Press Release: Anime Music Streaming Subscription Service “ANiUTa”

Anime music record companies cooperated and established a new company called “ANIUTA,INC.”  The new company announced and launched the worldʼs first anime music specialized paid subscription “ANiUTa” today.

ANiUTa will tap into a new market in music streaming subscription by creating a service specialized in anime music. With the rise of demand for anime and anime music concerts outside of Japan, this subscription service originating in Japan will take on the market worldwide.

The music lineup includes music from anime, game, superhero productions and vocaloid. The 100% pure content will definitely satisfy users from different generations.

ANiUTa plans to provide exclusive original services such as pre-release streaming during anime airing season and collaborations between voice actors/actresses. Services based on anime music, such as exclusive concert ticket application and exclusive merchandise online shopping will also be launched within the service.

The biggest feature of this subscription service is that users can search music from specific anime, which is an exclusive feature that can only be done through specialized anime music service. ANiUTa contains more than fifty thousand tracks while about twenty thousand tracks are released in subscription services for the first time. The service is expected to launch abroad in the end of 2017.

About ANiUTa
ANiUTa is established by the CEOs of the leading anime music makers – Shiro Sasaki from FlyingDog, Inc. and Shunji Inoue from Lantis Co., Ltd. Since the emergence of paid music subscription services such as “Apple Music,” “Google Play Music,” and “Amazon Prime Music” back in 2015, the market has grown rapidly. Witnessing anime music fans worldwide during anime music events held abroad, two companies believe that in order to satisfy anime fans, there should be a specialized service tailor made instead of having massive all-genre music platforms. The new project establishes a unique platform towards fans. This is the concept of ANiUTa – Anime music makers directly approaching fans worldwide and providing a service that satisfies their fans.

Main Anime Music (Starting with fifty thousand tracks)
Attack on Titan
Free!
Genesis of Aquarion
Girls und Panzer
K-ON!
Kantai Collection
Kira Kira☆ Pretty Cure A La Mode
Love Live!
Lucky Star
Macross Frontier
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Re:Zero ­ Starting Life in Another World
Yuri!!! on Ice

Participating Companies
FlyingDog, Inc.
Avex Pictures inc.
Frontier Works Inc.
Kadokawa Corporation
Lantis Co., Ltd
Marvelous Inc.
PONY CANYON INC.
Sunrise Music Publishing Co., Ltd.
TOEI ANIMATION MUSIC PUBLISHING CO., LTD.
TOHO CO., LTD

Press Release: Hatsune Miku Returns to North America Spring 2016

Two years after her successful Fall 2014 live concerts in Los Angeles and New York, virtual singer Hatsune Miku prepares to return to the North-American continent in Spring 2016 for “HATSUNE MIKU EXPO 2016 North America“, her longest and largest overseas tour to this date.
The HATSUNE MIKU EXPO world tour is a series of live concert events starring Hatsune Miku, the first-of-her-kind virtual artist, performing on stage through synthesized voice and CG animation. The first edition took place in Jakarta, Indonesia in May 2014, followed by Los Angeles and New York in October the same year, and Shanghai, China in June 2015. The 2016 edition of HATSUNE MIKU EXPO will begin with a series of concerts in five cities in Japan, before crossing the Pacific Ocean to perform in six more cities across North America: Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Toronto, New York.

HATSUNE MIKU EXPO 2016 North America Tour

April 23rd (Sat) in Seattle, WaMu Theater
April 30th (Sat) in San Francisco, The Warfield
May 6th (Sat) in Los Angeles, Microsoft Theater May 14th (Sat) in Dallas, The Bomb Factory
May 20th (Fri) in Toronto, Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
May 28th (Sat) in New York, Hammerstein Ballroom

HATSUNE MIKU EXPO Tickets will go on sale Friday, Nov 20th at 9am PST/ 12 noon EST

Who’s Hatsune Miku?
Hatsune Miku is a Japanese music sensation, a 16 year-old blue-haired girl with a unique voice and prodigious energy.

What makes her special is that she is not a human singer, but a virtual persona who uses a computer-generated voice and 3D graphics to perform on stage. With a repertoire entirely provided by individual creators, she is the first truly crowd-created virtual talent. But being virtual doesn’t stop her from filling up concert halls, or teaming up with major artists like Lady Gaga and Pharrell Williams!

