The way I see it is 2 different jobs essentially. 1. You're hired to stream as a vtuber/character. In this case you shouldn't have to do stuff outside of just streaming and it would be fair if the company takes a bigger cut even just having a regular salary each month would be okay. Essentially your job is just to stream/voice act. 2. You're hired to be a vtuber content creator, stream just like normal but also do a lot of other work around streaming similar to an indie except now you're also representing the company and have bigger responsibility. Probably also do other content, like videos/shorts/music videos etc, you also have to market yourself. In this case you really need to make sure your getting a good deal since you're a big part of creating the IP and success of the Vtuber character/channel and so on. I think in most cases its somewhere in between and you'll also hopefully have a manager/staff to help you out. But as we have seen not every manager/staff seem to know wtf they are doing. But 1. and 2. here are two completely different jobs imo.
I already mentioned it on a separate comment but sure. Flag #16: Lawsuit Lost Explanation: the agency has recently lost a lawsuit against their former talents or a 3rd party, especially if it came from someone doing something illegal. Reason: This show that either the agency done something illegal itself or they failed to protect their talents from 3rd party involvement. Example: Nijisanji vs Narukami Sabaki on Defamation of Yuzuki Roa.
it may be surprising but the agency trying to control as many aspect of the member's life as possible is a massive red flag, such as preventing having side gigs, using their PL, communicating with some people they don't want to about things that aren't private informations. Personally,i also have a problem with agencies that own the Vtuber IP, and the character becoming effectively deleted if they are to leave the agency, it make it so easy to prevent people from wanting to leave which lets them get away with doing more and more questionable things to them, i would like them to at the very least allow the member to buy the IP once they leave if they chose to or gift it to them past a certain time in the company.
Here's one of my top red flags: A heavily biased sub count distribution across the talents of a small agency. It can mean one of three things: 1. Those few with the significantly higher numbers are just that more talented. The question becomes how loyal they are and what becomes of the agency when they leave? 2. The management favors those talents heavily resulting in the higher numbers. In this case you'd be at a major disadvantage the moment you join. 3. There's a clique that somehow manages to supress the other talents or the smaller creators kill their chances through infighting. Toxic work environment, better move one.
Not so much a red flag as a good question to ask yourself - "If this company was offering any other kind of job than my dream job, would I be willing to work for them?" It goes for potential colleagues as well - "Would I be happy to work with these people if this was Starbucks?"
TLDR: Do a lot of research of the agency you want to sign up. Read the contracts thoroughtly. If you notice something off, negogiate and hire a lawyer (unless your broke) when needed. If amendments weren't made, dip it out. And also keep that in mind when contract makes changes ether with or without warning (or in some cases they make a false contract that you have to dip out immeduately for you sake of your health both physically and mentally) Feel free to add if I miss something since I skim watched the video.
"hire a lawyer" I'm not sure that's a good way to spend your money even though not doing it entails some risk. A lot of people trying to become corporate vtubers are probably not swimming in cash. If the advice is "don't sign this contract; now hand over my fee, please" can leave you in a bad spot too.
@@seneca983 While hiring a lawyer longterm certainly wouldn't be easy would a one time job of "look through this contract for me" really be that expensive? Wouldn't be too cheap sure, but with how important it is perhaps it could be on the line of just about justifiable.
I would say always hire a lawyer to read the contract with doesn't matter even if you are broke get one, or face the consequences witch would always be worse.
@@gokbay3057 Legal Mindset addressed this issue and said a one-time contract review would be like 200 USD. In his opinion it would be worth it if the position you were applying for could potentially net you hundreds of thousands of USD and/or prevent you from enduring a nightmare like Doki or Sayu.
@@NuclearFalcon146 That's only reallly good for those that can afford it, some people who wants to join the en branches are foreigners of different countries too where 50 USD weekly pay is equivalent to 1 month of living expenses lol. It's probably only good for those really willing to go through the trouble lol.
