The shock caused by "Jiale graduation gate" continues. Outsiders know about the virtual idol and a-soul because of this heat, while insiders begin to re-examine the relationship between the virtual idol and the people in it The virtual women's group a-soul jointly launched by byte beat and Lehua entertainment is the most successful virtual idol project in China in the past two years. In just two years, five members of a-soul gathered millions of fans in station B and Tiktok - what's more, in this small subculture circle known for its nitpicking, a-soul not only won attention, but also won public praise for a time.
The shock caused by "Jiale graduation gate" continues. Outsiders know about the virtual idol and a-soul because of this heat, while insiders begin to re-examine the relationship between the virtual idol and the people in it.
The virtual women's group a-soul jointly launched by byte beat and Lehua entertainment is the most successful virtual idol project in China in the past two years. In just two years, five members of a-soul gathered millions of fans in station B and Tiktok - what's more, in this small subculture circle known for its nitpicking, a-soul not only won attention, but also won public praise for a time.
But all this came to an abrupt end on May 10, 2022 That afternoon, a-soul suddenly announced that Jiale, one of the women's League members, would "live sleep" on May 20. As soon as the news came out, it caused an uproar in station B and circle v.
Source: official account of station a-soul B
Although the official said that Jiale was temporarily dormant rather than quitting the group for personal reasons, it soon spread that it was because the actors of Jiale were at odds with the official, and then fans broke out that the treatment of people playing virtual idols was very poor - girls not only had low wages and high levels of overtime, but also suffered occupational injuries, workplace bullying, and even were forced to perform soft pornographic performances**
Screenshot of reply from human resources and Social Security Bureau of Binjiang District, Hangzhou
Some of the news was confirmed to some extent by the officials involved after the expansion of public opinion. On May 14, Binjiang District human resources and Social Security Bureau replied to the questions reflected by some netizens: after investigation, according to the internal business planning of Binjiang District, it communicated with the members of a-soul team about the renewal of the contract at the end of March. Jiale did not agree to the renewal. The project team decided to stop the live broadcast of Jiale on May 20 and announced it on May 10.
As more and more details were pulled out, a-soul fans stayed up all night They quickly changed from regretting the withdrawal of Jiale to the unfair treatment of the five and the anger of the operators behind a-soul. In the past week, fans rushed to the forums, microblogs, and a-soul's live broadcast room at station B and Tiktok to ask for the official explanation.
In the past experience and concept of the industry, the Chinese are just the performers of virtual idols. Its importance ranks behind the human design and leather bag of virtual idols - the former is the creation of virtual idols by the operator, while the latter comes from the aesthetics of mobile capture technology and design team.
But in this "movement" launched by fans, this deep-rooted "common sense" is being broken. Fans use their actions to tell a-soul and even the operators of the whole virtual idol industry that they like not only the skin of the virtual idol, but also the living person who chats with fans live every day.
01 "breaking the defense"
"I was caught off guard to see the announcement of Jiale's graduation in the afternoon, because I had to restrain myself at work and only dared to wipe tears carefully," a female fan recorded her reaction after hearing the news on her microblog. "Until I got off work at ten o'clock in the evening, I cried all the way home from the school gate, and the old woman who was running for three cried like a naughty child."
How to comfort fans and friends when someone asks for help in Weibo
Jiale fans call themselves "Huangjia Knight". The princess guarded by the knight is gone. It is no exaggeration to describe it as "his / their world has collapsed".
On May 10 and 11, many fans were still working and studying during the day. When they came home at night, they brushed news, groups and various forums all night, and then forwarded them in the circle of friends and microblog at two or three o'clock in the middle of the night - either complaining about grievances, scolding operators, or just sending a series of "ah ah ah" to vent their sadness.
For many fans, Jiale's graduation announcement came so suddenly, but when they recalled later, there were signs. At the end of April, a "box opening crisis" was sweeping a-soul, and there were rumors of Jiale's "graduation", but no one believed it at that time. Because everything was going well, Jiale just launched a personal single and released a fitness course in cooperation with keep.
