HATSUNE MIKU:
THE WORLD'S FIRST
A.I. POP STAR
A lot of what has been focused on in this project is the future and the impact that Artificial Intelligence is going to have on the music industry. One thing that is happening right now which many of you may be unaware of is the fact that we already have an A.I. pop star who is a major success in Japan. That star is Hatsune Miku.
Although this will not feature in the final cut of the documentary it is still an important case study to mention and consider demonstrating where we are currently with A.I. in the industry and the potential for a similar pop star to emerge in possibly Europe or the USA and achieve global success.
Hatsune Miku is a humanoid persona voice by a singing synthesiser application developed by Crypton Future Media. Hatsune Miku is designed to be a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twin tails. She uses Yamaha Corporation’s Vocaloid 2, Vocaloid 3 and Vocaloid 4 singing synthesising technologies.
Her voice is modelled from Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita and the name comes from merging the Japanese words hatsu (sound) and miku (future).
Hatsune Miku is unquestionably a huge star in Japan, appearing on billboards, in TV commercials and even performs as a projection in sold-out concerts to thousands of fans around the world. See the video below.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
She was originally designed just to be a character on the packaging of the Vocaloid 2 software with a brief backstory which labelled her “an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost.”
Music makers swiftly started creating hundreds of thousands of original songs performed by the software, which were released on the internet and fans started creating software which added choreography to her songs.
What makes Hatsune Miku unique and powers her success is that it is completely driven by her fan base and social media. The creators, Crypton, allow Hatsune Miku-fronted songs to retain all the rights to the compositions. Many tracks which unknown users make go on to become incredibly popular and even make it into the J-Pop charts.
Crypton makes its money through selling the software, merchandise and by putting on concerts so that fans have the chance to see her live.
2009 was the year of Hatsune Miku’s first live concert using 3D hologram technology as corporations began to cash in on her rising popularity.
The biggest question we are left with now is could a similar creation ever take-off in Europe and become a major music star or is Hatsune Miku a one-of-a-kind success story?
That remains to be seen but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a digitally created, A.I. pop star, or perhaps multiple stars could become famous worldwide with enormous global success.
​
​