There's also "Generation Wave Galore" as a red flag, for me at least, if a company hires many, and i mean, many talents, such as niji, in short periods of time, rather than giving a large gap between each generation to let people get used to the newest generation and connect with them, this makes talents easily overshadowed by the others, not giving them the light of day as much as they could have if there wasn't a new wave coming very shortly after, it makes it feel like these talents are numbers than people, which we know is how niji views their talents
There's not a serious problem with generation galore as a vtuber agency effectively needs more vtubers to become bigger and be able to finance things more effectively, but if looking at the numbers and its obvious that viewership is down dramatically between each generation that's debuting, gotta know when to stop for a bit.
@@Kaimine08No, there IS a serious problem with generations galore. The problem is that it only works with an exploitative business model, one where the corpo is benefitted the most by growing viewers as a whole as opposed to growing viewers for each liver. The corpo becomes focused on the brand of the corpo versus the brand of the livers themselves. If you take a cut off the rev from each view, you DON'T CARE whether any single liver is growing, you only care whether more people overall are watching. So, it becomes rational to have quantity over quality. It gets even better for the corpo because when you have quantity over quality, then don't have to pay all but the most exceptional talents the going rate for quality. So, it leads to exactly the sort of abuse that you see in Niji where talents get ignored and the company doesn't care if you have frequent graduations, because you can always just release another 20 gens and profits still increase. The entire business model is cancer. So, yes, it IS a problem.
@@JDJeanMichel I did say there is a point where it has to stop. You can't just keep creating gens thinking it will all work out. Viewership between gens is also important.it is also important to have finances. Without it, every single talent suffers for it. If you want to do projects, you need money. With more talents creating content, that creates more money to create the ability to fund more projects. Granted, Nijisanji is a poor example because they don't believe in investing in their LIvers and as such, we never see projects outside of what the Livers create with their own money. However, Nijisanji is a good example of debut galore because they have survived this long due to it. They were able to cover a shit ton of different niches in a short amount of time due to it. This allows them to cover a variety of different audiences with different tastes and they don't necessarily have to be interested in the other Livers to watch Nijisanji.
Timestamps for the Red Flags: 01:42 - #1: No website, official email, unregistered 02:38 - #2: CEO is a literally who 04:23 - #3: Bad Models 05:47 - #4: Inactive Social Media 06:27 - #5 Short Lifespan 07:04 - #6: PL Accounts More Active 08:30 - #7: Graduations Galore 09:48 - #8: Contract Concerns 11:21 - #9: Lore > Concept??? 12:50 - #10: Staff Doko? 13:59 - #11: Leaders are out of touch 15:45 - #12: Creepy Favoritism 16:38 - #13: Delayed Payments 17:58 - #14: Lack of Agency Collaborations 18:34 - #15: DRAMA
During contract negoiation. Its perfectly legal to read a contract right there and let them wait for a full hour as you take a pen and underline, highlight and amend the contract and handing it back to continue negoiations. The whole quiet pressure to sign is entirely to the contract giver's advantage but they can't force you to sign nor force you to hurry up signing or read faster. Don't give in to the pressure. Its a common tactic to coerce people. To such a point its normalised.
Indeed. A contract is an agreement between two parties that one agrees to work for the other, and the other supports the one signing; if you just sign it asap, it's not an agreement between two parties. Read it, aloud if needed, highlight things, ask questions (generally to a lawyer, they can be hired for one time things like contract signing to help), request amendments, etc, etc. If the agency is unwilling to make any (or some) amendments, then don't sign. Don't go starry-eyed and go "Well, I do want to be a vtuber..." or something similar.
@@Practitioner_of_Diogenesyes! my dad was basically presseured into signing a contract (it was either that or he gets fired) and he refused to sign it till he recruited a lawyer, and he let his workplace know that. he later got a compromise where he would sign it but he wanted copies to take to a lawyer
No, I also found it absolutely how Phase Connect started off with so many red flags, but ended up becoming a wholesome actually decent and chaotic funny company. I loved watching how Pippa, Lia, Tenma, and Uruka’s streams went from having barely around a hundred viewers to having thousands.
If it’s Phase you’re talking about, then I get what you mean. The fact that Pippa is so open about how bad it was back then, while openly saying she’s gonna stay for a LONG while. She even claims Phase would have fallen had Lumi never joined; along with her originally joining just to have something in her contract. Her being as open as she is reveals how comfortable she is in Phase.