Internationally popular, with over 2.5 million followers on Facebook, the increasing demand for concerts overseas paved the way to MIKU EXPO, a world tour that has so far taken her from Indonesia to Los Angeles, New York and Shanghai, with a memorable TV stop at the David Letterman show. Next spring she’s back for a series of live concerts in her native country of Japan, before heading to North America for even more dates, to once again meet thousands of fans eager to see her “in person”!

Press Release: Hatsune Miku to Perform on The Late Show

International sensation Hatsune Miku, the virtual idol at the forefront of Crypton Future Media‘s vocaloid software, will make her American television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS on October 8.

Hatsune Miku’s appearance on the nationally televised show will give American audiences a preview of the MIKU EXPO performance awaiting fans at L.A.’s Nokia Theater and New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom later this month. Celebrating the music, imagery, and interactive excitement of Hatsune Miku with back-to-back events in October, MIKU EXPO is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for fans to immerse themselves in the Miku World!

MIKU EXPO recently revealed its Halloween Party Area Map for the L.A. event at Los Angeles Center Studios, including a guide to vendors and limited-edition Halloween-themed merchandise.

Buzz for the New York and L.A. events has continued to build this month, with several fan-based activities and announcements.

“Sharing The World” by BIGHEAD feat. Hatsune Miku was released this month as the official theme song for the event.
iTunes

Streaming anime website Crunchyroll announced a fan video contest and a 30-minute exclusive concert video from MIKU EXPO in Indonesia.

Hatsune Miku fans can keep up with the latest news on Facebook and Twitter using hashtag #MikuExpo.

ABOUT HATSUNE MIKU EXPO

HATSUNE MIKU EXPO presents multiple activities featuring Hatsune Miku, including an artwork exhibition focused on the virtual singer and the cultural movement she inspired, fan gathering activities, and — the ultimate highlight — the Hatsune Miku concert show using cutting-edge projection technology and a live band.

LOS ANGELES – The HATSUNE MIKU live concert is hosted in Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre, with the collaborative exhibition hosted by Miku and her friends at an early Halloween party at Los Angeles Center Studios. At the exhibition, you can enjoy artwork displays, a special Halloween-themed area, and a shop where you can buy exclusive goods, including special Halloween items!

HATSUNE MIKU EXPO 2014 in Los Angeles
Live Concert Dates: October 11th & 12th
Live Concert Venue: NOKIA Theatre

NEW YORK – The HATSUNE MIKU live concert is held in New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, and the exhibition hosted in Lower East Side concept space Wallplay over a period of eleven days. The exhibition shows illustrations, videos, and more, revolving around Hatsune Miku and the theme of Universal Positivity.

HATSUNE MIKU EXPO 2014 in New York
Live Concert Dates: October 17th & 18th
Concert Venue: Hammerstein Ballroom

HATSUNE MIKU PROFILE

Hatsune Miku is a singing voice synthesizer featured in over 100,000 songs released worldwide. Popular with millions of international fans, Hatsune Miku means “The first Sound from the Future”.

With over 2 million fans on Facebook, over 100,000 released songs, 170,000 uploaded YouTube videos, and 1,000,000 artwork creations, Hatsune Miku has performed sold-out 3D concerts worldwide with performances in L.A., Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo in addition to corporate collaborations with SEGA, Toyota USA, Google and more.

SRP Concert Kickstarter

Synthesized Reality Productions, SRP, is a new live Vocaloid concert group with a dream of doing concerts all over the wold.  To do this they need some better equipment (lighting and effects) for their first concert at year’s Pacific Media Expo, PMX, in Los Angeles, California in November.  So they are asking for some help raising the funds.

SRP include former members of Vocalekt Visions, another live holographic concert team, plus other producers, musicians, animators, and artists from San Francisco and all around the world.  With all the help from Vocaloid industry professionals they have been able to line up shows internationally already.  To make these shows the best they can possible be and to start things off with a bang they are running this Kickstarter.

The reward levels are light on physical awards.  $10 gets you a shout out, $25 three custom-made phone charms, $50 you get a CD from one of SRP’s producers and DVD of the show, $100 and $200 original artwork, $300 2 CDs plus an original song, and much more at higher levels. 

