VOCALOID: An Iceberg of Peer Production

What happens when you want to write a song, with instrumentals and vocals, but you’d like to stay anonymous? One could use musical softwares such as Garageband for the instrumental part. When it comes to singing, AI could also be an option, as it has already been used to make song covers using AI generated voices of popular artists. The ethics of this option are questionable, as the original artist’s voice might be used against their will and/or for malicious intents.
‘VOCALOID’ is where this problem gets solved as you get the possibility to create songs from scratch, using someone else’s voice legally, with the option of staying anonymous. In this paper, I will be researching some of the legal aspects and questions that arise with this rather abstract concept: What rights go to you and your music, and what goes back to the company who owns VOCALOID? How can you promote your music while staying anonymous? How do you organize a concert for an android idol who’s songs aren’t hers? How many companies are involved in this movement and what are their roles?

VOCALOID 101

The singing synthesizer application software ‘VOCALOID’ was developed by YAMAHA Corporation and released in January 2004. It was upgraded many times since and this first version is often referred to as ‘VOCALOID1’ or ‘V1’. As this paper will mainly be focusing on the works of VOCA producers rather than the functioning of the software itself or the changes it went through, I will use the term ‘VOCALOID’ to refer to the singing synthesizer, ‘Characters’ to refer to the mascots used for some voicebanks and ‘Vocaloids’ when talking about both these aspects as a whole. Lastly, a ‘Vocalo P’ stands for Vocaloid Producer and is a user of VOCALOID with at least one published song.

Now if you’ve never heard of VOCALOID or even the blue-haired pop star Hatsune Miku, these terms might not mean much to you. Let me explain: the software gives you the ability to create a singed tune using what is called a ‘voicebank’. Voicebanks are packages of voice samples/sounds necessary to speak and pronounce a language. These voice samples were paid for by the company and come from different singers and/or actors, which allows the user to choose between different types of voices and even languages. With other singing synthesizers like ‘UTAU’, people can even create and use their own voice samples.

Once you bought the voicebank of your choice, you are now able to tune the voice to your liking, write and create lyrics and a melody for the voice to sing, and upload it to the internet! But some questions might arise in that process. To what extent do you have rights to your song? Can you make profit from this type of music, as the songs you create are not under any label that could help with promoting? Can you promote the song using Miku’s or another Vocaloids name? If you make benefits out of this song, how much of it goes to YAMAHA, Crypton or another company?

DEFINITIONS

Some of these questions can be answered by taking a look at the ‘User License Agreement’ you must read before purchasing a VOCALOID voicebank. Here are the terms used in this agreement and the definitions found in this same contract:

‘Voice Library’: The VOCALOID Library of the purchased voicebank, including future versions, improvements, developments, programming fixes, updates and upgrades thereof.
‘Editor’: The software which performs singing voice synthesis by reference to the Voice Library, including future versions, improvements, developments, programming fixes, updates and upgrades thereof.
‘Synthesized Singing’: Any audio output produced by the user.
‘Characters’: An abstractive concept, the feature of which is embodied in pictorial copyrighted works (such as the drawings on the package of the Voice Library).
‘User’: A person who purchases this Product as a new product legitimately, regardless of whether they are an individual or a corporation.

A name, a face, a voice

One of the first things you get to know reading this User License is that the rights to use the Characters, the Voice Library and the name (of a Character or Voice Library) are different and one must go through different procedures to obtain them.

“Please be noted that this agreement provides for the use of this voice library and the synthesized singing produced by you, not for the use of characters associated with the voice library. For the use of the characters, please comply with the relevant character license agreements or guidelines. See: http://piapro.Net/en_for_creators.Html “

For example, a ‘Hatsune Miku’ voicebank is associated with its character or mascot ‘Hatsune Miku’, which is then used for music videos, games, concerts etc. that feature her Voice Library. However, ‘Section 3: additional licenses’ states that to use “products on which name(s) are credited as singer, artist , musical instrument and the like…” an additional license may be required, which may come with a license fee payment. So if you want to promote your song with a music video or cover using Miku’s face or an animated video of her, you have to purchase said additional license. Where you will need to get this license will depend on what you need, as not all VOCALOID related media are tied to the same company.

“The words "Megurine Luka" is the trademark of CRYPTON, "VOCALOID" and "VOCALO" are the trademarks of Yamaha.”

