Crypton Future Media
Company presentation
Crypton Future Media , Crypton for short, is a company specializing in audio generation for music. The company is based in Hokkaido, Japan.
President
Born on March 11, 1965, Hiroyuki Itoh is the CEO of Crypton. Before founding Crypton, Itoh worked as a programmer at a university, and while it had nothing to do with audio engineering, he always had a passion for music production. As a child, he traveled over an hour a day to attend Hokkaido Kushiro Hokuyo High School. After graduating, he passed the national civil service examination and entered the Ministry of Education. While working as a clerk at Hokkaido University's Faculty of Engineering, he studied and eventually graduated from Hokkai Gakuen University, majoring in economics. In 1995, Itoh founded Crypton Future Media, Inc.
In 2008, he was a visiting professor at Hokkaido Information University.
He has been a professor at Kyoto University of Information Science since 2013. In the same year, he received the Blue Ribbon Medal, which recognizes individuals who have made significant achievements in the fields of public welfare or public service.
History
Founded in 1995 as an audio import and sales company, it now focuses on the development, import, and sale of CDs, DVDs, sound effects, background music (BGM) libraries, and software composed of sound sources. Its main clientele includes musical instrument stores, computer stores, and software distributors.
Crypton launched a sound effects sales service for mobile phone ringtones around 2000, offering products such as "Pocket Sound Effect Pro," "Mazeteyo★Natural Voice," "Hatsune Miku Mobile," and "Sing With Miku♪." In addition, the company also operates a mobile website that offers services such as sound effects and ringtones.
VOCALOID
Crypton is particularly known for producing and selling desktop music (DTM) speech synthesis software that uses Yamaha's VOCALOID speech synthesis engine. Its first product, "MEIKO," began shipping in 2004, followed by "KAITO" in 2006. In creating Crypton-based Vocaloids, Crypton provided basic information such as age and gender, but deliberately omitted any background story. The company did this to encourage creative freedom for music creators. In this way, it allows creators to tell their own stories without "a predefined direction from us."
From the beginning, the company was reluctant to pursue anime production, as it would have reinforced the characteristics of its characters beyond age and gender. As a result, official manga or anime are rarely produced.
Hatsune Miku
In August 2007, the first series of voice characters "Hatsune Miku" was released, featuring the improved VOCALOID2 engine.
Hatsune Miku, sporting turquoise braids, was considered the first milestone in the company's Vocaloid production. Miku's success propelled the company to global prominence and helped build its reputation as a leading Vocaloid software developer.
Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len
The second set of voice characters was released on December 27th with the twin characters Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len. The twins were both voiced by voice actor Asami Shimoda and were popular due to their short blond hair and seemingly bubbly personalities.
Megurine Luka
On January 30, 2009, the third series of vocal characters "Megurine Luka" was released. Voiced by acclaimed voice actor Yuu Asakawa, Luka was considered a more adult type of Vocaloid, and the software is used to singing mature songs about life and work.
Other projects
With the success of Vocaloid, Crypton noticed a sudden increase in works being re-uploaded without the express permission of the authors. It was then that they decided to build a centralized platform where creators could freely publish their own works and gain a considerable fan base. This service, Piapro , is now home to thousands of illustrators, musicians, and 3D modelers.
Crypton is working with Good Smile Enterprise to help expand Vocaloid's reach in the market. Together, they created the Hatsune Miku Nendoroid and figure toy line and are also branching out into the car racing market.
Interaction with fans
Crypton staff, including Itoh himself, often attend events and actively engage with fans. They often ask for feedback and critiques on recent events and figure releases in an effort to improve their business. This method of direct interaction with fans has allowed the company to become a leader in the fields of Vocaloid software, events, and merchandise.