Their goal is $2,500 by November 3.  So far they have six backers for only $540.  Fans of Vocaloid might want to give this a look, both for what you get from it and for helping future live concerts in the future. 

Vocaloid is a vocal synthesizing program created by Yamaha, in its third installment. A Vocaloid concert uses 3D holographic images based on the character mascots of each Vocaloid voice banks. Each Vocaloid has a unique character design, as well as a different voice type for varied ranges and styles of music.

 

Bi-Coastal Miku Concerts

Vocaloid Pop Idol Hatsune Miku will celebrate her sixth “birthday” on August 30st with a concert in Yokohama Japan. The next day, August 31st, the concert will be streamed in both New York City and Los Angeles, presented by Live Viewing Japan.  This is your chance to see the world renowned virtual idol at her best.

The concert is called “Hatsune Miku Magical Mirai.”  Vocaloid concerts consist of holographic projects of the Vocaloid with a live band.  The concert is organized by Tokyo MX and Crypton Future Media, Inc., sponsored by SEGA Corp., Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., and NicoNico.

The NYC showing will be at the Anthology Film Archives from 2pm to 4pm.  The tickets are $20.
The Los Angeles showing is at the Downtown Independent from 11am to 1pm.  Tickets are also $20.

If you have any questions, please e-mail jason@dayoproductions.com. Response could take up to one business day.

Hatsune Miku, whose name means, “first sound of the future,” is based on singing synthesizer software character and is the most popular of the Character Vocal Series software originally created by Crypton Future Media, Inc. using YAMAHA’s technology.

In Japan and worldwide, Hatsune Miku is a major phenomenon. She has appeared in numerous popular video games and music videos.

To-date, over 100,000 original songs have been written for Hatsune Miku by both fans and professional musicians and composers. The pop diva will also be team up with design house Louis Vuitton for an upcoming 3D Hatsune Miku opera, titled, The End, that will feature no human singers and is scheduled to take place at the Theatre du Chatelet Opera House in Paris on November 13th and 15th, 2013

About Live Viewing Japan:
Live Viewing Japan is a Japanese-based media distribution company focused on bringing a variety of entertainment properties to a global theater-going audience.

J-Pop Summit Festival 2013

J-Pop Summit Festival is this weekend once again.  Taking place across San Francisco’s Japantown on Saturday and Sunday July 27 and 28.  The festival celebrates Japanese music, culture, fashion, and film.  This is their 5th year with the theme of “Making Kawaii Universal.”  Good news is just about everything looks free to go enjoy as well.

Music acts appearing include Jpop singer Kylee.  A rising star in both the US and Japan.  She has been featured on the Today Show, has had music used in various commercials, work on themes for anime, and even sang for President Obama.  This is her second year at the summit.  She is performing Saturday at 2:15pm at the Pagoda Stage and will be signing autographs at the New People tent after her performance.  

Former Morning Musume star Reina Tanaka’s new band  LoVendoЯ, a four piece girl rock band, will be holding their first US concert during the weekend.  They will be playing at Pagoda Stage at 5:15pm on Saturday.  When not playing they will be at the Toyota x Studio 4℃ tent  signing autographs, doing talk events, and more.  

Takara Sake USA is bringing their J-POP Ambassador  human beat box Daichi to the event.  He will be doing a free concert on the Main Stage at Peace Plaza on Saturday at 11:30am and noon on Sunday.  He is completely self taught, can create over fifty different sounds with his voice, and can play rhythm beat and sing melody at the same time.   He we will also be at Takara’s booth doing some additional performances.  Also check out Takara’s cocktail Can Chi-hi “JPOP”.

The other big music act to see is Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.  Model from Harajuku turned singer who is Japan’s official Ambassador of Kawaii.  She is mainly focused on the fashion side of things for the weekend, but will be performing with Kylee,  LoVendoЯ, and Daichi as part of the “Make Kawaii Universal” concert on Sunday between 2pm-4pm in Union Square.

DJ Coco will be working the main stage for the weekend.  Bringing her unique style for everyone to groove too.

