The Alchemists – Blog

Last weekend, I attended the Media in Transition 7 conference at MIT. While I was there, I got to hear my friend Alex Leavitt speak about an incredible phenomenon that I think we can all learn from. Well, I say “phenomenon” – because I’m not sure whether I can say “person,” or whether I have to say “character,” or something else. This phenomenon is Hatsune Miku, the world’s first virtual pop star.

Hatsune Miku isn’t a real person. She’s one of the voices of music software Vocaloid – their soprano opera singer voice. As part of their marketing, Vocaloid created a “Character Series” of voices: Hatsune Miku is the most popular of those characters. Initially, Hatsune Miku only existed as a marketing tool. Fans responded incredibly quickly, however: they began drawing Hatsune Miku fanart to create “music videos” for the songs they composed using Vocaloid.

Responding to fan demand, the creators of Vocaloid released Miku Miku Dance, a free piece of 3-d modeling software. This software – which is surprisingly advanced – allows users to create dances for 3-d modeled characters, including Hatsune Miku and the other members of the Character Series. Users can also create their own characters to animate using Miku Miku Dance.

According to Alex, the terms of service surrounding Miku Miku Dance and the Vocaloid software itself are very interesting, because they create a mixed commercial/gift economy surrounding the Vocaloid software. People must pay to buy Vocaloid software, but they are free to distribute and even sell the songs they make using it – and they may certainly use Hatsune Miku and the other “Vocaloids” (as the characters are sometimes called) to make fanworks for free distribution online.

A lot of people venturing into transmedia storytelling struggle with how much they can “let their characters go.” For example, I often hear concerns: “What if all the fans just want to write porn about the characters we’ve created? Then they’ll get associated with porn, and not with anything we want them to be associated with!”

Hatsune Miku proves that this is untrue. Oh, certainly, there’s Hatsune Miku porn out there. But despite radically opening Hatsune Miku and the other Vocaloids up to fan use – even releasing 3d models of them! – they haven’t become tainted in any way. Rather, they’ve become more and more famous – and fans are willing to follow them anywhere. Thanks to the fan community, the Vocaloids and especially Hatsune Miku have become a hit across the world, not just in Japan.

In 2009, Vocaloid figured out a way to make Hatsune Miku and her fellow Vocaloids appear in concert, using holograms. This year, they’re coming to the United States – and filling up concert halls all the way. Who would have expected a piece of voice synthesizing software to be able to do that?

Hatsune Miku in concert