Alright time for one of my more controversial posts. (LE SIGH). Today I’ll be showing you how to amass a following for your UTAU. i can them UTAU not UTAULoids because I’m autistic and weird and that’s how I prefer it.
Keep in mind this is based off my own experiences and work. I did alot of things that worked, some that didn’t. Overall this should properly give you some guidance. Just know this isn’t gospel and things can be done differently or othered. Also this tutorial is fairly expensive. I got away with it by having a few extra funds and waiting to save up overtime. This was an act of patience for me.
So for starters who am I? My name is Dioynsus Frost. Previously you may know me as the UTAU THE GAME GUY. I am the creator and voicer of Lance Lazor. Lance currently sings in Japanese, Arabic, English , and a current VCV-E bank in teh wips, Most of which with an American Accent.
So for starters. Design. Your utau can be in virtually any style you want but you should probably be careful not to rip off vocaloids. This will not affect popularity see Kasane Teto and Yokune Roku. However alot of UTAU fans which is most likely going to be your demographic (but we’ll get to that) do turn up their nose at it in my XP.
For a goood design please see this video:
As well as this thread, while I don’t agree with everything stated here it is a good place in the right direction.
Next is the voicebanks
Your UTAU should have one voicebank in your native tongue, and one or two voicebanks in Japanese. Atleast CV Japanese. CV Japanese banks are the simplest types of banks to use and very good for beginners. We’re going for popularity here so we want to reach new users who may have not heard of UTAU before. If VCCV Enghlish seem daunting! Good it might be! I suggest Rel CV english or THIS RECLIST (carinaLink2’s Ridiclous easy reclist english) for cv english. CV is a good starting point (all that matters is you have SOME sort of Enligsh Reclist), and it will help get newbies using YOUR BANKS and also alleviate stress of getting basics done.
Guess what? If you want them to use yours? They need to be able to at their skill level. CV Japanese banks are literally the most easiest to use and record so theirs no good reason not to have one.
Japanese banks are essential for any UTAU since it is most popular via Japanese songs in the west, with anime fans in the west (who may not be willing to listen to a unnatural English bank) and users in JAPAN. If Japanese users can’t use your UTAUloid your screwed.
So Japanese CV should be your first bank. Your second bank should be in the language you speak (it’ll be a lot more daunting especially if it’s chinese or korean) but you should do this so you can compose or write lyrics for original songs for it but we’ll get to that.
Secondly Market Yourself
Your bank needs an audience. UTAU isn’t nearly as popular as vocaloid or other synth engines. You need to get yourself out there. Make a twitter. Invest in covers but we’ll get to that. Commission professional art and make a website. It can even be weebly or wordpress. Just as long as it’s centered around your UTAU.
If you don’t speak Japanese invest via either upwork or fivver or some other freelance site a translation of at least the basics of what you’re UTAUloid is about for your site. For example Lance’s Japanese and Arabic pages have both Arabic and Japanese translations along side the english. Don’t use google translate. Depending on the language it could be either 50-100$ but it’s something you should invest in. You can keep the translation short and sweet for the money but it’s a good idea. If its getting pricey, make the Japanese description shorter than the english description. Since time is wordplay.
I have tried to download UTAUloids in the past that I didn’t end up using because despite being popular here in the west there terms of service were only in Japanese and I couldn’t understand them. Yes this post is originally written in English.
So here’s what you need to do. Download page, Website, Youtube Channel, Nico Nico website, and more.
The Songs
Most UTAUloids are cover artists. There is no shame in being a cover artist. But you eventually if you want to make noise and a stand will want original songs. If you go to the website fivver you can find that most online musicians will charge between 100-200$ per song. Sometimes with lyrics sometimes without. Lots of people will translate English lyrics into Japanese (sometime with vocal sometimes without) for around 100$.
You want original songs because it makes your UTAUloid stand out from the crowd. You don’t need a premier album and you certainly can start with cover songs but eventually you’ll want to move on to original music if you can. Most UTAU/SnythV users will take commissions! Original song commissions should always be something you get the rights too in writing (I have a music release form based heavily off an acting artwork release form tablet) that you can then use Distorkid or CD Baby, or Bandcamp or whatever to distribute!
MERCH and LINE STICKERS
Line is essentially Japanese skype. The difference is it requires a phone number to have an account (though there are ways around it). If you cannot afford to open up shop or make a welovefine deal what you’ll need is something akin to redbubble, tspring, or society6. You can commission art gain the copyright (i suggest finding video based or film based artwork release forms and editing them for this) and then upload the art to these sites for your UTAU.
Tspring has the best deal out of Society6 or Redbubble. It has less products then both but for a product you list that will be 30$ on Tspring, it will also be 30$ on redbubble, adn the difference is you the voicer or manager of that UTAU receive a 20-40% more mockup on teespring while the product listing price is the same. Tspring has hit or miss quality depending on where you go, but the posters, mugs, and stickers are always a finite detail.
Just have merch of your character. You are working a brand here, so treat it like one.
Your UTAUloid is a brand. Every brand has merch. You’ll need merch.
COMMERCIAL USE
You need to allow people to use your UTAU. That’s just plain common sense. If you don’t allow for easy download (try hosting on itch.io/deviantart or dropbox rather than a website that gives you pop up viruses like mediafire)
Every UTAUloid has terms of service. You’ll want yours to include commercial use. If people can’t make money from it a lot of them aren’t going to use it. If I can’t sell an album based off my songs with your UTALOID i just will use someone elses that does allow for that. It hurts to hear but it’s true.
You can make your terms of service whatever you want but what worked with lance was the following. Posters? Allowed. Cd and Records featuring his character likeness? Allowed. Advertisements of those cds and records (excluding traditional adds such as pocky or coca cola) allowed?
Everything else? Permission required.
You want people to be able to use your stuff. Just because UTAU is free doesn’t mean the market is. You want to get out there? You have to let people use your UTAU no questions asked. And if questions asked? Very little effort required on there end.
MIC QUALITY
You’ll want to follow this guide on microphones. You may not be a voice actor but if your UTAUloid sounds fuzzy and like it was recorded on an iphone good luck. Or if you have 200$ to splurge you can probably bring your laptop and rent a recording booth/studio for 1-2 hours and get a whole basic reclist done. The only issue with that is continuous recording so it breaks you on the inside a little bit.
To get your UTAU popular you must treat it like an icon, like a brand. Because otherwise no matter how much you love it it comes across expendable. This means you must keep your delegation and illustration of your UTAU to a promising degree.
Engagnement:
Your UTAU is only active as long as you arre! There are people who are predatory in the community, whether that be shitty furry users, people who wills teal your design and claim you stole theirs, or what have you. As a result of this, you need to be the one to handle all things according to your UTAU. I highly suggest a progress blog, and everything according to that, a twitter to engage with your fans, an official youtube channel just to the main UTAU you use (and I suggests 1-3 main utaus per person with my methods) and engaging with your audience that way!
Additional information:
Lemmesoftforums: Has a great threads called “I am a voice actor” and “I am an artist” where you can hire people for “voices” or, to draw full to thigh up “visual novel anime sprites” of your UTAU. Professional anime art.
Utaforum: this website has everything you need to drive a community via UTAU. So you want to spend time there outside of lurking.
VCV-E: This is a great multilingual reclist!
Utamaix: This is a website that helps convert usts and the like!
Corevideo studio pro: is a great editing software similar to imovie. That even allows after effects plug ins.
Building Lance Lazor 
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