LayarHijau — A virtual singer has revealed how expensive it is to make a cover song (a song by another artist, sung again), while the income it brings in is almost nonexistent. Taiwanese media reported on a post on X by Evelynn Red, a cyberpunk-themed VTuber who sings. A VTuber (Virtual YouTuber) is a content creator who appears as a 2D or 3D animated avatar rather than as their real face. Virtual singers are also called VSingers. According to Evelynn Red, VSingers are among the biggest losers of all VTuber types, and releasing music is almost like throwing money away.
Evelynn Red explained that audiences now expect high quality in cover songs, at minimum a decent mix (the balancing and polishing of the recorded vocals), backing track, illustration, and music video. Based on quotes she has received from creators, she estimates the cost of one cover song as follows:
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- Remaking the backing track: about $300
- Mixing: from $100, plus $30 if harmonies and guide vocals are needed
- Illustration: about $80 at the cheapest
- Music video: about $80 at the cheapest
The total comes to about $560 per song. According to Evelynn Red, that money will most likely never come back.
The earnings are nowhere near comparable. According to Evelynn Red, her latest cover on Spotify earned only $1.67, and the most-watched cover on her YouTube channel, with more than 60,000 views, earned just $10. She works as an audio engineer and music producer, so she can make her own backing tracks and mixes, and says she is relatively lucky.
She also pointed to copyright risks. Using an official backing track means YouTube detects a copyright violation, so the video cannot be monetized. Even after paying for a license and remaking the backing track, she said, a profit is still not guaranteed.
A VSinger named lime also weighed in, based on her own YouTube account. According to lime, her videos get about 1 million views a month, but her income is only about $90. It is not known whether lime monetizes the account through YouTube’s ad program (AdSense), whether the videos in question contain copyrighted cover songs, or whether the figure applies to all views. Lime said she needs income from other platforms to cover the cost of making covers. As for the advice to “just learn it yourself,” lime said she can learn the skills, but it takes a great deal of time and makes it hard to release music regularly.
Other VTubers said that even talents at major agencies such as hololive and Nijisanji can hardly expect to earn back their costs from views on cover songs or original songs. Those songs serve more as a gesture of appreciation for fans or a way to attract new ones. Income still depends on merchandise sales, sponsorship deals, and viewer donations. For small and mid-sized VTubers, funding cover songs generally requires another full-time job, not to mention the risk of a copyright warning from YouTube that wipes out the entire investment.
A Japanese VTuber also summarized prices in Japan. According to that VTuber, a recording studio, illustration, mixing, and video each start at around ¥10,000 (about $65), so a cover song project is expensive in Japan as well.
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