VOCALOID What do you think the future holds for Vocaloid itself, now that we have finally reached the end of 2020? What would you like to see?

[peaches2217]

I don't buy the argument that it's not financially viable to reduce the price of the VB's. Most of them are years old and have made 90% of all the profit they would ever make unless something is done to reinvigorate sales. Then they might be able to squeeze out a little bit more profit. Besides, the cost of making them is already paid and completed. Finally, I doubt most VB's were that expensive to make. Zero-G and Voctro Labs have always sold Vocaloids at very reasonable prices even before going on sale, so I don't believe other companies need such exorbitant prices to make profit.

I'm guessing they can get away with it because Japanese Vocaloids are popular and in high demand, as you mentioned. Enough people are still buying Vocaloids at high prices that Yamaha sees little reason to lower prices. They don't even offer much in the way of discounts during sales.

In all fairness, the most expensive Vocaloids often come with far more than just a voicebank; the V3/4 Cryptonloids all come with multiple voicebanks, their own editor, and a DAW loaded with instruments and loops and plugins. Those that are just single voicebanks often range from $50-80, which is less than many virtual instruments run (browse Big Fish Audio for a few minutes and see just how expensive some of those instruments are). Many Japanese VBs are voiced by popular or famous seiyuus and singers (Gackt is such a huge name that Gakupo pushed $300 at the time of his release, iirc), which also contributes to increased price; not just due to demand, but because working with such VPs is more expensive. And you have to factor in the cost of the license, marketing, and distribution on top of production and recording costs.

And VBs have seen considerable price decreases since V3; Zero-G's V1/2s were all quite expensive when they were first released, and Avanna, Dex, and Daina's VBs fall into that $50-80 range. This is, undoubtedly, an expensive hobby, and it's annoying when you don't always have the money for it (borderline-minimum wage workers unite!). What I don't think is fair is to insist that it shouldn't be, when you take all of the influencing factors into account.