User blog comment:Yuni skyarcabaleno2001/Introducing Vocaloid ( my experience ) pt.1/@comment-5051846-20130211170237

Serious reccomendation about introducing Vocaloid: I know what you like about them may be the anime appeal, and variety of other subtle things like colours designs and headcanons. They are fun. But lots of people have negative preconceptions about these elements of Japanese culture and things that could be mistaken for autotune. Autotune is a massive buttmonkey. A good marketing way is just to say Vocaloid is the opposite of autotune, as maybe 'it spreads a good singer's voice'.

Niches:

For people who already like anime: Show it to them first through the Vocaloid aimed at the Otaku culture. Big example: Miku. A bit risky, as she has a wide hatedom even amoung anime lovers. Gumi is a safe bet, people are unlikely to appreciate vocal quality so they will be much more likely to get hooked from a lot of catchy songs. Gumi has these and a decent voice. I am sure the majority of us got into Vocaloid first from the music, not because of the concept of the instrument appealed to us.

For an adult or technological enthusiast, interested in music: They are who you should explain the concept to first. The whole 'singing' instrument idea, resurecting lost voices, etc. Tuning, programming...the whole tech side. VY1, the professional ones, Prima, Mew if they like classy ladies. c[: Make sure you avoid anime affiltrated ones until they know if is far deeper than that.

For everyone else: You want to look serious, you don't want to give them weeaboo flashbacks. To be taken seriously, introduce it like it's an interesting instrument first, similar to the above. Then say maybe why they might like it but not from a 'they are adorable anime characters!' perspective. Don't mention Hatsune Miku unless you want to die. Mention maybe an English Vocaloid, because they  are likely to have some stereotypes against J-pop and music they can't understand. In fact, stay away from the Japanese topic at first. You have to open their minds to foreign languages first, but some people are put off by Engloid's pronounciation issues which they can't hear in languages they don't know; so you have to weight it up.

Say lots of great musical producers use them and that there are some songs they might like. In fact, you don't even have to start by explaining Vocaloid. Just say 'here is a great song' and show it to them, and hope for the best that it hits their music taste. Then you don't risk triggering any predujices. If they are interested, THEN explain the concept in a quick summary. Just to keep them safe from the misconceptions that plaque Youtube. Tell them who the producer is just like they are any other artist or band. Then maybe even allow them to find out it's a singing synthesizer for themselves. Or mention it off-handedly.


 * D A bit late now, but oh well! Good luck in the future.