Sometimes I am amazed at the kind of support Engloids.Info gets. It continually ranks on Google, gets cited by foreign language wikis, has articles translated and re-blogged by THE Vocaloid Blog. While I'm quite proud of these achievements and thankful to all our editorial staff this popularity is not without its downsides.
Our issues arise from the takedown of the Official English Vocaloid.com back in September. We covered it in "Yamaha Updates Official Vocaloid Site, Snuffs English Version" back when Yamaha revised their website for Vocaloid 3 and took their dated English language site down.
Without an English language site their website fails to rank on English language search engines. When their site fails to rank on English Google my site takes top spot and I end up fielding a variety of technical support questions.
If its something simple I usually try to help, and usually have to stress than Engloids.Info is not in any way associated with either Yamaha, PowerFX, Zero-G or VocaTone. If it is something more technically involved, usually concerning serial keys, I usually try to direct them to the proper place to seek help.
I know my blog is awesome, thats why we rank in Google, but we shouldn't be ranking before official resources. I mean we are a fan-site that is structured to be as 'professional' as possible. Though its a blog I use a custom theme where you wouldn't be able to tell it was Wordpress powered at first glance.
I am not sure if they actually think we are affiliated with the pro-companies or if its out of desperation because they can't find proper English language resources. Judging from the Google search results that direct people to my site I am willing to bet it is the latter.
Recently got an email where a guy gave me his serial key asking me to help him troubleshoot his Vocaloid 2 activation. Looked into my records and found that he found my site by Google-ing "Yamaha Vocaloid Email".
The other search terms where my site was found with yesterday included "how does vocalid.com work", "vocaloid.com english", & "vocaloid english website" and those were just the searches from one day!
Thankfully Yamaha finally got around to working on their English language site again. We covered it a bit in "English Vocaloid Official Returns, Calls You a Dummy" when an enterprising VO user correctly guessed the password to the beta version of the site. While it is still a work in progress, and isn't open to the public, it is a step in the right direction.
Hopefully Yamaha will get their English site up soon because I know their fans are waiting. Till then I will try my best to help who I can, and redirect those to the proper channels to seek help from when I can't.
Showing posts with label editorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editorial. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Vocaloid Radio Project Proposal
This is a work in progress and has yet to be copy-edited but it is something I wanted to share after all the support the project thread has been receiving.
Monday, January 9, 2012
KarenT's VocaListener Radio Response
This actually came a while ago but I never got the chance to update the blog with the response due to the holidays. Figured now is as good a time as any seeing as I plan on blogging about future developments soon enough.
Not the response I would have liked but it leaves the possibility for something in the future. I will proceed to develop my ideas and write a formal project proposal.
Dear Mr. [Name Redacted],
Thank you for your inquiry.
Now we have been proceeding with the preparations to enable KarenT music to be broadcast legally on internet radio stations. Please be patient for a few months until we are prepared.
Best regards,
KarenT
karent@crypton.co.jp
Not the response I would have liked but it leaves the possibility for something in the future. I will proceed to develop my ideas and write a formal project proposal.
Monday, December 19, 2011
VocaListener Radio & Open Letter to KarenT
For those of you who do not know I own the domain VocaListener.com and have been wanting to make an online radio station out of it for a while. It want it be like 91.8 The Fan with live DJs, various themed shows, and completely legal, except for instead of occasionally featuring Vocaloid music I wanted to focus on Vocaloid exclusively. Beyond just focusing on Vocaloid music I wanted to introduce Vocaloid fans to new producers and if possible shoehorn Engloids in whenever possible.
Now I could have taken the pirate route like so many other stations online but I wanted everything to be legit and something I could be proud of later on. I researched online and found about how I could legally found my own radio station, without specific permission from the artists and labels, under the Statutory Licence of the U.S. Copyright Office. It would require me to pay hundreds of dollars in fees/royalties but it would be legal.
Now I have no problem doing this because services like Live 365 exist that handle royalties and allow small time broadcasters to legally start their own radio stations for as little as $4/mo. The thing is all the money I would be paying in royalties to SoundExchange, the online radio royalties board, would likely never reach the artists they are intended for #1 because the artists are all in Japan and #2 SoundExchange was sponsored by the RIAA which KarenT is not a member of.
After months of stalling and rather approach producers individually which is a daunting task, and reason for the statutory licence, I figured I would reach out to KarenT & Crypton Future Media concerning the issue. As they are notoriously hard to contact and because I only speak English I am posting this letter publicly in hopes that it reaches them along with forwarding it to their YouTube, Twitter, and every contact point I can think of.
You can read my full email to KarenT after the break:
Now I could have taken the pirate route like so many other stations online but I wanted everything to be legit and something I could be proud of later on. I researched online and found about how I could legally found my own radio station, without specific permission from the artists and labels, under the Statutory Licence of the U.S. Copyright Office. It would require me to pay hundreds of dollars in fees/royalties but it would be legal.
