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KARENT (カレント) is the independent music label owned by Crypton Future Media which grants the sale of many VOCALOID related songs. It also covers non-VOCALOID songs, and only selected VOCALOIDs / UTAUs or artists can be featured. KARENT currently has over 3,000 tracks, updated rather actively, and mainly focuses on tracks sung by Hatsune Miku.

Albums, singles, or tracks licensed by KARENT are then purchasable in iTunes Japan, Amazon MP3, Hear Japan, and more.

History[]

Most VOCALOID music is sold under the KARENT music label and distributed from websites like iTunes. Prior to the site's launch, it was much more difficult for any producer to sell their music and musicians such as Supercell had to sell their works via current existing labels such as Sony. KARENT supports both English and Japanese,[1] allowing users overseas to also buy works via the site. There are hundreds of VOCALOID related works on the website and it is the main hub for most Indy musicians using VOCALOIDs. All music sold under the label's name is held under the producer's copyright. This also grants permission for the song albums to be sold at events such as The Voc@loid M@ster.

Currently, KARENT does not accept works from new artists and only established artists can sell their works via KARENT, although this may change in the future.[2]

Permissions[]

Despite being set up for the sale of VOCALOID songs, permission from the studio has to be granted by each respective Studio in order for the actual sale to occur. For example, until late May 2011, no AH-Software VOCALOIDs could be used for works sold via KARENT. Iroha (who is joint owned by Sanrio) was forbidden until late Jan 2012. Zero-G and PowerFX also gave allowance for their Vocaloids to be sold via KARENT.[3][4] Bplats and Internet Co., Ltd also allow the sale of works via the website. However, Internet Co., Ltd did not originally give permission.

The licensed songs from the album Graduation from Lie, featuring Kasane Teto, were released for music downloads from KARENT, under Crypton Future Media, as a special release. This is the first licensed release of any UTAU.[5] Currently AH-software's VOICEROID software packages do not have permission to be used with the label.

Other information[]

  • In 2010, the popular song "Magnet" was removed from sale because of the artwork. Artist Yunomi had been accused of plagiarism when it was discovered that she had traced photographs from stock images and used these works for CD albums on KARENT. Other works who had covers that were also made by the artist saw their work removed also.[6] Amongst the affected songs were popular songs like "Just be Friends" and "Spice".[7]

Promotional involvement[]

Japan Earthquake + Tsunami Support[]

During the events of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, a number of VOCALOID related donation drives were produced. Crypton Future Media joined several other companies in a donation drive, with money spent on the sales of music from Crypton Future Media's KARENT label being donated to the Japanese Red Cross.[8]

References[]

  1. link
  2. link
  3. link
  4. link
  5. Crypton Future Media Kasane Teto "Graduation from Lie" October 2, 2010
  6. VOCALOID Creativity Community Artist Yunomi accused of Plagiarism August 6, 2010
  7. link
  8. Crypton Future Media 東北地方太平洋沖地震による被災地に対する支援について (Regarding Support for the Affected Areas of the Tōhoku Region Pacific Ocean Offshore Earthquake) March 16, 2011

External links[]

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