Hatsune Miku is playing Coachella, but shes not human. Why brands are working with digital avatars
Artificial Intelligence,Jobs, Labor & Workplace,Coachella
Wendy Lee April 12, 2024
On Friday
morning
, Hatsune Miku perform
s
songs on her biggest stage yet Coachella.
The turquoise-haired Japanese icon has been touring North America, singing to thousands of fans in large concert venues. She’s inked
branding
deals over the years with
companiesbrands
including Google Chrome. And on Friday, she’s expected to thrill her followers at one of the
world’s
biggest music festivals on the same day as Lana Del Rey and the Deftones.
But Miku is not human.
She’s a totally digital creation, like an online avatar or mascot. Ryan: tweaked this a little She’s musicHer music mostly synthesizer-heavy dance pop is created from software developed by the Sapporo, Japan-based technology company Crypton Future Media. The technology lets people, including fans, type in lyrics and punch in a melody. and The program software generates a singing voice for the song. Her music is written by fans and Crypton then licenses the songs from the fans for her to sing at concerts. Miku herself is an illustrated character, resembling a 16-year-old girl from an anime or manga. To “perform” onstage, Miku’s image is
on a giant screen as a video behind a live band of four live musicians on guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.
Unlike the “hologram” performances of
deceased
celebrity artists
(think Tupac and Roy Orbison)
that took the music industry by storm a few years ago, virtual artists aren’t simply re-creations they’re avatars performing original music.
As it would be for a local indie rock artist,
l
anding
a spot at
Coachella is a significant milestone for Miku. And her human creators.
One of the people from Crypton who will be there at Miku’s performance at the festival’s Mojave tent is Riki Tsuji, a member of the company’s global business team.”I’m not going to be on stage, but we’ll see,”said Riki Tsuji, a member of Crypton’s global business team.
“I’ve never been to Coachella, so I have no idea what kind
of people are going there, what the crowds are gonna be like,” said Tsuji, who is traveling with Miku on tour. “B
ut we’ll be putting together a show that hopefully they won’t forget.”
Hatsune Miku is part of
an expanding groupgrowing number
of digital, non-human performers that are
harnessing attracting
the attention of brands and
musiclegions of
fans.
Unlike human artists, non-human digital influencers have more flexibility in their travel schedules, how they appear and what they can do.
They’ve generated fans from younger generations
of audiences
that brands are eager to attract
and understand
the kinds of kids who spend two to three hours a day on average on
and Roblox and are thus comfortable interacting with digital characters and online worlds.For example, One
non-human
digital influencer, named Miquela,
boastsalready has
2.6 million followers on Instagram
was named one of Time magazine’s
on the Internet in 2018
and has done commercials for Calvin Klein and BMW. She’s represented by major Hollywood talent
firm
Creative Artists Agency,
best known for working withwhich represents
A-listers including Brad Pitt
and
Viola Davis
and Scarlett Johansson
.
“There’s a new paradigm in terms of the digital world and the digital landscape,” said Phil Quist, a music and emerging technology agent at CAA
, adding that kids are spending 2 to 3 hours a day on average on
and
Roblox. “When you think about what that looks like moving forward, those kids are going to be so used to being in those realms that a lot of their entertainment is going to come from that space as well.”
How much money a nonhuman
virtual artist can earn
varies widely.can vary
,
anywhere from $1,000 to close Gigs, ranging from social media posts to live performances, can generate up to nearly seven figuresfor work that ranges from social media posts to live performances
, Quist said.
“It ranges, but it’s very commensurate in terms of the following and engagement,” Quist said. “I think it can be comparable to ‘traditional talent’ in terms of what those deals look like.”
Coachella is in addition to a string of performances In addition to her Coachella appearance, Miku is doing on herputting on a
North America
n
tour, which includes 21 concerts in 17 cities. Initially, Miku announced 17 performances
in September
,
but in a couple of days 90% of the venues were filled, so but the tour expanded due to because of demand
, Tsuji said.
It is unclear how many people will attend her performance at Coachella. Goldenvoice, the company behind the music festival, did not return a request for comment. Miku will be playing at the Mojave tent and is expected to perform her new
, “Intergalactic Bound” and some of her classic hits (which Tsuji declined to reveal to not spoil the experience for fans).Which tent is she playing? How can we describe this music? Chirpy electronic dance music? “To be frank, I think our fans love to avoid spoilers, they like to go in blind, so I think I’ll refrain from spoiling that for them,” Tsuji said.
Miku began as a
singing voice synthesizer (a.k.a. , a “vocaloid”)vocaloid
in 2007
and has become an inspiration for fans who have used her voice to create music. Her name means the first sound from the future, and her fandom expands generations, Tsuji said
.
She has been featured inHer voice has been used in
released songs.
“She’s very much a vessel for people to kind of express themselves and come together as a community,” Tsuji said. “It’s not just an artist-listener relationship. Each listener could also be an artist in this community.”
Maybe we can somehow preview or address any controversy surrounding this here, because a lot of readers are going to think this is super weird! might be seen as wild to back virtual artists when regular ones are struggling. kind of dovetails with the AI issues. But the growth of digital, non -human influencers comes at a time when actual human performers are worried about how digitization and automation through artificial intelligence could impact future work. The cost of creating a digital avatar could become cheaper as technology evolves. Human influencers could find themselves competing for the same brand deals as nonhuman ones.
The fandom surrounding digital artists
can rival that ofbe just as passionate as the buzz surrounding
human musicians. During Austin’s
film festival
South by Southwest festival in 2022, fans uploaded videos from a concert by digital music artist
A a
ngelbaby,
and knew the words to his singing along to
the songs.