Even though this seems like a hassle to go through when you could just use your own pseudonym and illustrations, using a Vocaloid’s image, whether it be in the track’s cover, in a video or adding its name as a featured artist, is a huge benefit as there is already a solid community of fans who will then discover your song more easily.
Some Vocalo P’s nonetheless sometimes have a good enough reputation or simply do not need that and only use their own artist name and cover illustration. The earliest example of this would be the work of Susumu Hirasawa, a Japanese producer and musician, in the Satoshi Kon movie ‘Paprika’. The soundtrack of the movie features ‘LOLA', one of the first VOCALOIDs, which had never been done before. As this V1 Voice Library wasn’t as developed, it was only used for rhythmic voice loops.
More recent examples would be Hachi – now known as the singer Kenshi Yonezu –, Mikito-P – who is now a producer for himself and other artists as well as a Vocalo P –, and Crusher-P – now known as Crusher or Cien Rojas, an American songwriter, singer, producer, and illustrator.

Still, the use of Vocaloid names when talking about song credits is a huge issue within the community, as people often forget the actual producers behind each song. Saying “this song by Miku” is seen as offensive as it discredits the actual people who created this song. Wowaka’s story is an example of this. The Japanese producer decided to go back to his band ‘Hitoire’ after years of being a Vocalo P and living with the frustration that even if his songs became a hit, no one would remember it as his, but as Miku’s.

In conclusion, as stated in section 3 of this license agreement, one “may use Synthesized Singing produced by (them) for commercial or non-commercial purposes” as long as it is permitted by copyright laws or other applicable laws and regulations, and doesn’t go against any of the prohibited uses stated in the agreement. Some examples of these prohibited uses are:

  • “to publish or distribute in any manner the Synthesized Singing…”
  • “... which includes lyrics against public policy.”
  • “... which might violate the publicity or other personal rights of any third party including the original singer (voice artist) of the Voice Library.
  • “...which use Characters in violation of law or character license.” (including but not limited to visual or physical)
  • “To reproduce or duplicate any part of the Voice Library…”

For other forms of use of VOCALOID, such as commercial karaoke, ringtones, commercial audiovisual works etc. , the license agreement you will need will depend on what you want to exploit and in what commercial or non-commercial aspect. It also depends on which Vocaloid you’re interested in using, as not all Vocaloids are under the same company.

Commerciality in a peer produced community

The use of VOCALOID goes beyond making music and having its mascot on an album cover or in a music video. The biggest benefits are made through games, concerts and merchandise. But how does one set up a concert of different artists who all use Miku’s face? How do Vocalo P’s get credit for their work when it is used for live events or for video games and who organizes such big events and projects? To answer this, we have to look into the different companies related to VOCALOID.

YAMAHA

VOCALOID all started at YAMAHA, a company who went from building warplanes to motorcycles, power sports equipment, electronics and now virtual idols. They started developing this new project in 2000 and it was officially released in 2004. It only really started building its way to becoming the international phenomenon we know it as today when Crypton released Hatsune Miku in 2007. YAMAHA is thus the original developer but most VOCALOID related media are now distributed by Crypton Future Media Inc. YAMAHA still owns the rights to some original recordings, such as Meiko and Kaito’s, and official terms as mentioned in the previous section.

CRYPTON

Crypton Future Media Inc. is a japanese sound device importer and is the most active company within the VOCALOID community as they own most companies related to Vocaloids. They are the distributor of the popular Vocaloids, who are also the faces of this community: Hatsune Miku, the Kagamine twins, Megurine Luka, as well as older VOCALOIDs like Meiko and Kaito.

GAMES

They own the rhythm games series ‘Project Diva’ and spin-offs like ‘Magical Mirai’ or ‘Colorful Stage’, most under the video game company SEGA, known for the ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ video game series. These games were released on various consoles and platforms such as Playstation, Nintendo, Microsoft Windows etc. and gained so much popularity that Miku is seen as SEGA’s mascot next to Sonic.
In these games, the players need to press buttons that appear at a rhythmic and fast pace. In the background, there is often a music video of the Vocaloid performing the song you’re playing. These dances are made through use of motion capture of designated dancers. Miku’s motion capture was provided by the idol Yui Ogura from the Japanese idol group Hello!Project. The company contacts artists whose songs they want to use in their games. The same procedure is used for concerts.

