Editor's Note: With Facebook officially renamed Meta, the concept of metaversity quickly entered the public eye, and virtual idols immediately attracted the attention of many people. In 2021, many typical virtual idols have risen in China, and this article sorts out the top ten most representative virtual idols at home and abroad in 2021. Let's take a look.
After experiencing the collapse of a number of idols, virtual idols have gained unprecedented market attention.
2020 is known as the "first year of virtual idols", Ai Media Consulting data shows that after experiencing a growth rate of more than 50% for three consecutive years, the core market size of China's virtual idols will reach 3.46 billion yuan in 2020, driving the surrounding market size to 64.56 billion yuan.
Both sets of data are expected to grow by 70% in 2021, reaching 6.22 billion yuan and 107.49 billion yuan respectively.
For now, it seems that this growth rate may still be conservative.
In 2021, with the promotion of meta-universe infrastructure and the frequent emergence of explosive cases, virtual idols have also ushered in a new wave of development climax, attracting many music companies to enter the game.
In this context, we have sorted out the top ten most representative virtual idols at home and abroad in 2021, and from them, we can more or less glimpse the diversified development trend of this track. As a major player in the virtual idol industry, the layout logic of music giants is also looming in it.
First, Plume
On January 19, 2021, the virtual idol Ling, jointly created by Mofa Technology and the second world culture, appeared on the stage of "Go Online, Colorful Youth", and performed Mei Lanfang's masterpiece "Tiannu Scattered Flowers" on the spot with the voice of the third generation of Peking Opera Meipai, thus becoming the first virtual idol to appear on the CCTV stage.
Created by Mofa Technology and The Second World Culture, Ling officially debuted on May 18, 2020.
The content released on social platforms involves qinqi calligraphy and painting, Meilan zhuju, all of which create a "sense of national style of science and technology", which is unique among virtual idols.
With the blessing of Mofa Technology's original intelligent virtual content production technology and virtual character real-time interaction technology, the plume in live broadcast and video has achieved cross-dimensionality, narrowing the distance with the audience.
In 2021, virtual idols have sprung up, on the contrary, more and more realistic artists have surprised fans because of the "collapse".
At the beginning of the year, the debut of this virtual idol on the CCTV stage interpreted the national style culture in a virtual form, which not only opened up the boundary between virtual and reality, but also showed the power of deep integration of technology and culture.
The new trend of positive energy, heritage and inheritance led by such idols provides a new choice of "never collapsing" in addition to realistic artists.
One-sentence comment: Grasp the quasi-national wind boom, and successfully differentiate out of the circle.
2. Luo Tianyi
In 2018, someone asked Zhihu, "Will Luo Tianyi be invited to the Spring Festival Gala", and most of the comments at that time were not optimistic.
On February 12, 2021, 9 years after his debut, Luo Tianyi took to the stage of the Spring Festival Gala and performed the children's song and dance "Listen to Me" with Sister Moon and Wang Yuan, and the virtual idol finally won a place in the mainstream.
Luo Tianyi has a high degree of fan stickiness, thanks to the emotional connection it has established with countless fans.
Behind it is a huge fandom, and through the VOCALOID speech synthesis engine, everyone can give Luo Tianyi an image or story.
At present, Luo Tianyi has tens of thousands of works, the vast majority of which are submitted by his fans and musicians.
Through self-expression through virtual idols, fans and Luo Tianyi have established a far more intimate relationship than between real idols and fans.
Perhaps, more and more virtual idols are emerging, not just squeezing the living space of musicians.
Some singers have made their debut in the form of virtual idols, some artists have reached a wider audience group by cooperating with virtual idols, and the emergence of Luo Tianyi has become an opportunity for thousands of grassroots musicians to some extent.
These creators who give virtual idols a "soul" have more possibilities to be heard and seen behind the scenes.
One-sentence comment: From the "shadow" of Hatsune's future to being given meaning by fans, Luo Tianyi's counterattack is unique.
3. AYAYI
On May 20, 2021, AYAYI officially debuted in Xiaohongshu with a personal image picture, and quickly became popular on major social platforms.
After its debut, AYAYI not only reached cooperation with luxury brands such as Guerlain and LV, but also was invited to participate in offline activities at Disney, Universal Studios, and Kongshanji, and even joined Ali.
Some media estimate that its value has reached 600 million.
AYAYI, who debuted on May 20, 2021, is the first MetaHuman (hyper-realistic digital person) built on Unreal Engine in China, and she has a more realistic avatar than other virtual idols.
In terms of skin texture, AYAYI has achieved high-intensity restoration of real people, and can make corresponding simulations and renderings according to different light and shadow conditions.
At first, she debuted as an image with light and shadow, and there was a lot of discussion about whether she was a real person.