"Open box" is a proprietary slang in the virtual idol circle. A major feature of the virtual anchor is that when facing the public, it is interpreted in a virtual image, and the "man in the middle" of the performance is completely hidden behind the scenes. It is inevitable that fans or other netizens will have the desire to peep into privacy. They locate the personal information of "people in the middle" and make it public by means of human flesh search, stealing accounts and so on.
In the circle, this behavior is called "opening the box". In recent years, in Japan, the birthplace of vtuber, and China, which is developing rapidly, once it is "opened the box", it almost means the end of the virtual anchor career. Because of the serious consequences of this behavior, it also has the nickname of "box weapon".
As early as last July, Xiang night, one of the members of a-soul, encountered an open box crisis. In April this year, the remaining four members of a-soul were also identified by fans one by one.
Among them, the Netease cloud account used by people in Jiale has been exposed. This rarely noticed account is considered to be a private wall used by people in Jiale to record their work and life.
Netease cloud music account considered to be used by Jiale
Among them, Jiale not only mentioned the problems and details about the recent renewal of the contract, being abused by the leaders and being woken up in the early morning, but also made Jiale's fans "break the defense" and point the spearhead at the operator behind the a-soul plan - byte beating and Lehua entertainment.
02 "who are we guarding?"
After the release of Jiale graduation announcement, a large number of news began to circulate in the fan circle. Fans' doubts about the "official" mainly focused on four directions:
• it is rumored that the salary of people in a-soul was only 7K before, and the later operation proposed to increase the salary to 1.1W base salary + 1% commission on live broadcasting income, on the condition that the members must renew their contract. Moreover, a-soul has great work intensity and general accommodation and eating conditions.
• according to the information in the Jiale social account obtained by "opening the box", the members are in distress, work intensity is too high, safety is not guaranteed and there is workplace bullying.
• the project is also suspected of soft pornography. The evidence circulated on the Internet includes early AI soft pornographic video clips of Nailin and videos of being instructed to climb up the table in the live broadcast of Jiale.
• the operation team plans to replace the original people with AI.
In the face of overwhelming doubts, the operator's first response was to let a-soul members respond to the doubts of fans in the live broadcast. A single live broadcast of yoga was temporarily broadcast at the scheduled time of Nailin's live broadcast on the evening of May 11.
Fans think this is to use girls as a shield and plan to "rush" the live broadcast. Some fans who have used "unicycles" in the game anchor circle plan to go back to the old business, that is, use some software plug-ins in the live studio to continuously send the same bullet screen; At the same time, the fans agreed privately that they would not charge money for a-soul in the live studio.
In the live broadcast on the evening of the 11th, many bullet screens may have been blocked, and there were sporadic direct questions - how about the salary? Is overtime serious? Can't you get used to food? How's the wound? Are you having a good time?
Jiale read these questions, but her answer was like reading a prepared PR manuscript "The salary of 7000 and 11000 a month are fake", and the scratch of passive fishing clothes is because "my natural skin is very soft" and "I'll be happy if you're happy". The most popular jiaran answered the question of treatment and said, "you can still afford a thousand yuan skirt!"
Because the members of the Gu left and right, he sometimes read the Taiwan version. Fans said it was "the most virtual live broadcast in the history of virtual anchor" and "a fake at a glance".
Some fans wrote in the barrage: "don't go to the bird's nest, let's go home". It was a previous agreement between a-soul and its fans to go to the bird's nest for a concert, but after seeing a series of shocking revelations, many fans said that if the agreement was realized at the cost of the injury of a-soul members, they would rather not realize it.
Screenshot of live broadcast of Jiale station B
But Bella's speech broke the self touch of some fans: "which home are you going to? This is my home. We still have the dream of going to the bird's nest"**
So after the live broadcast, some people "turned around" and wanted to support the girls who stayed, but others insisted that they could not easily forgive "evil capital". Fans are divided into "rounders" and "champions".
The next day, in order to express their protest, fans first called for closing the account. On May 12, the official account and member account of station B of a-soul lost 30000-50000 powder respectively.