CONCERTS

As Vocaloid grew in popularity in Japan, concerts were organized where a pre-animated hologram of the Characters would dance on stage, using motion capture here as well. There even are live bands and/or background dancers present at some concerts. As the community grew internationally, Crypton started organizing world tours, the most well-known is ‘Miku Expo’, a live event starring Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Vocaloids. Information on the contracts made for these events between Vocalo P’s and Crypton is hard to find as they are probably handled privately and might differ from artist to artist.

Another way of getting your song to participate at one of Crypton’s live events is through one of their contests such as the ‘Miku Expo Song Contest’, which first launched in 2015. You get a few months to apply and submit an unreleased song created in Hatsune Miku vocal software only. The winner’s song will be performed at the concert by Miku and they also get two tickets to the Miku Expo, 100.000 JPY worth of Sonicwire products and a picture with Miku on stage. The rights to the winner’s song will go to Crypton, as mentioned in the contest rules, and payment for usage rights will be made to the artist. Usage rights, as defined on www.lawinsider.com, is “the license to use or right to access (as applicable) the Product, Content and/or Documentation as set out in the applicable Product Terms.”. Which means that from then on, Crypton will still credit you on your work, but will own the rights to your song.

Non-Crypton Vocaloids, like Megpoid Gumi, who are under YAMAHA and INTERNET Corp., only participate in these more popular events as cameo appearances and often have their own live events. This happened at the Miku FES’09 in 2009, organized by Crypton, SEGA and Piapro (part of Crypton Future Media Inc.), and in 2015 at the Vocaloid Festival, organized by SBS Artech.

Other artists like Kikuo however manage to have concerts of their own, under their artist name and not the Vocaloid’s. Kikuo is even planning on coming to Brussels in February 2025. Their music is held in trust with ‘NexTone Inc.’, a Japanese copyright collective that manages, promotes and distributes music and contents, and JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers), the largest musical copyright administration society in Japan.
When looking at Kikuo’s site, most of their terms of use mention that almost all their work is free of copyright and can be used and even monetized. Fans can support the artist through donations and by going to their concerts. They are not under any agency or label.

PIAPRO

Besides concerts and games, Crypton also owns shops such as ‘Snow Miku’ in Hokkaido, ‘Sonicwire’, where you can purchase the voicebanks, and official sites for the community.
Piapro is one of them and was created to solve copyright issues since under the Japanese law code, original creators’ rights are so strictly preserved that secondary fan arts may be seen as copyright violation. As fan creations carried the VOCALOID movement for years and is to be thanked for for the growth in popularity it generated, Crypton built the site Piapro where each post made – whether it is music, lyrics, videos, illustrations or 3D models – is automatically agreed on to be non-commercial. The original poster can then create their own terms of use for their artwork as long as it, again, stays non-commercial.

Next to this, there is Crypton’s more recent software synthesizer, ‘Piapro Studio’, which from 2019 on will be their main focus as there would be no further installments with the VOCALOID program.

KARENT

Before Crypton’s independent global music label and album distributor ‘KARENT’, producers struggled to sell their music. KARENT not only covers VOCALOID songs but UTAU and non-VOCALOID songs as well. Tracks licensed under their label are held under the producers’ copyrights and can be purchased on different platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Deezer etc.

CONCLUSION

VOCALOID grew so much over the years that covering each company and group involved closely or not to it would take much more than this few pages. Most questions I had when starting my research were answered: Crypton owns most VOCALOID related media companies, which gives them almost full control over the use of VOCALOID. Additional licenses, most of which must be purchased from Crypton, are often necessary if the goal is to promote a song. The songs playing at concerts and in video games were carefully selected by the organizing company or were the winning song of a contest.
Digging deeper within this community has led me to have even more questions that seem harder to find answers to, which is bound to happen in a community where each individual would rather stay anonymous. Whether or not voice providers or Vocalo P’s get any royalties from concerts, video games etc. is still unclear. It might be that the company simply buys the usage rights from the artists.

Discovering VOCALOID at a young age, I didn’t pay much attention to any of the work made behind the scenes as it was hard for me to grasp the whole concept of a vocal android. As I learned how independent artists like Kikuo struggle more when it comes to commerciality, I now understand the importance of crediting original creators instead of putting an avatar in the spotlight, even if this means having to dig in a bit more to uncover all the people behind each creation.

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