VTuber Mori Calliope signs with Universal Music, announces solo concert

VTuber Mori Calliope has announced her signing up with multinational music corporation Universal Music, and the schedule of her solo concert during her 3D birthday celebration on April 4. On the same day, the music video for CapSule was released. Performed with Japanese VTuber Hoshimachi Suisei, it is one of the new songs included in her first extended play (EP) with Universal Music entitled SHINIGAMI NOTE.

Slated to be released on July 20, the EP is available for preorder for JPY 2,750 (approximately PHP 1,152) for the regular edition with six songs including CapSule, and for JPY 6,600 (approximately PHP 2,675) if you want the limited edition which added specialized goods and the behind the scenes interview.

Her solo concert, meanwhile, is scheduled for July 21, 2022 at the Toyosu Pit in Japan. The live event venue is reportedly capable of accommodating around 3,000 people. This follows her 3D debut during the hololive 3rd fes, held at the Makuhari Messe from March 25 to March 27.

Mori Calliope, also known as Calli, is part of the first generation of English talents under Japanese VTuber agency hololive (stylized as hololive English -Myth- or simply holoMyth). Her lore states that she was the Grim Reaper’s first apprentice who decided to become a VTuber to harvest more souls.

Calli’s first EP, DEAD BEATS, peaked at 1st in the iTunes Top Album Chart in both Japan and the United States last year. Following this success, her first album UnAlive debuted last March at 4th in the United States and 2nd in Canada. According to Spotify, Calli’s music has been streamed over 48.9 million times in 164 countries for 2021.

As of writing, she has accumulated over 2 million subscribers in YouTube. This makes her the second in hololive to achieve such feat, after Gawr Gura, and one of the select few to have done so in the entire VTuber industry. They also performed together in the original song called Q, which has garnered over 10 million views since the release of its music video in YouTube last February 3. Ranking website Playboard, meanwhile, placed Mori Calliope as 7th in the world with the most super chats as of 2021.

There are two generations of hololive English talents to date, the other one being hololive English -Council- or stylized as holoCouncil.

A VTuber or virtual YouTuber refers to an online talent using a 2D or 3D avatar as alter ego in creating content. It was believed that Japanese VTuber Kizuna AI was the one who popularized the term, calling herself as one in her introduction video on December 1, 2016. Nonetheless, virtual idols who utilize similar technologies such as Hatsune Miku and Ling Yuan yousa, among others, have been around prior to her debut.

As motion capture rig and streaming technology became more affordable and easier to manage, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in the VTuber industry. Data technology company UserLocal has reported the existence of over 16,000 VTubers as of 2021. Meanwhile, Playboard saw that 9 of the ten most super chatted YouTube channels in the world last year were by VTubers, all of which were hololive talents.