SF-A2 miki's voice provider, Miki Furukawa, works for Ki/oon Music which is owned by Sony.Part of his usage problem is owed to being released next to the Kagamine Append, with the Kagamines grabbing much of the attention from him as a result.Īn independent search on Niconico revealed that most VOCALOIDs had less than 1,000 videos uploaded on Niconico in 2011 between July 1st and December 15th. In the Japanese fandom, he is currently amongst the lesser used VOCALOIDs, but overall has more usage than the previous male released in 2010, Ryuto. Ī PIKO figurine based on his voice provider's image, also produced by COSPA Reputation Status Google Trends In April 2012, figurines of the voice provider and the VOCALOID were released in conjunction with a promotional bundle for an album. If attendees made reservations they would receive promotional photos of the voice provider and of the VOCALOID dressed in similar fashions. In February 2011, Sony promoted the voice provider's single "桜音 (Sakura Ne)", the fourth ending to the anime Gin Tama. Utatane Piko's portrayal is that of a teenage or young male singer.
He was the only Japanese VOCALOID2 vocal to be made download only at time of release. There was very little promotion given for him and he seemed to rely only on his provider's popularity and links with the VOCALOID fandom. This was demonstrated when Sony announced they would not give permission for his vocals to be uploaded from the demo version.
Though he has a standard licensing agreement, Sony has held tight control on how his voicebank may be used.