their marketing agency."
  Like say, Bing Crosby and Doris Day?
  "No, not like Bing Crosby or Doris Day. Stars of yesteryear actually had a recognized talent. A natural ability to sing anyone's songs."
  Well, that is a great opening... Crosby couldn't make it as a Singer until Technology caught up. Typical Singers back then were Belters, like Jolson or Merman. They had to fill a Hall just with their own voice. With Electronic Amplification, and especially the new German Condenser Microphones, Crooners like Crosby could be heard, and even better, recorded. Crosby made Sinatra possible. But it gets even more interesting. Crosby was a Techie, and one of the first to use the new Wire, and then Tape, Recorders available after WWII. This allowed something impossible with the old Rek-O-Kuts: Editing. If a note was flubbed, a better one could be spliced in. He also pioneered Multitrack Recording, although he didn't particularly like it.
  Crosby sang songs written by others, couldn't play an Instrument, had his voice electronically enhanced, and was very much groomed by Marketing. Have you ever seen any of his "Road" pictures?
  Doris Day was even more so. She had a very soft voice, and tried many styles before hitting on Ballads, recorded Electronically. She was no Ethel Merman. Now as for Marketing... those awful movies of hers. As the saying goes, attributed to several- "I'm so old, I remember Doris Day before she was a Virgin."
  Now, back to the example that you overlooked, Schafer. She can fill a Hall just with her voice, and still dabbles in the most esoteric Modern Techie stuff in the Studio, although I can't say that I'm fond of her "Pierrot Lunaire"; Schoenberg is still a little too modern for me.
  " I don't even call an Autotuned human voice authentic, because it's not."
  And neither was Crosby's or Day's, as we hear them now. My point exactly. You are drawing a line in the sand, I'm claiming that line isn't so distinct. I happen to hate Autotune. I'm also not fond of Jolson or Merman, but that has to do more with their choice of material.
  Lastly; "Tom's Diner". This is very interesting to me; at one time even professionally. Somebody got the original Master, and subtracted the original Test MP3 out of it. The result is startling; there is a whole other song left, the same, but different. It just shows how truly awful the MP3 Standard is:
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4-ISLpKhQJI
  So which is worse, Autotune or MP3? One is creating Music where there wasn't very much of it, and the other...
  I doubt that even Schafer could sing moDernIst. But maybe some day, somebody will try.
News for nerds? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 16:01 · Score: 2

Does Slashdot really think most nerds don't know about Hatsune Miku at this point?
1. Re:News for nerds? by PopeRatzo · 2017-10-29 16:03 · Score: 1
  
  Does Slashdot really think most nerds don't know about Hatsune Miku at this point?
  Know about her? She's my ex-waifu. Made me sign a prenup, so I got nothing when she kicked me to the curb.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
2. Re: News for nerds? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 16:42 · Score: 0
  
  I canâ(TM)t give you room but free protein from my board.
3. Re:News for nerds? by Mal-2 · 2017-10-29 19:13 · Score: 1
  
  You can literally have Hatsune Miku under your foot -- provided you can play an instrument. Maybe it's not a lost cause after all.
  MIKU STOMP Stomp Effect
  
  --
  How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
4. Re: News for nerds? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 19:31 · Score: 0
  
  There's significant delay with that pedal. It's just a goof. Using it live is impractical.
5. Re: News for nerds? by barbariccow · 2017-10-30 02:31 · Score: 1
  
  "significant delay" is how Reggae was born. Also... I assume you're making these statements from experience?
6. Re:News for nerds? by PopeRatzo · 2017-10-30 03:04 · Score: 1
  
  MIKU STOMP Stomp Effect
  I can do the same thing in software using VST effects and a copy of Vocaloid.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
7. Re:News for nerds? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 03:40 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, OK, Topper. Put it in a standard stompbox enclosure and price it equivalently, and you'll still be saying "Me too, look at me!"
8. Re:News for nerds? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 05:24 · Score: 1
  
  Never heard of it before. I guess I'm in that group of nerds that aren't Japanese fanboys?
Even live shows aren't safe... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 16:02 · Score: 1