Reminds me of that 4chan thread of: Anon1: You are CEO of [big Vtuber corpo] whats the 1st thing you do? Anon2: F*ck [Vtuber]. Anon1: How will that make profit? Anon2: Profit?
Yeah. Props to the Fishman honestly. With the current state of vtubing, I only pray his mettle is strong and hardened to continue this journey as all eyes are on the medium corpos now, with Niji falling from grace in the west.
There's one that I don't think was mentioned but is generally a red flag in any kind of business where your chances of being the top dog are basically non-existent: Management or any staff comparing themselves to someone else in the industry an inordinate amount. Like, it's one thing to have your CEO say he wants to be like YAGOO. But if the same guy keeps saying "You need to be like Marine" or "What would Gura do?" over and over it can be a huge problem. Because this goes along with general advice for any kind of performance art: Don't try to be like the popular one. Sure it can help to EMULATE the big ones. Shiori Novella had a short where she talks about what kind of camera equipment she uses. Shishiro Botan has recommendations about PC stuff. But you shouldn't ONLY use that shit, especially if it's not in your price range. And if your agency keeps getting random shit because "Pekora said she had it" or "Riku Tazumi used it" that's how you end up with your CEO on a fucking yacht. By the same token, a sort of corollary to this, the opposite can also be true: Sometimes a LOT of people do something because it WORKS. A huge number of vtubers use iPhones because they work. Using some 3rd party BS because "no one's using it!" doesn't necessarily mean it's good. It's good to find a niche. There are lots of unfilled or underfilled niches (a vtuber talking about childcare or one focusing on education without being cringe are two niches that could be filled. Giri is still the only big name cooking vtuber.) but not every whackadoo niche out there needs to be filled. We don't need a vtuber who does nothing but talk about the Roman Empire 8 hours a day every day for weeks on end. There's a reason even "Vsingers" will play games and gamer vtubers will do karaoke. There's a reason Giri gets so many people wanting to collab with her (aside from just having a good personality) If your agency is thinking so far outside the box they forget the box exists, that's a red flag.
> Like, it's one thing to have your CEO say he wants to be like YAGOO. But if the same guy keeps saying "You need to be like Marine" I'm chuckling after remembering that Sakana asked exactly that from Airi during her hiring process. There are clips of that :)
@@zarbis Ironically, Phase ended up where it is today because Sakana wanted to be like Yagoo. Not in the copycat way, (like when AnyColor tried to turn Tazumi into a forced meme) but he actually took the right notes.
You're talking about the Fishman aren't you? He is definitely a weird one. He's more like a friend or supporter than he is a CEO. Can't really make heads or tails of how well a leader he is especially when he let's his talents bully him and disrespect him.
@@kylewood4488-b9r watch a clip of Pippa talking about the collabs in the beginning and how she felt along With talking to muumi and you'll realize he maybe bullied but he certainly knows how to be a boss
With the PL accounts. Some are just a side thing so friends can still play together, even after graduation/termination. I loved Doki's collab with RPR and people we know very well.
Ah yes, the "TSB". I mean, that's the common loophole. If you're a corpo and your IP doesn't belong to you: use the corpo for the "clean" stuff and use your PL for the "freedom" content. That's how you balance them.
I saw a reddit post about some guy named Han Byeol gifting Sayu some subs, and in the comments someone mentioned that they collabed pretty closely after Zaion got terminated.
@@gurugurumawaru7869Im pretty sure you're not allowed to do that in the other big neighbour company...Maybe a tweet or some community notes, but im fairly sure you cannot "make" content in your PL
Technically could be part of point 11 but when the senior management doesn't speak the same language as you and/or your only way to communicate with them is through your assigned manager.
One thing about #10 that I think should be expanded upon or given its own number is a talent or talents taking on managerial duties. Yeah, that is allegedly relevant with NijiEN but there are confirmed cases like Tsunderia, Cyberlive and Akio Air.
2:45 I remember my first exposure to Pippa was when she interviewed that one Vtubing CEO from the company that basically failed. This red flag instantly reminded me of that person.
