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vocaloid isn't made to be popular. it's made to be sustainable. metrics like popularity or revenue for vocaloid aren't particularly telling since, well, vocaloid doesn't have centralized marketing if much 'marketing' at all, it's just a community of independent online artists
i feel as if people forget that most franchises developed by studios or single authors rely on announcements like trailers or updates by the creator(s) that are functions of PR to generate 'hype' surrounding the release of works/products
trying to say that voca is 'dead' because it's not 'popular anymore' is kind of missing the point of voca entirely? it literally does not fundamentally function like the overwhelming majority of franchises do. it's not a strictly owned IP
"popularity" matters for other works because they need to financially profit to like...exist at all. production through the mainstream film, game, and music industries need to make their money back and are subject to standards and executives, vocaloid just. isn't
people make vocaloid music and art simply because they want to, and people enjoy vocaloid music and art simply because they want to. in that aspect, it's fandom-- people make fanart, cosplay, write fanfiction-- all simply because they Like The Thing and Want To Do It
vocaloid just differs in that the "fandom" IS its "production studio." there's no hard line between "the industry" and "the consumer audience." it's a complete inversion of traditional capitalist models of production. it's decentralized, ideas of 'ownership' are abstracted.
vocaloid's success isn't about its popularity, it's about its ability to establish and uphold an independent online music industry that distributes its resources evenly and fairly
hell, even vocaloid itself blurring the line between "a single franchise" and "a whole industry" its a major way it challenges traditional industrial models. like, films come and go, but the film industry sustains itself? songs come and go, but vocaloid isn't going anywhere
also don't blame social media algorithms as if they're the sole reason you "can't find" vocaloid music anymore. one of the main reasons people could find voca music was because UNAUTHORIZED REPOSTING was a norm, that is FOR GOOD REASON dying out.
hot take maybe, but rampant unauthorized reposting in a community full of independent nonprofessionals and hobbyists shouldn't be encouraged. many vocaproducers now HAVE official YT accts, so stop with the reposts and watch official uploads.
cant find the producer/song youre looking for? check the vocaloid wiki, vocadb, the community has a PLETHORA of resource sites. use them.
and i'm not saying you have to be a hardcore voca fan either and understand how every single minute detail of the entire phenomenon, it's FINE if you have like 2 voca songs on your phone and that's the extent you interact with voca
if vocaloid's dead to you for some reason, then fine, there are plenty of things in the world to fall in love with instead, by all means interact more with something that makes you happy and interests you
hell, even WITHIN the voca community, you can find something you like while ignoring all the stuff you don't. don't like metal music? then don't listen to the stuff made by metal-genre producers, there are tens of thousands of songs in the other genres/topics you prefer
the way people interact with vocaloid has changed, the whole internet has changed over the past decade. the "japanese side" of the internet isnt like, borderline impossible to find anymore. we dont need to reprint their content anymore (as if we ever 'needed' to)
instead of punching "miku songs" into YT and watching the first page of results, my advice to people looking to find more vocaloid music are to use a variety of sites and resources. vocaloid is decentralized, you can't rely on a single place to get a full experience.
listen to the Project Diva song listings. listen to concert setlists. look up the VOCALOID Hall of Myth/Legend/Fame listings. find producers you like and listen to their whole discographies. check vocaDB daily/weekly and check out the noteworthy front-page works.
follow producers on social media, they hype each others works a lot, so you can find producers through other producers. follow @/30_voca_music, which is a bot that posts 30 seconds of a random vocaloid song every hour of every day. watch this guide:
my personal favorite resource is vocaDB. it lists 100+ genres and over 260,000 vocaloid songs and counting, and is EXTREMELY active. the most recent update, as of making this tweet, was made "0 minutes ago." go find something you like.
and i mean...at the end of the day, who really cares whether or not something is popular or not. fandoms arent ranked, its not a popularity contest. if you like vocaloid, if it means something personal to you, it's alive to you, vocaloid's alive, and that's important.