The 'bots are going to take the jobs of live performers too.
1. Re:Even live shows aren't safe... by mark-t · 2017-10-29 17:11 · Score: 1
  
  I think you only have to worry about that when you have synthetic pop stars opening for other synthetic pop stars at an event that is not specifically geared at catering to the demographic that would find the novelty of the singer being virtual to be worth attending the event.
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Re: MUELLER INDICTS CLINTON by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 16:02 · Score: 0

That's funny, my Facebook feed says that Meuller is dating Clinton (Bill Clinton, that is)
10 year old news? by khchung · 2017-10-29 16:04 · Score: 1, Offtopic

She has been around for 10 years and now it is "news" for Slashdot.
Next, are we going to get "news" about the 10-year old sub-prime crisis on the front page?

--
Oliver.
1. Re:10 year old news? by dunkelfalke · 2017-10-30 01:53 · Score: 1
  
  https://slashdot.org/story/03/...
  Note the date of TFA.
  There is also something about Miku specifically
  https://entertainment.slashdot...
  
  --
  "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Sad by raind · 2017-10-29 16:13 · Score: 1

Still people will play, because we can.

--
Get up!
Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by DJ+Rubbie · 2017-10-29 16:14 · Score: 4, Informative

Unlike typical Japanese media enterprises that exert their draconian copyright laws to squash usage of IP (including what Americans consider to be "fair use"), the creative forces that started Hatsune Miku put her design as part of the Creative Commons, thus freeing her design to amateur and professional artists alike for reuse. As a result, the original rights holder receive even greater recognition for their voice synthesizer software line from the artists creating all the derivative visual works involving her likeness.

--
Please direct all bug reports to /dev/null
1. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 18:29 · Score: 0
  
  "and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!"
2. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by tlhIngan · 2017-10-29 20:12 · Score: 1
  
  Unlike typical Japanese media enterprises that exert their draconian copyright laws to squash usage of IP (including what Americans consider to be "fair use"), the creative forces that started Hatsune Miku put her design as part of the Creative Commons, thus freeing her design to amateur and professional artists alike for reuse. As a result, the original rights holder receive even greater recognition for their voice synthesizer software line from the artists creating all the derivative visual works involving her likeness.
  Or, perhaps, the original rights holder was simply trying to sell their vocoder?.
  Create the character, release it for free, run a few fan expos and you've built up thousands to hundreds of thousands of people spending $200+ for your vocoder. That's quite a few millions of dollars. The alternative is to sell maybe a thousand copies of it to those professionals who use vocoders.
  Nothing to do with fandom or freedom, but a simple marketing campaign. Like the Asterisk PBX software - its creators simply wrote software to sell their phone line interface hardware and released it.
  No, the vocoder is the furthest thing from "free" you can get, it's proprietary, commercially licensed software (that runs on Windows), available in English and Japanese versions. Want Miku to sing your song? Buy the vocoder and you're done. But how did you hear about it? Probably from one of the many Miku-fests around full of neat artwork that people created.
  That's not to say it isn't good - it's actually a pretty damn nice vocoder. (I found out from a TV science news magazine show (Daily Planet - for all you Discovery Canada viewers) when they went to Japan and they demonstrated it.). That said, it's apparently one of the best-selling pieces of software on Amazon.co.jp.
3. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 20:15 · Score: 0
  
  Vocaloid isn't a product of the typical "Japanese media enterprises" though. It started out as a product for professional musicians to use for backing track vocals. It was sold and licensed as a tool.
4. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by AmiMoJo · 2017-10-29 20:35 · Score: 1
  
  Unlike typical Japanese media enterprises that exert their draconian copyright laws to squash usage of IP
  Japanese media is very supportive of fan efforts. In fact there is a sizeable industry built around making unofficial versions of popular franchises, often pornographic but not always. They are extremely tolerant of fan works, seeing them as both flattering and a way to build up support for their franchises.
  According to Wikipedia the "doujin" market, as it is called, is worth nearly $800m/year.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
5. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 20:51 · Score: 0
  