In addition, in order to attract more attention, fans who used to be mainly in station B and Douban activities began to appeal on more popular microblogs.
In the spontaneous silence on the anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, fans began to learn the efficient operation of the rice circle to express their demands. Many fans began to download microblogs, learn to use super words, learn how to make a list, brush the heat of the topic and mend the knowledge of the rice circle. They wrote big character newspapers on Weibo, complained about official problems, stated their demands, and attracted a large number of forwarding with lucky draw.
However, the "roundabout" and "main war" have not reached a consensus so far, and the sense of confusion still envelops the fans. Even for those fans who were moved by Bella's speech, a question still hung over their hearts:
"I can trust you, but can I trust the capital behind you?"
03 "can I trust you? Can I trust the capital behind you?"
Back on November 23, 2020, the debut of a-soul was not blessed by circle V at first. On the contrary, it was considered to have the original sin of "capital".
A-soul's debut video Barrage is full of "almost". In addition to the astringent live broadcast and performance, the audience of virtual idols - circle V audience do not buy it, there are also Lehua entertainment, a brokerage company combined with a-soul, and the company that provides technical and financial support behind it.
Among the concerns of circle V, Lehua and byte represent the star making industry under capital control, which will destroy the "pure circle V". The chaos of the fan circle behind capital star making, such as list brushing, control and evaluation, tearing and investment... These routines played by traffic fans are likely to destroy the original V circle ecology.
The virtual idol represented by a-soul is actually a combination of virtual anchor and women's League idol. Zhongzhimen wears black full body motion capture technology to present a dance posture, and usually carries out live activities in the motion capture room.
The virtual anchor (vtuber) has a long history of development in Japan based on the two-dimensional yuanzhai culture. The anchor has a virtual image and a set of facial or upper body motion capture equipment, which is broadcast live in front of the computer by himself.
The turning point occurred less than 20 days after his debut Member jiaran danced 20 house dances in a row in the premiere, which was a bit higher than the current virtual anchor's ability, and captured a group of v-circle fans at one fell swoop. In this video, which has been called "the place where the dream began" in the past two years, the hottest comment below is: "there are two atmospheres before and after the house dance, which is strength pinch, Jiamen".
In the next six months, a-soul gathered millions of fans at station B and Tiktok, becoming a new ceiling for the domestic virtual idol industry The key to the success of a-soul: advanced virtual human technology, successful human design, official operation and the performance of Chinese people are indispensable
The operator who created a-soul created their own "personal settings" (character settings) for the five members: all five are college students. Xiangwan is a little devil who is good at expression, black belly and strong desire for victory and defeat. He loves to cry most; Bella is the captain, gentle, good tempered, firm and caring for members; Jiale is sensitive, straightforward, not sociable, slow and warm, full of enthusiasm but not good at words; It's a kind, delicate and romantic person; Nailin is an intern in a law firm. She is an imperial sister, has a strong desire for control, and is hot and cold.
Screenshot of fan microblog
In addition to the charm of members, the operation from byte beating and Lehua also helped a-soul become the top stream, which once made fans call "the big hand of capital is too warm". With the investment of capital and technology, the fluency of a-soul's motion capture and live broadcast has been continuously improved. At the same time, the operation planning has been continuously mature, the number and popularity of fans have gradually increased, and the commercial value has appeared.
Jiaran boarded the top 100 up master list of station B, and Bella and Jiale broke through 10000 ships one after another. In 2021, the total revenue of a-soul's only live broadcast gifts reached more than 24 million. Jiaran's birthday live broadcast received a reward fee of 2.6 million yuan, setting the highest record of national V's single live broadcast revenue. A-soul has been endorsed by KFC, keep, L'Oreal and other brands.
Lehua also gave a-soul the opportunity to stage a large-scale concert. At the 11th Anniversary Concert of Lehua entertainment, a-soul and real idols such as Wang Yibo and Meng Meiqi performed two songs for 10 minutes.
However, the initial concern of fans was a prophecy. Under the dreamy atmosphere, the withdrawal of Jiale opened the curtain, revealing the undercurrent of the game between people, companies and fans.