You prob can add one more red flag: Flag #16: Lawsuit Lost Explanation: the agency has recently lost a lawsuit against their former talents or a 3rd party, especially if it came from someone doing something illegal. Reason: This show that either the agency done something illegal itself or they failed to protect their talents from 3rd party involvement. Example: Nijisanji vs Narukami Sabaki on Defamation of Yuzuki Roa.
@@kyuven Fair. Tho that would also apply to company like Apple and Google tho. That’s why I want to specify it on lawsuit lost rather than sheer number.
If the talents have sued the company that is already a pretty big red flag. I mean, it is possible the company was in the right but you really should look into the case before deciding whether to sign on with them.
#14 might be a bit too generalized, and in fact as presented in this video may be actually harmful to the perception of collaborations as a whole. Many vtubers from agencies like Hololive, VSPO, and others tend to do lots of extra-agency collabs (e.g. Laplus), and many may not be particularly inclined to collab in the first place and prefer solo streaming (e.g. Aqua in her early years), that doesn't mean the vtubers in question are in some sort of bad situation or something within the agency, it may just come down to their personal inclinations and preferences. Just throwing the entire conclusion into "whatever the reason is, it's bad" lacks the sort of nuance the other points made in the video do, and makes this particular aspect of vtubing look far worse than it really is.
I feel like his point was excessive extra agency collabs and uncomfortable in agency collabs rather than more collabs outside the company than inside the company. Like, 20 out of agency collabs for every in agency collab being the norm for talent is probably worrying, more so than 7 to 1.
oof red flag 9 hurts a bit, because the Vtuber I want to be is one that has a lot of lore and stories tied to him, which I plan on having directly influence a lot of my content down the line. I'm still determined to go that path, maybe it's different for an indie, but I can tell it won't be easy
The point is probably calling back to AkioAIR, which started out with the concept of "vtubers telling a story." You can see this a lot in their first gen's early streams, where they had scripted lore videos, story arcs, and interaction with chat and gameplay sometimes moving their story along. Ironically, it was actually the move away from that that showed how toxic that company was. When Athy started getting popular for regular vtuber reasons (her cover of Ghost got attention when it was played as an ad before other vtubers' streams) and the lore videos proved unpopular, they pressured the talent to drop the gimmick and leave the story unfinished. This especially caused friction with Fen, who wanted to keep her devoted fanbase engaged with the story streams they'd grown to love, while the company blamed that for her low numbers (she stuck with the story thing longer and more so than the rest) and berated her until she quit.
@@SecretIdentityStudioah. Well, in that case it had more to do with the manedgement just being shitty, which would've happened regardless of the story aspect
He mentions in that part that it's excusable if the lore will actually be used for stuff, and since you intend to make practical use of it(?) it should be fine. I think the underlying message is to have good resource management and that a "trap" some agencies seem to fall for is to put to much resources towards irrelevant lore which would be better used elsewhere. If you actually plan to make use of the lore in a way which can help your career, for example by having lore writing streams or making an interactive comic to engage your audience, it's perfectly reasonable to put more resources towards it than for a vtuber where the lore is just background noise.
RED FLAG 🚩 (If The people that interview you seem very immature a.k.a sound like kids) I have had a couple of interviews for some agencies mostly small to micro corps as I didn’t feel comfortable with the medium/big corps, But the most memorable interview I had was for a now disbanded company, the interviewer’s consisted of the CEO, CCO and 2 girls that I assumed to be managers at the time. When I hopped on call with them the first thing I was greeted by was all of them laughing and they told me “sorry we were laughing at a meme another applicant sent us” I was kinda weirded out by that at first but didn’t think of it much after that, we then went on to introductions and immediately the 2 girls voices caught my attention cause they sounded so young and not in like an anime way they sounded like they were 13, the ceo and cco sounded like ur average E-boy trying to do the rough fuckboi voice but failing so overall your average discord voice chat, but like they were interviewing me while trying not to laugh, which overall kinda just fucked over my confidence for the interview. Must also add they were an hour late and did not tell me anything so I was waiting for an hour. They also were very adamant on applicants already having a vtuber model even though they stated in their applications, you would be given a new one and you would start from scratch, well what found out later is that they be given a new channel with a new name, but still use the same model you had before, overall their whole shitck was kinda shit and there were very much putting on a front while cutting corners in all facets. Tbh they probably weren’t the worst but definitely the most memorable, thanks for reading 🙇♀️ TLDR: immature teens not knowing how to do interviews or run a company 🚩
If I had a nickel for every time someone made a video about red flags in Vtuber agencies and uploaded it today, I had two nickels Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice
I think some of the key points are 1 research the company and their contracts 2 sceptical with their or your management 3 be a bit wary of your coworkers... The 14th point is kind-of less necessary I think? As you said, some people just prefers doing solo and requesting collab can be a challenge I think? Of course your agency can help to reach or like finalize a collab between agencies but... Or you can reach out to whoever you wanna collab with...