Now I have no problem doing this because services like Live 365 exist that handle royalties and allow small time broadcasters to legally start their own radio stations for as little as $4/mo. The thing is all the money I would be paying in royalties to SoundExchange, the online radio royalties board, would likely never reach the artists they are intended for #1 because the artists are all in Japan and #2 SoundExchange was sponsored by the RIAA which KarenT is not a member of.
After months of stalling and rather approach producers individually which is a daunting task, and reason for the statutory licence, I figured I would reach out to KarenT & Crypton Future Media concerning the issue. As they are notoriously hard to contact and because I only speak English I am posting this letter publicly in hopes that it reaches them along with forwarding it to their YouTube, Twitter, and every contact point I can think of.
You can read my full email to KarenT after the break:
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Birth of VocaRant
While writing at Engloids.Info I sometimes find myself feeling a bit limited by both its scope, limited to Engloids only, and by my own editorial policies. I find myself second guessing myself and writing in a more formal, less abrasive style, than I normally would. I wanted to blog more, I wanted a departure from Engloids.Info, yet I still wanted it to be Vocaloid.
I had considered a Wordpress but that again was too close to Engloids.Info, I was thinking of becoming a hipster and creating a Tumblr but I wanted a long-form blog and I already have Twitter for my short-form musings. LJ was definitely out since that place went the way of the MySpace and stopped being relevant years ago. In the end it seemed Blogger was my only option.
With my blogging platform chosen all I needed next was a theme and subdomain. I was looking for a synonym for the word "talk" on Meriam-Webster when the word "rant" just stuck to me. I know I often find myself ranting on VO and since I already knew I wanted to talk about Vocaloid I just mashed the two ords together and thus "VocaRant" was born.
What is VocaRant?
VocaRant is my general purpose Vocaloid/UTAU themed blog where I discuss various aspects of the software, voicebanks, artists, themes, and fandom. Sometimes I will rant, other times I will muse, and when I find something I absolutely must share and I can't find anyone to talk to on Skype about it I will probably post it here. I will rant, I will rave, I will review, and I will try my best to be genuine.
Who is Hentai?
Hentai is my new common internet handle. It was originally meant to be a joke, but somewhere along the way it became SRS BZNS and just stuck with me. I am the Executive Editor at Engloids.Info, a moderator on UtaForum, regular at VocaloidOtaku, and all around nice guy.
Why Hentai?
While I am not terribly perverted most of the time the name comes from my time as an admin on HentaiTraders and how I was first introduced to manga scanlation by doing cleaning/typesetting for random hentai doujinshi.
What is Otakune Weeaboo?
Otakune Weeaboo is my UTAU. If you don't know what an UTAU is Wikipedia can probably explain it better than I can. It is a vocal synthesis program much like Vocaloid except it allows you to record and create your own voicebanks.
Otakune Weeaboo for his excellent Japanese he is a private, completed, voicebank and if I blog about UTAU much here I will probably namedrop him from time to time. If you are interested in him then take a look at his wiki entry or my YouTube for more.
I had considered a Wordpress but that again was too close to Engloids.Info, I was thinking of becoming a hipster and creating a Tumblr but I wanted a long-form blog and I already have Twitter for my short-form musings. LJ was definitely out since that place went the way of the MySpace and stopped being relevant years ago. In the end it seemed Blogger was my only option.
With my blogging platform chosen all I needed next was a theme and subdomain. I was looking for a synonym for the word "talk" on Meriam-Webster when the word "rant" just stuck to me. I know I often find myself ranting on VO and since I already knew I wanted to talk about Vocaloid I just mashed the two ords together and thus "VocaRant" was born.
What is VocaRant?
VocaRant is my general purpose Vocaloid/UTAU themed blog where I discuss various aspects of the software, voicebanks, artists, themes, and fandom. Sometimes I will rant, other times I will muse, and when I find something I absolutely must share and I can't find anyone to talk to on Skype about it I will probably post it here. I will rant, I will rave, I will review, and I will try my best to be genuine.
Who is Hentai?
Hentai is my new common internet handle. It was originally meant to be a joke, but somewhere along the way it became SRS BZNS and just stuck with me. I am the Executive Editor at Engloids.Info, a moderator on UtaForum, regular at VocaloidOtaku, and all around nice guy.
Why Hentai?
While I am not terribly perverted most of the time the name comes from my time as an admin on HentaiTraders and how I was first introduced to manga scanlation by doing cleaning/typesetting for random hentai doujinshi.
What is Otakune Weeaboo?
Otakune Weeaboo is my UTAU. If you don't know what an UTAU is Wikipedia can probably explain it better than I can. It is a vocal synthesis program much like Vocaloid except it allows you to record and create your own voicebanks.
Otakune Weeaboo for his excellent Japanese he is a private, completed, voicebank and if I blog about UTAU much here I will probably namedrop him from time to time. If you are interested in him then take a look at his wiki entry or my YouTube for more.
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