  >> Unlike typical Japanese media enterprises that exert their draconian copyright laws to squash usage of IP
  > Japanese media is very supportive of fan efforts.
  Both generalizations (by each of you) of the Japanese market are silly, as responses vary significantly by individual company. On one hand there is the doujinshi market as you had noted, and on the other hand Nintendo is well known for sending cease-and-desist letters for fan-made games based upon their franchises -- as well as their overreaching restrictions on 'Lets Play' videos of their games on streaming sites like Youtube.
6. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by Draeven · 2017-10-29 22:20 · Score: 2
  
  It may only be part of a "marketing strategy" as you say, but it still illustrates the fact that having things open for use leads to further creativity and production of art.
  Putting the vocoder itself aside, there's far more to the scene than the voice itself. Had this only been a piece of voice software without a character attached, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful. Evidence of this is scene in the prior releases of the Vocaloid software, such as Lola (http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/LOLA). While this reinforces that releasing the designs into the wild was a marketing move, it also illustrates that the openness of the designs lead to a burst of creativity and production. Even for those that never produced any music using the software, it provided opportunities to participate in the community and contribute in other ways, such as illustrations, animations, instrumentation, etc.
7. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 00:46 · Score: 0
  
  That's Nintendo of America, not necessarily the Nintendo in Japan.
8. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 01:12 · Score: 0
  
  Japanese media is very supportive of fan efforts.
  ...unless their name is Nintendo.
9. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by HideyoshiJP · 2017-10-30 02:56 · Score: 1
  
  "Unlike typical Japanese media enterprises that exert their draconian copyright laws to squash usage of IP" Man, Japan doesn't even like people overseas buying their media.
10. Re:Miku shows why openness actually promotes art by Scroatzilla · 2017-10-30 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  Only, the software is Windows only-- or, requires "Cubase" on a Mac. Not quite so open.
Well, it was only a matter of time by grasshoppa · 2017-10-29 16:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

Music companies have been manufacturing stars for years, this is really just the next step in the process.
A very very small step, truth be told.

--
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
1. Re:Well, it was only a matter of time by kamapuaa · 2017-10-29 16:36 · Score: 1
  
  Yes. This is why all the talk about "I want to support the artist, not the studio" is such claptrap. Much of popular music is a studio product, after all.
  
  --
  Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
2. Re:Well, it was only a matter of time by AmiMoJo · 2017-10-29 20:43 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  That's the thing about Hatsune Miku - she is a genuine grass roots effort, one of the least manufactured pop stars in Japan right now.
  As TFA says, she started as a voice pack for the Vocaloid software synthesiser package. Fans used it to create songs and upload them to Nico Nico Douga, a site similar to YouTube. These were pure fan creations, the Vocaloid software was just the firm time that someone working from a PC at home could use high quality vocals without having to record them themselves.
  As is often the case in Japan, other people started to supplement the popular songs with fan art and videos. In Japan it's common to have a mascot for your product, and since this was a female vocal synth they had already created Hatsne Miku with the intention of releasing other characters (voice packs) later.
  Eventually independent record labels started collecting these songs and releasing them. Since the software is a just a synth like any other, the creators no more own the copyright than the creators of a drum synth or a real instrument would. As her popularity grew they started doing concerts and bigger CD releases, but most of the songs are still created by independent artists and posted for free online.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
3. Re:Well, it was only a matter of time by DNS-and-BIND · 2017-10-29 20:48 · Score: 1
  
  You can't force this one to give you a blowjob, though. So that's a loss for the music executives in Japan's version of the RIAA.
  
  --
  Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
4. Re:Well, it was only a matter of time by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 00:26 · Score: 0
  
  However, Internet rule 34 does apply, so you can look her up on pornhub...
5. Re:Well, it was only a matter of time by Nidi62 · 2017-10-30 00:46 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  You can't force this one to give you a blowjob, though. So that's a loss for the music executives in Japan's version of the RIAA.
  Krieger has been working on that for a while though, and I think he's pretty close.
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
"News" by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 16:49 · Score: 1

A decade ago called asking what the fuck you're doing, EditorDavid. Got anything you want to tell us about this new cell phone Apple's supposedly working on while you're at it?
1. Re:"News" by Calydor · 2017-10-29 19:03 · Score: 1
  
  You mean the iPhone (X)?
  
