Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24.214.82.9-20160329213055/@comment-24.214.82.9-20160403171026

I've done a bit more research and I came across this thread at VO. http://www.vocaloidotaku.net/index.php?/topic/61415-possible-decline-of-vocaloid/page__st__15 I think the thing that's really being affected here is the Japanese fandom, but vocaloid wouldn't be what it is without the Japanese fandom. Much of vocaloid's popularity, as you know, was caused by Miku, because many Japanese VocaloPs were involved in the early days of Miku's success, solidifying her status as a virtual idol/internet phenomenon. I think that stopped around the time that V3 came out and the market became over-saturated with Japanese vocaloids. It's not only the over-saturation that brought about the end of an era, but the fact that people were actually getting careers out of vocaloid. Getting a career out of vocaloid is all well and good, but it could've intimidated aspiring producers, convincing them that they needed to be a professional to be a producer, which is not the case. It seems that there are less people in the fandom that purchase the software and make covers/originals. I can't say I blame those fans, though. I just started using my first vocaloid, VY1v4, last month, and learning the basics about tuning and mixing seems really daunting. I barely have the patience to work with semi-complicated things like pitchbends. Vocaloid is supposed to be a professional piece of software, but now it's becoming a music industry of its own. That's all fine, but as a result, the software may be becoming less approachable for the types of amateurs that made the fandom thrive. Vocaloid definitely isn't declining, I think the fandom is just at a stand-still. The thing that was so special about 2007-2010 was that people were "creating" Miku's (and the other vocaloids') character. Now Miku is old news (She's still popular, though) and there are a ton of newer vocaloids on the market that the fandom didn't really have time to "get used to," so to speak. A new vocaloid today isn't as hyped as a new vocaloid was 9 years ago. Some people couldn't keep up with the new V3s and some people just stopped caring.

In conclusion, I don't think vocaloid will ever die, having made the impact that it has. I basically paraphrased some of the points that people made in the VO article, so please correct me if anything I said is incorrect. I unfortunately don't have a VO/NND account yet, so I'm pretty much a ghost in this fandom. Sorry for writing an entire essay, I hope I'm not wasting too much of anyone's time!