Other music acts through the weekend include three girl unit of VAs Sweety who play Saturday at 5pm at Pagoda Stage and will be at the Toyota x Studio 4℃ rest of the time.  CAL Raijin Taiko is a group of Taiko players from UC Berkeley’s, they play on Sunday at 2pm on Pagoda Stage.  Slime Girls is a combination of chip music and rock with a performance on Sunday at 3pm on Pagoda Stage and a meet & greet afterwards at the New People tent.  Akabane Vulgars on Strong Bypass incorporates bluesy rock guitar with soulful compelling vocals and make their return to the festival as well.  They play Saturday 4pm with their own meet and greet at the New People tent.

They will also be holding a Jpop Idol Contest on .  Everyone will be singing in Japanese, but you do not really need to know how to speak Japanese they are testing your ability to sing not pronounce words.  Grand prize is a three hour karaoke party with up to twelve of your friends from Yamasho Restaurant and Karaoke.  The judges are Kiyomi Ishii, a professional singer and manager of Yamasho, and Daichi.  You can check it out at 3pm at the Pagoda Stage.

Another contest they are holding is their 3rd annual Vocaloid Dance Contest for both solo competition (11:45am Saturday) and group competition (12:45 Sunday).  Competitors will dance to their favorite Vocaloid songs.  Judges for the contest are Florence, last year’s winner, Tiffany Fujii, 2011’s winner, and Aaron Webber, Associate Brand Manager of SEGA.  SEGA is showing off their new Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F game, the first console Vocaloid game in the west.

The event also has fashion designers  artists, and film directors plus tons of other events both days.  If you have an interests in Japanese culture and media you will find something to see here.  

10 Music Sets for your Nerdy Christmas

With Christmas coming up I thought I share some new songs to sing this season to share your love of fandom.

1. It’s a Fanboy Christmas Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 Luke Ski is a series of Christmas melodies reworked to be about various sci-fi, fantasy, and the like media.  Keep an eye on Luke’s website to see if he puts them up for free or if he releases another one this year.

2. Steampunk band The Men That Will Not be Blamed for Nothing have a Christmas album to check out. A Very Steampunk Christmas is a four track release that comes as 7″ vinly or digital download.  Album includes a different take on a Christmas Carol and punk versions of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Silent Night.

3. Star Wars Christmas by Sci-Fried and Kirby Krackle’s version Rudoph the Red Nose Reindeer both give you some rocking tunes for Christmas.

4. The 8bits of Christmas is a holiday release from 8bitpeoples with 8 chiptune artists using 8 different consoles and computers to produce 8bit versions of classic Christmas songs.  Get it and other albums for free on the 8bitpeoples website and have a chippy Christmas.

5. For some video game related songs we have  Gekkos have Christmas in Hyrule telling about Christmas in the Zelda games, Isane Ian with WOW, Christmas!  sharing how he spends Christmas and feeds his Warcraft addiction, and Pallete Swap Ninja singing about lack of Wii units in Wii Christmastime.

6. For a selection of Christmas wrock music I have found this nice little playlist.  A collection of songs that even He Who Must Not Be Named would find jolly.

7. I also have playlist for Vocaloid covers of Christmas songs and a few originals.  So enjoy some robotic cheer.

8.  There is also Homestuck for the Holidays, I have not even bothered to listen to any of it.  Cause it is Homestuck and I have no plans to find out what those kids at cons are talking about, so enjoy if you care.

9.  Nerdcore rapper Random/Mega Ran has put out a holiday album this year.  A Very Random Christmas is a banging Christmas album that is not all that geeky but is clean and fun plus it is free too, so yeah on free.  Need to check out him reading ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas giving it a more urban slant.

10. and of course  Another Creepy Christmas by Jonah Knight is on the list.  I have talked more about that one previously.

Honorable Mention goes to Bow Down to the Power of Santa from the Invader Zim Christmas Special.  It has become a traditional Christmas song at my house hold ever since it first premiered.

Try playing some of these songs at your next holiday gathering.

J-Pop Fest

The J-Pop Summit Festival is a street fair in Japantown of San Francisco that promotes  Japanese pop culture.  The festival is hosted by New People in conjunction with the Japantown Merchants Association.  This year the event will take place on August 25 & 26.

The festival brings in several music acts and bands for the weekend.  Both from Japan and the US.  They will all be preforming at the Peace Plaza of Japantown and are free to all.