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  -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
hmm by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 17:28 · Score: 0

Reminds me of the character from W. Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties.
1. Re: hmm by Zero__Kelvin · 2017-10-29 22:53 · Score: 1
  
  You are thinking of the Idoru, who was in the Bridge Trilogy , of which ATP was actually the last in the series.
  
  --
  Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
japs by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 18:41 · Score: 0

jap's are mental.
Flawless victory by Richard Stallman by Ferocitus · 2017-10-29 18:47 · Score: 1

It's not revolutionary when she can't dance as well as Richard Stallman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

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USB, USB, USB!
A bit late by inking · 2017-10-29 19:22 · Score: 2

Not to rag on the OP or anything, but this is like a decade overdue.
Flash news! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 19:26 · Score: 0

I've heard there is a langauge called Java which is getting somewhat popular lately too...
hmm by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 21:25 · Score: 0

good art comes from suffering.
let's make her suffer!
She will become by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 23:04 · Score: 0

CALCULON
1. Re: She will become by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-29 23:36 · Score: 0
  
  I believe that you misspelled "Sharon Apple."
Don't believe the crowd-sourced part. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 00:33 · Score: 1

I follow Hatsune Miku dearly, but let me say the crowd-sourced part of her consist of the consumer posse, the non-productive fans, who go to see "live" hologram concerts, buy the albums and all kinds of merch.
I am convinced the songs written for Miku are 95%+ paid comissions, rather than spontaneous amateurs rewarded only after the act, if successful. Why I think that is because it seems they just pulled the plug on her during autumn 2011, after SenBonZakura (i.e. 1000 cherry trees) was published. That song became a HUGE hit and overshadowed human j-pop performers for a few weeks (e.g. the famous modern-traditionalist Wakkagi Band made a cover of it with over 70m views).
So the publishers probably had enough of her possibly becoming disruptive and started to divert melody and lyrics composers towards working with bands composed of actual people. Miku hasn't had any truly BIG japanese hits since SBZ and only a single "engrish" language hit called Glass Wall in 2014. Talent seems to have dried up since then entirely, which is hard to believe as a spontaneous event in a country of 127 million ppl and a huge amount of nerds among them.
(During the time between Miku's debut in Aug 2007 and SBZ in 2011, there was an 1m+ plus views vocaloid song every month, in fact the best ever ones likes World is Mine, Shiite Ageru, Electric Angel, Love is War, Magnet, Secret Police, Doriko und Cinderella were written within a year or just mere months of her publishing date. Hard to believe the flow of new good songs stopped spontaneously. If anything the insane success of of SBZ on Oricon charts should have inspired more people to try composing.)
Furthermore, a ruse called Idolm@ster was introduced to further disrupt the fanbase of Miku. It' s a harem console / computer game, where you as a manager can groom virtual schoolgirls into idol singer bands, a truly idle and self-defying pass-time for the weaboo.
Considering how hard and frustrating it is to work with the Vocaloid engine, it's much easier to IDM you time away. (Vocaloid doesn't understand emotion, so you have to add BGM, lyrics and then manually adjust spelling, pitch, breath, groan an everything before it starts to sound vaguely humanlike. Those "producers" with best tuning skills, like MitchieM allegedly sing their songs themselves, use Melodyne or similar tool to rip out just the envelope curves and use that to modulate the procedurally generated audio which comes out of playing the VSQX file in Vocaloid. Thereby they can achieve human-like voice and a bit of emotion for Miku's performance. Although I think MitchieM's songs have mediocre music scores and lyrics.)
Another problem is that Hatsune Miku became the virgin queen of Vocaloidia, not Megurine Luka or Megumi. Her mascot (or rather like she) has a very characteristic and clumsily cute appearance, which allows for a large variance of costumes and hairstyles with her still remaining instantly recognizable.
Yet, her voice, modeled on the popular non-singer voice actor Saki Fujita, just sucks. She is so high pitched it gives the tinnitus to non-far-east-asian audicences. Miku adoration however is very much ingrained in the Vocaloid fanbase, you just can't replace her looks or voice traits, so she is the impossible idol to stay as long as she lasts. Day after day she is sliding into the visual territory rather than the audio field, acting as an advertisement, tourism and rythm games mascot.
The passive Miku fanbase is slowly shrinking, the active (song producing) Vocaloid base is in freefall honestly, but she has maybe 5 years before fading completely. No kidding, the 10 year anniversary Miku concert theme song was "Sand Dune Planet" with a post-apocalyptic vision of the well of talent having dried up and Miku's existing followers being kidnapped by human girl singers. The previous theme song was "10000 stars" dealing with suicide, no less. There is no way she gets to sing the Tokyo 2020 summer olympics opening theme, as many hoped, standing in the palm of a life sized Gojira statue.
1. Re:Don't believe the crowd-sourced part. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 06:05 · Score: 0
  