Of course, debuting with a "divine face" is far from enough, and what really makes AYAYI out of the circle is the real personage carefully created by the "Burning Wheat Technology" team behind it.
On the basis of the avatar, they created a complete background setting, logic and values for AYAYI.
Moving between the virtual and the real, AYAYI's "real" human design enhances its content space.
In the middle of the year, AYAYI also signed a contract with No Problem, a virtual artist label under Modern Sky and Wanxiang Culture, to carry out in-depth strategic cooperation for digital music performance scenes, and look forward to seeing her music stage in the near future.
A word comment: "Shen Yan" debuted, people set out of the circle, music, fashion resources to catch?
四、A-SOUL
In June 2021, ByteDance acquired the art copyright company of Lok Wah Entertainment's virtual idol girl group A-SOUL.
On July 19, ByteDance officially joined Lehua Entertainment and A-SOUL officially joined ByteDance.
This virtual idol girl group began to be the limelight last year, the group members "Xiang Wan" earned 1.25 million yuan in the birthday live broadcast, and in the live broadcast of the first anniversary of their debut, they also performed the song "The World of Legends" tailored for them by Fang Wenshan and Xu Song, and the live broadcast hits 12 million.
A-SOUL, which debuted on December 2, 2020, is a virtual girl group created by Lehua Entertainment, and at the beginning of its debut, due to Vtuber's resistance to the star-making industrial system, it was once known as the "Shame of National V".
However, the full 3D real-time motion capture technology support of the house dance "unique" and the generous performance in the live broadcast quickly impressed a group of second-dimensional senior players, and A-SOUL also changed from "the shame of national V" to "the light of national V".
The A-SOUL, which was developed by Byte and operated by Lehua Entertainment, played a beautiful turnaround, but Byte was by no means just the potential of A-SOUL.
Investing in Lehua Entertainment, ByteDance, which has played the combination of "music distribution + music promotion" at home and abroad, has long been satisfied with the identity of the "diverter" of music streaming.
Byte, which has stirred up industrial change with a huge user base and unique ideas, is trying to grasp the incremental market of potential musicians and build its own content ecology.
One sentence comment: from "the shame of national V" to "the light of national V", a microcosm of ByteDance's musical dream.
五、K/DA
On July 31, riot games giant Riot's newly established music label Riot Games Music ushered in a good news - the virtual girl group K/DA won the Gold Record Certification of the Recording Industry Association of America with the single "POP/STARS", making K/DA the first virtual idol group to win this award.
K/DA officially debuted at the "League of Legends" Global Finals on November 3, 2018, this virtual idol girl group composed entirely of "League of Legends" characters is known for its strong business capabilities, and its singles "Pop/Stars" and "The Baddest" have been widely praised worldwide.
According to Nielsen Music, Pop/Stars ranked 10th on the Billboard Pop Digital Music Sales Chart and No. 1 on the Apple Music K-Pop Chart in its first week.
With the rise of virtual idols, its rapid development has diluted the freshness of the audience, and the public's requirements for the business capabilities of virtual idols have also risen.
K/DA has fired the first shot of virtual idols entering the mainstream music charts, and it is believed that more and more virtual idols will win music awards that were once exclusive to real artists in the future.
One-sentence comment: Games and music are not separated, K/DA competes with real idols for jobs.
Sixth, Pentakill
On September 9, 2021, Riot and virtual performance platform Wave created an interactive album experience concert called "Lost Chapter" for its virtual heavy metal band Pentakill.
The concert tells the story of a group of demons fighting each other, and not only can Pentakill cast magic, but the audience can also help the band defeat the boss as they did in the game.
Born on June 3, 2014, Pentakill has been a little quiet for the past two years, and this unique interactive concert has once again brought it back to the public eye.
As an important part of Riot's "game universe," Pentakill has demonstrated the unique advantages of game companies like Riot when it comes to entering the music industry.
As Tantula, creative director at Riot Games, puts it, there is "huge overlap" between esports and the music industry.
At present, many musicians have chosen to integrate their works into the game ecology, promote songs in games, and apply virtual reality and real-time rendering technology, which also makes the virtual performances created by the game engine more attractive.
At the dawn of the metaverse, Pentakill, standing at the intersection of e-sports and the music industry, may be able to help game companies get a piece of the music industry as soon as possible.
One sentence comment: Virtual idols play bands, or play heavy metal, it sounds cool enough.
Seven, ha sauce
On September 29, 2021, Warner Music's first Asian electronic music label, Wheet Records, signed a contract with Chinese virtual idol Ha Sauce with the single "MISS WHO".
It is reported that the music composition of this single comes from Warner Music, and the technology support comes from Microsoft, and the song has been collected by more than 10,000 people on NetEase Cloud Music.
In 2019, the harbin sauce launched by Harbin Beer has been stirring up trouble in the Z generation circle, performing in the opening show of the LPL final, endorsing young brands, selling debut commemorative posters in NFT form, and even debut songs showing a strong youthful attitude.