04. The man in the middle, actor or soul
The root cause of the crisis between Soul-A and its fans is the most different from that of soul-a.
The operation mode adopted by a-soul and other virtual idol planning companies is similar to MCN and brokerage companies as a whole, both of which adopt actor brokerage mode. However, different from the latter two, because the appearance and settings of virtual idols are created by the company, the people in have always been considered to be just the actors of virtual idols, not the virtual idols themselves**
Therefore, the status of artists in the industry is completely different from that of stars in the industry. Li Jing (a pseudonym), a director of a virtual anchor in the circle, told geek park that in their eyes, "people in China can actually be replaced. When fans like IP rather than people in China, they can be replaced by different actors. When AI replaces people in China in the future, there will be virtual idols who know more about fans."
Even in Li Jing's view, the real problem is that the operator "didn't have time" to find a suitable replacement, and was forced to let Jiale sleep, which triggered the subsequent crisis.
But this experience based view has actually been broken by fans in this crisis In a round of games, fans have long regarded the five performing girls as the five virtual idols, and regarded the harm and injustice to the five girls as the harm and injustice to their favorite virtual idols.
People's hard work and occupational injury are long-standing problems in the industry. For example, people in Jiale, which is popular on the Internet, are scratched by passive catching clothes, Li Jing said, "Many companies need to wear dynamic compensation equipment tightly tied to the body. The face capture helmet that needs to be worn for face acquisition will hurt the neck of the middle person due to the weight of the camera. Generally, it is very painful to wear it for 10 minutes. A live broadcast lasts for at least 3 hours. If it is broadcast every day, it will cause pressure on the neck, joints and jaw of the actor."
Example: dynamic capture in horse racing woman
But objectively speaking, idols, anchors and artists are relatively special types of cultural work, and the work pressure and injury risk are higher than ordinary white-collar work The problem that makes fans more dissatisfied is the high risk of work and achievements, which is extremely mismatched with the personal return of the middle-aged people
As mentioned above, a-soul earns 24 million yuan a year from live broadcasting only on station B, but the salary of Zhongzhi people is rumored to be only 80000-120000 yuan a year, and the commission given to them by fans is only 1%, or even "not 1% of the total amount, but 1% of the rest after removing the share of station B. in fact, it is 6% of the expenditure of fans."
Based on this calculation, the fans of station B renew a captain of 138 yuan, and the people in the can get only 60 cents.
A-soul letter of apology dated May 14
Facing the doubts of fans, at 3:30 p.m. on May 14, the a-soul Production Committee disclosed the income composition of the four people in the letter of apology: "the income structure is 10% of the total flow of monthly fixed income + bonus + live broadcast (station B & Tiktok)".
From 1% in the rumor to 10% on the paper, behind the change in figures is the change in the status of people in China
For the virtual idol, the actor is only a part that can be replaced at any time, and the soul means irreplaceable. It is an integral part of the virtual idol. The two create different values and share different benefits. The biggest revelation of the a-soul crisis to the industry is that the people in are not only the actors of virtual idols, but also the soul of virtual idols**
The inherent impression of the role of Zhongren formed by the industry today comes from virtual singers such as Luo Tianyi and chuyin future, as well as moving and catching actors in the film and television industry.
However, different from the traditional mobile capture actors, the people in the virtual idols are not just performing actions. They have to chat with the audience in the live broadcast every day. From the beginning, they are an integral part of the virtual idols, that is, the soul of the virtual idols.
At the beginning of the recruitment, the person in the middle needs to be consistent with the person setting, and after setting the good person setting, the person in the middle needs RP (role play).
Jiale's human design has been questioned because of "different soul and skin". In the early days, she was very embarrassed when playing Gao lenglenggai's character. With more live broadcasts, Jiale's image became plump - "northeast people who are easy to be shy and outspoken, soft girls who are warm-hearted but not good at expressing..."
How can such a person be easily replaced by another one, not to mention using AI that is far from passing the Turing test.