  Actually Idolm@ster was born before vocaloid as an arcade game and later console and mobile games.
Her vocals aren't really samples of actual person. by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 00:57 · Score: 1

> Her vocals are based off samples of an actual person.
Its not that simple. Let's see:
Vocaloid gen1 engine, 2002 - late 2006, e.g. original Kaito Shion:
Voice provider's samples are not actually used to procedurally generate audio output, they are just utilized as envelope curves which the synthesis engine tries to imitate with entirely artificial produce. Result is sometimes suprisingly good, but very uneven and the UI was extremely hard to work with.
Vocaloid gen2/3/4 engines, 2007 - present, e.g. all of Hatsune Miku:
Voice provider's samples are used as the atomized building blocks of synthesized audio output, but in a very remote way. For example Miku's voice donor Saki Fujita is a well-recognized anime voice actor, who has no singing talent at all and never learned music beyond Daisy, Daisy level. The musics skill, whatever limited, does come from the SW engine. In fact Ms. Saki was the only one willing to provide samples for a would-be virtual idol girl, as all career singers approached panicked the robot is going to rob them of business!
V. gen 2/3 result is often mediocre, but the software is easier to work with. In fact, Miku is famous for being very consistent (being consistenly barely average quality) thus relatively easy to approach for beginner composers. Vocaloid gen4 has a lot of tech problems repaired, but the somewhat clumsy V2/3 singing style is now much engrained in the fandom.
Thus you need to understand that Miku isn't a Girlish Gorillaz, where blood-and-flesh people record behind the hideous cartoon mascots. Even if Saki Fujita got run over by a steam-roller while an asteroid-enraged Gojira flattened Mega-Tokyo, Vocaloid ver4 software copies in America or Europe could still be used to write new japanese, english or chinese language songs. You could even host Miku's "hologram" concerts. (A few normal LCD projectors and mosquito netting suffices for smaller sized venues, the hi-tech DILAD screen is only needed for big venues, there are YT videos on how to do it.)
Big in Japan by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 01:14 · Score: 0

ðY(TM)ðY
Are we really so superficial by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 01:24 · Score: 0

That we can be entertained (i.e., distracted from facing the problems of the real world) by something as ephemeral as this?
1. Re:Are we really so superficial by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 05:34 · Score: 0
  
  > entertained ... by something as ephemeral as this?
  Consider that Hatsune Miku is a japanese product and their culture highly values ephemeral presence. After all, cherry blossoms don't last long and nothing can be more beautiful than that. The far east asian mindset is very different from western christianity.
  E.g. how Araragi comments in Bakemonogatari that he is attracted to Senjougahara because of her ephemeral essence. (The Monogatari saga is about the biggest single thing in recent japanese pop culture.) Other anime heroes regularly fall in love with girls they 100% sure know to be goners in very short time.
The secret to "her" success by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 02:40 · Score: 0

