At a recent panel at DC Expo (Digital Content Expo) in Tokyo Japan, several very important announcements regarding the future of Vocaloid were finally unveiled.
Heading the panel were four guests: Noboru Murakami from INTERNET CO. LTD, Osamu Ohshima from Yamaha, Takuma Miyazaki from Bplats and Masaru Ishikawa from the University of Tokyo.
The panel explains the plans of VOCALOID Yamaha, as well as many key partners and businesses, to give VOCALOID the first major push into the global market as well as help spread the Vocaloid culture to help finally define Vocaloid as a “standard” genre.
The plans explain the process which will take place over the next few months. This includes the creation of an official website, the promotion and sales of English Vocaloid software (headed by the release of GUMI’s English software in February) in the United States in real stores, as well as several marketing events at conventions.
There’s quite a list of participating companies, both Vocaloid and non-Vocaloid related. This includes, but is not limited to: Bplats, Inc., Yamaha Corporation, UGC Publishing, Inc., INTERNET Co., Ltd., AHS Co. Ltd., 1st PLACE Co.,Ltd., STUDIO DEEN CO.,Ltd. and DWANGO Co.,Ltd.
Oddly, Crypton Future Media is not listed or mentioned as a partner. I’m not sure if they were accidentally left out, or if Crypton is simply not participating in these events.
To read a fully detailed report of this project, please head over to the article on Vocaloidism for the full story. I’m curious to see if these efforts will finally succeed in making Vocaloid a standard genre in the global music industry.
About jrharbort
A Hatsune Miku fan since December 2007, jrharbort joined MikuFan as the Head Writer in October 2011. Follow on Twitter at @jrharbort.