“Everyone was raving about it,” CAA’s Quist said. Angelbaby’s label, Angelbaby, a computer-generated humanoid rapping rabbit, is owned and operated by Hume, an L.A.-based metaverse tech and music company, which is now
represented by CAA.
The Century City-based talent agency represents music artists including Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga and Beyonc.Quist said it didn’t give him pause that Angelbaby isn’t human or that he’s a rabbit made from computer generated graphics with leopard print fur. His Angelbaby’s
single, “life is good,”
which was released in November
, hit more than 4 million streams on Spotify.
“At the end of the day, if the music wasn’t good for those artists, people would potentially point fingers and laugh,” Quist said. Looking at
A a
ngelbaby, “you could tell that people were so engaged and enamored by the performance
… and as somebody who works with artists, that’s what you strive for in terms of that sort of love and engagement from those fans
.”
Similar to other iconic characters like Disney’s Mickey Mouse, there are talented teams behind non-human digital talent, who also have back stories that their fans follow.
The idea behind
A a
ngelbaby came from
Hume co-founders
David Beiner and Jay Stolar
, who co-founded Hume, an L.A.-based music label for virtual artists
. Stolar is a songwriter and producer who has worked with
human music
performers including Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato.
Hume created a backstory for a
A
ngelbaby, a seven-foot rabbit from the year 3045,
who is coping with losinglost
the love of his life
and is coping with it
.
Grammy winning producer Gino The Ghost and human music artists including boy band
, have collaborated with Angelbaby has appeared on recordings with Grammy-winning producer Gino the Ghost and human music artists including boy band
, have collaborated with.
The rabbit’s fans lean male and are in their 20
‘
s into their early 30
‘
s, Beiner said.
One follower even sent Angelbaby a digital painting of a desert.
“I think on the emotional level if you do it right, people like to feel like they’re part of a fantasy,” Beiner said. “People have always liked to escape.”
Much of the work for virtual artists comes from partnerships with brands,
who could help businesses who want to tap the performers’reach their
younger, digitally savvy followers.
“At the end of the day, a lot of these brands are looking for eyeballs and they want to maximize that reach,” Quist said. So if they know that a virtual, more engaged and larger audience is there, they’re going to gravitate towards that and they can make it authentic.””They generally have higher engagement because they can cross different mediums and tell the same story and have it be authentic in its own way, and never changing,” Quist said. “The transmedia aspect is something that they love. They love being able to mold the campaign how they want and it makes it a lot easier.”
For example, Miquela
whose character is a socially conscious digital influencer from Downey
was
featured
in a commercial for BMW
‘s
iX2 electric vehicle.
She’s a non-human, socially conscious digital influencer from Downey who cares about issues including LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice and sustainability.
The bulk of Miquela’s fans are under 35
, many who are part of Generation Z
.
“When you think about the BMW vehicle that came out
,
that’s 100% electric,” said Ridhima Ahuja Kahn,
vice president of business development and strategic initiatives
at Dapper Labs,
the company behind Miquela
. “That was something that was really compelling to her because it tied in with a lot of her goals around sustainability.”
Investors are also backing the companies that are building the non-human digital talent, which have raised millions of dollars in funding.
But like human influencers, there can also be some controversy surrounding digital ones.
Miquela’s ad with Calvin Klein showed her kissing model Bella Hadid, which some people online criticized as queer-baiting. Calvin Klein later said, “We sincerely regret any offense we caused.” Dapper Labs said it stands by the direction of the ad, which was to support all different types of backgrounds, genders and preferences.
“With virtual influencers, even they have drama too, just like any real-life influencer,”
Ahuja
Kahn said.
“The way that we thought about the Calvin Klein ad was really in a way to support all different types of backgrounds and genders and preferences and the creative team believed that this was the direction we should go in and we continue to stand by that direction,” Kahn said.Miquela’s vlog about getting
inside a ride share also raised eyebrows among some viewers. Kahn said that Miquela addresses these issues because they relate to what some of her fans are going through, and when they direct message Miquela, she sends them resources related to the topic.There are also
Many people
worry thatwho are worried
digital
, non-human
talent could take away human jobs. Last summer, writers and actors went on strike in part for more protections against the use of artificial intelligence.
“Anyone in the entertainment industry at large is very cognizant that a human resource of being on camera or being filmed or even writing a script or even editing a movie is being absorbed by what AI and technology can do,” said Elsa Ramo, a managing partner at Ramo Law PC.
“There isn’t a clear measurement for digital characters eclipsing jobs for humans that would otherwise be hired, but it feels that’s an inevitable trend of particularly things like models in a catalog or extras in a movie that can be populated by digital characters, that there may be less and less availability and necessity to hire humans for those jobs and roles,” Ramo said.
But supporters of
digital,
nonhuman talent
,
say that the work can lead to more innovation, and, ultimately, jobs for the people who build the non-human influencers, although they acknowledge that AI will lead to more efficiency, which in turn will impact other jobs.
Ilian Gazut created Zlu, a blue alien model represented by management firm IMG Models who has done work for fashion designers like Karl Lagerfeld. Gazut said that Zlu’s movements are based on his movements.
“There is always a human behind it,” Gazut said. “So in my case, I didn’t have a job and thanks to him, I have a job.”
For now,
The world of digital, non
–
human influencers continue to evolve. Miquela, who made her first post in 2016,
now has 2.6 million followers on Instagram. She was originally conceived as being perpetually
19, but recently,
the character made the jump todecided on an upgrade to experience life in
her 20
‘
s. And prospective schools are noticing.
“There are a few colleges who have reached out to us, so she’s looking at those and currently thinking about what the right fit for her would be and if college makes sense,”
Ahuja
Kahn said. “She’s been exploring what that path would look like for her.”
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