Ha Sauce takes young people as the incision, leads the pioneer culture, and builds the unique charm of the young generation of trendy spiritual idols.
Ha Sauce's signing with Warner Music occurred in the context of the three major record companies accelerating their strategic layout in China in 2021.
In fact, the three major markets not only value the broad potential of China's seventh largest music market, but also make the choice of "sinking" in various emerging markets and fields in the context of the gradual erosion of market share.
Can the three major record companies that absorb young forces in various emerging markets find new development opportunities in Harbin Sauce?
One sentence comment: When the three major records all start to sign virtual idols, this is undoubtedly a signal.
Aespa
On October 5, 2021, SM's new generation girl group Aespa released its first mini album "Savage", which reached the 20th place in Billboard's two main charts "Billboard 200" and "Artist 100", setting a record for K-POP's debut album.
It should be noted that aespa is not a virtual idol group in the strict sense, but a hybrid compilation of four members + their respective avatars.
The structure of almost every aepa work is similar to a movie story, between virtual and real, SM has developed a story line that can spread indefinitely, and pioneered the idol operation mode of combining live idols and virtual idols and growing together.
AESPA's vision of the SM Cultural Universe (SMCU) has attracted worldwide attention.
In recent years, SM has been trying to establish a story-based, closer and unique connection with fans outside of music through SMCU, and the creation of fans will also be an important part of this connection.
Aespa, which is highly malleable and creative, is the first stop to build an SMCU.
But it is not easy to connect all the unique artists under it to create a huge cultural universe, the market has changed drastically, and in order to seize the new growth point of the idol industry, SM also has to fight.
One sentence comment: The vanguard of the SM cultural universe.
IX. Liu Yexi
On October 31, 2021, Liu Yexi uploaded his first work on Douyin, which rose to millions of fans overnight.
At present, Liu Yexi has uploaded 6 short videos, sitting on more than 8 million fans, and its topic has been played 840 million times.
Liu Yexi is one of the most popular virtual idols in China this year, and its popularity is inseparable from the "exquisite craftsmanship" of the technical team behind it.
In terms of image, Liu Yexi's makeup and hair are full of oriental elements, willow eyebrows, petal lips, borrowing from the Tang Dynasty's "makeup", modern beauty and classical culture collide with Liu Yexi's face to create a wonderful chemical reaction.
In terms of the background of the characters, the team behind them is even more "painstaking".
In just two minutes of video, not only the film-like texture of the picture and high-quality special effects shots are used, but also interspersed with sci-fi elements such as traveling through time and space, exchanging souls, and infinite loops, creating emotional resonance through short and concise warm stories, so as to achieve the detonation effect.
Liu Yexi's popularity is no accident, the virtual idol industry is in a big wave, which puts forward a huge test for the virtual idol itself and the team, only enough attraction points, the idol can stand for a long time.
One-sentence comment: The texture of the movie creates a short video, and the appearance of Liu Yexi is a "dimensionality reduction blow".
10. KINGSHIP
On November 11, 2021, Universal Music announced its label 10:
22pm launched the virtual idol group KINGSHIP, with four members from the popular NFT product, the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
It is reported that around KINGSHIP, Universal Music will launch a series of exclusive events and related NFT products in the future, and the holders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club will receive the right of first refusal.
With the popularity of virtual idols, NFTs, and online concerts, giants from all sides have entered, and the cross-border integration of these three has also become a new explosive point.
Today, Universal Music's label launches KINGSHIP in the form of NFT+ virtual idols, which undoubtedly expands the connotation of the metacosmity - the metacosm is not a simple technical accumulation, but may be an organic combination of future elements.
In the new operational thinking, virtual idols and NFTs have further stimulated each other's value, providing a reference for the business model of the music industry in the meta-universe.
With the launch of more and more "KINGSHIP", it is believed that the industrial disruption and market potential brought about by the construction of meta-universe related technologies will be further developed, and more and more growth poles will be discovered outside the "stock market" of the music industry.
One-sentence review: NFT+ virtual idol, what can be left after the wind has passed?
11. Conclusion
From disorderly growth to the mainstream gradually accepted, the development of virtual idols has a deeper meaning - with the maturity of the industry, the public's demand for virtual idols is approaching the real idol.
In this context, virtual idols began to pay attention to the creation of business levels, logic and values in addition to image and personality.
At present, the virtual idol market presents a posture of "a hundred flowers blooming", and rapidly breaks through in terms of technology and operational ideas, and it is worth looking forward to what kind of development trend these "never collapse" artists will usher in in 2022.
Author: Lu Xiuxiu; WeChat public account: Music Pioneer
This article was originally published by @Music Simcere on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
The title image is from pexels, based on the CC0 protocol.