About Lubricants
※Mr. Masakazu Idemitsu's speech doesnot appear.
Fabruary 13, 2013
Mr. Masakazu Idemitsu
Director, Nishokosan Co., Ltd.
The Latest Trend of the Music Industry
Fabruary 13, 2013
Mr. Shigeaki Saegusa
President, May Corporation Inc.
Are you familiar with “Hatsune Miku” who captures the hearts of many fans? Please share images of her performance in a concert (images shown). Hatsune Miku is said to attract 100,000 fans in Japan as well as across the world, including Germany, France, Italy, Singapore, Shanghai, New York and London.
This singing girl is a virtual humanoid character, but the back-up band artists and audience are real people. You might be surprised to witness a world unknown to our generation. Hatsune Miku is a character developed by a media company Crypton, using Yamaha Corporation’s Vocaloid singing voice synthesizer software. This software enables amateur artists to compose and perform songs by using pre-recorded female voices. As many as 300,000 such songs are said to have been composed.Making music with a computer has become the mainstream today.
Up to the 1960s, singers made contracts with record companies and they were not allowed to make and sing songs on their own. A new style of songwriting emerged in the 1970s and the so-called singer-songwriters made and sang songs freely with their own guitar. Today, music makers take a totally new approach and upload their music to YouTube or Nico Nico Douga (Smile Videos), thus they have direct access to their audience. The general public determines the value of each music piece. For example, a Korean pianist H. J. Lim made her professional debut when her video image got discovered by a director of a major record label.
The development of Vocaloid has enabled anyone to make music, without much knowledge in music. In the world of pop music, full-time composers are not required anymore. What is more, we are entering the era where even musicians are no longer needed. We can do everything at home with a computer, from composing the music to playing and recording it without a studio.
The Vocaloid software has made further advancement today and you can even change the voice quality to your liking. The music industry undergoes dramatic changes. I assume live performance accounts for about 40% of the whole, but it is very rare when it comes to performances on TV. I made up my mind to produce a musical using Vocaloid. I am not sure if it is a good idea or not, but I decided to go with the times and make a new challenge.
Till quite recently raw foodstuff from Japan were not welcomed, but today sushi is popular around the world. Likewise, cultural works spread and Japanese manga and animations are now extremely popular in other countries.
Before closing, let me encourage you to expose yourself to these latest music and cultural works. They might touch your heart and give you some business hints. I believe it is a new world worth experiencing.