Porn. Soooooooo much Miku porn.
1. Re:The secret to "her" success by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 05:13 · Score: 1
  
  > Porn. Soooooooo much Miku porn.
  I don't think she's a good candidate. Sure she has giraffe legs, but she is too much at the hip and way too little at the bosom, not womanly shape at all. They don't salivate over her, considering japanese visual culture has a fetish concerning BIG tits.
  The amateur graphic artist KEI Garo who created Miku's original box art back in 2007 hadn't got the slightest idea of human anatomy, e.g. totally messed up the mascot's shoulders as well. Ever since the publisher Crypton Future Media has been really struggling with the problem of turning Miku gorgeous, without making her almost unrecognizable or immoral. (Fans reacted really hostile when they tried to cut her necktie out of her swimming dress, showing bellybutton and almost down to the nasties in the process.)
  Creating desirability is an important topic, since Miku now has a 300hp class GT car racing team and a road racing bicycle team on her name and has to do regular "podium girl" duties. Usually she is styled cute as a sub-deb fairy, knightess, tomboy, etc. rather than a vamp and there is only one event per year (the boiling summer Sepang GT in Malaysia) where she's becomes a buxom adult and is sent to the pitlane in a scant bikini.
2. Re:The secret to "her" success by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 06:32 · Score: 0
  
  has a fetish concerning BIG tits.
  Like the rest of the world?
  There's plenty of art ranging from flat to huge breasts.
The right direction by backwardsposter · 2017-10-30 03:00 · Score: 2

The success of Miku is taking music ownership in the right direction for us all.
Seems familiar by hattable · 2017-10-30 03:20 · Score: 1

I wish this story only popped up when there was a 'version increase' of some sort with Miku. I understand there is is always someone for whom this is new and shiny, but it would be more interesting for the others if there was more meat to the story.

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OMG facts!
Re:Still (has problems with non-ortogarphic langs) by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 04:44 · Score: 2, Informative

> Japanese has some unusual properties that meant Vocaloid could sing in Japanese surprisingly well. The most important of these is that Japanese is basically a string of unconnected and discreet sounds.
Vocaloid was actually invented by a spanish science guy named Jordi Bonada while doing PhD in the USA. He met a japanese guest professor who had connections with the musical instruments branch of Yamaha zaibatsu and he convinced the board to pour a few million dollars into the research in exchange for IP rights. Luckily catalonian spanish dialect has the same "ortographical" property as the japanese language, so even today spanish remains the leading language for Vocaloid soundbanks alongside japanese. English is much rarer.
> So for an English voice synth when you type in "example", it has to run through a complex system that converts it into the vocal sounds for that word, before it even starts to consider adding expression
Yeah, a japanese language recording session for a Vocaloid avatar literally takes one afternoon and another for recap. An english soundbank takes about 6 weeks of microphone work in a pro studio and you can't get drunk or smoke during the time at all as it changes your voice however slightly and the result is ruined.
> Nowadays English vocal synthesis is a lot better and probably could do lead vocals on a song.
I don't think even the latest release Cyber Diva and Cyber Songman / Dex and Daina are there yet. The ability to add emotion is still missing and fixing that requires special talent which only a few Vocaloid producers, like MitchieM have. Somehow the monotonic singing style of Hatsune Miku is less disturbing or even cute in japanese, compared to english.
Simone (2002 film) by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 04:54 · Score: 0

This movie was about a director creating a virtual actress:
Simone (2002 film)
1. Re:Simone (2002 film) by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-31 15:31 · Score: 0
  
  I'm disappointed, an entire thread about a virtual singer and no mention of Macross Plus?
Rei Toei by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 06:53 · Score: 0

Sounds like someone has read Gibson's novel Idoru.
Fascinating by temcat · 2017-10-30 08:20 · Score: 1

As an amateur song composer, I'd gladly participate.
Little Heros by Anonymous Coward · 2017-10-30 08:25 · Score: 0

Made me think of Little Heros
Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah by martinX · 2017-10-30 09:27 · Score: 1

And that means I love you.
Well, that was easy. Next!

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When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."