The music starts at 11:30am at with SpaceKraft.  A elecronica music duo featuring dancers from Earth Child Ankokuh Butoh Cell.
At 12:15 The Glowing Stars, a chiptune band, takes the stage.  This group is one guitarist/vocalist, a drummer Game Boy, and a synth programmer to combine 8-bit sounds with live drums and guitars.They will be doing a signing at the New People tent at 12:45.

Random Encounters, not the same thing as the band Random Encounter, plays at 1:30pm.  This group makes show-tune inspired comedic numbers based on video games.  They have gotten the attention of Nintendo, Namco, Sega, and more.

3:45pm has the Jrock band Akabane Vulgars playing their first ever West Coast show.  This trio of girls hail from Japan with a bluesy-rock style.  They will also be doing a signing at 4:40 New People tent.

Vocalekt Visions will be doing one of their Vocaloid holographic concerts as well.  Using HD projectors to bring life to the Vocaloid singers.  Several Vocaloid dancers from the area will be joining them on stage as well.  The who is at the New People Cinema at 7:30pm and 9pm.  Tickets for this is $15 though, seating is limited.

On Sunday at 11am the Bay Area Girls will be up.  They are an all-girl rock band on 12 and 13 year olds.  Starting at a school talent show, these girls have started to play some notable gigs already. Signing at 11:30am.

At 11:45 All Ages takes the stage.  A San Francisco based rock band inspired by Jrock who have gotten to play in Japan with some top acts there like the Pillows and Red Bacteria Vacuum.  Signing at 12:15.

Vex Mode a DJ and video game music producer plays at 12:30.  He will bring remixes  of Jcore to the festival to rock out to.  His signing is at 1pm.

Capital performs at 1:30pm.  Capital has a MA in Jpop music research, been on over 20 albums of various genres, has had performances broadcast on TV in Japan, and has toured internationally.  You can get his autograph at 2:15pm.

At 3:45 18 year old Jpop singer and songwriter Kylee will performer.  She is a rising star in both the US and Japan.  She has been featured on the Today Show, music used in commercials, and even sang for President Obama.  She’s kind of the headliner of the weekend.  She will be doing signings in the New People store at 5pm.

The festival close out with DJ REViSE and DJ Amaya playing at 5pm.  Revise is an American who collaborates with Japanese Hardcore artists, appearing on tracks with various artists and playing festivals in Japan.  Amaya has been producing original tracks and remixes since 2002.  He has down a number of well known remixes of various Japanese supserstars and pop idols plus Vocaloid music too.  He has his own podcast, Hitsuzen Radio, that plays the best in Japanese remixes and dance music.

There are other things at the show as well. Various fashion shows, contests, and booths with designers from Japan.  Special Evangellion interactive game, a museum original concept and production art, a stamp rally, and showings of the latest movies.  Rome Kanda a Japanese media personality.  Food trucks, arts and craft vendors, art exhibits, a dance contest, and more.  Check out the website to see what all is going down.  http://www.j-pop.com/2012/

Hastune Miku “Live” Performance at Camera 3

This Saturday May 26th at 10pm there will be a “live” Hatsune Miku performance during Fanime Con in San Jose at Camera 3 Cinema brought to you by Vocalekt Visions. This will be a one time performance of the 3D virtual Japanese idol.  This will be the first chance to buy the new CD “V4” Vocalekt Visions Vocaloid Vacation. 

For those who do not know, Vocaloid is a music/singing software from Japan that can be used to create original songs or redo other songs.  Each version of Vocaloid has a different voice database.  Each voice is personified as a different character.  The most popular, and original one, is Miku.

Vocalek Visions is a group of world wide Vocaloid producers (the term for one who writes songs with Vocaloid) formed in 2011.  They are becoming one of the most active Vocaloid groups outside of Japan.   The founders of the group  Tempo-P and NeutrinoP will be at this event.

Their shows do not just include their original music, but by using their own AniMiku software are able to produce a Hatsune Miku hologram that performs along with the music live.  Well not live live, but you get the point.

Tickets for the event are $15 ($12 with Fanime badge) at the door.  They are going to try and get pre order up before in hand.  Glowsticks will be sold there.

For those like me who can’t make it out there, let us hope they work it out for a live video feed of the event.  If they get it to work it will be available on the Vocalekt Visions Facebook Page.

On the same day at Otaku Festival in Bucharest, Romania other members of Vocalekt Visions will be doing a concert over there as well.

Check out VocalektVisions for more information.