i once joined a starting agency, working as an artist. i got harassed for prioritising my ACTUAL job and PAID clients over something they did not want to pay me for. once i left, they went to my social media, found my commission promotion, and started advertising their other artists there. there was a lot of drama, including DOXXING AND HARASSMENT, that i and the talents were left to figure out how to solve on our own. please do your research. don't be like me.
Hololive got insanely lucky with all the amazing fan artists writing much deeper lores and making animatiion lore videos for free. Council lore by that artist Super appleman? Or tywn ? Is amazing.
Just a note, Yam Albat posted up a similar "red flags" video yesterday on her channel; from the looks of it, this video and hers overlap on a number of points, but you might want to compare what she presented with your content here. (Edit: Okay, saw you two are already on the same page in your pinned comment. Cool. :)
after all this stuff that has happened, it's great to see a video explaining what to look out for. These corporations are really screwing up these people's lives.
It's cool that both you and Yam had the same idea, but a bunch of the points are very different. If someone makes a third one, there could be a tier list
Another thing to consider- who owns the character IP and assets, you or the agency? The agency owning that stuff isn't inherently a red flag since that's pretty standard for how the big agencies operate, especially the Japanese ones, but it's something important to consider, since the vtubing scene's taboos about past lives means that if you leave the agency or it goes under, you have to effectively start over from scratch and it's not guaranteed how many of your old fans will follow you.
Remember when AkioAIR tried to sass back their haters by describing themselves as "a questionable and very shady vtuber agency" in their profile? Knowing what we know now... talk about a self-report.
Speaking of CEO's knowledge in the industry, I have a thought experiment: If Sakana is still open with trading the entire Phase roster in exchange for taking Marine from Yagoo, how could this unfold? A fully functional corpo that's not on the red on paper (no longer sure after JP and gen3 release, but they seem strong and promising right now, so they could probably recoup those costs relatively fast) that has very strong potential for growth in exchange for just one that's at the apex of the game. I got nothing more, i just enjoy that internal joke in PC.
Would never happen. You should look into who Sakana is and his business history if you want to know more. My reply got deleted twice so I'll mention it here again. Look at the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference 2016. PC will likely expand to CN eventually.
@@carlorielmendez6505 It's a novel idea for sure. BTW he deleted his LinkedIn photo for some reason but it still shows up. Interesting part to look at is his Canadian Internet Marketing Conference 2016.
@ielmendez6505 It's a novel idea. If you want to look into him start with the name and make sure to check the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference 2016.
I kinda get what you want to say by that the agencies have to have enough staff, but trust me, more doesn't mean better in that regard. I've worked many years in corpo, as a matter of fact my whole working career has been corpo work, and having more and more managers, directors, chiefs and what not does absolutely not equal better quality of work in said company. Usually it means there are just more people to shift the blame on. You need skilled workers that can easily work with others, not just more workers. I've worked with people on the lower end of the corpo food chain that could do work of 4 people and wouldn't even break a sweat in their working hours. Hell they even had the time to bum around. And I've also worked with managers that didn't do fuck all and never had enough time for anything. So it's all about quality not quantity. I've worked in this shit for multiple years across multiple companies and everywhere the story is the same: having more and more managers and other higherups never ends good for regular workers.
So i just realised this, most holomember still have their 2nd channel(original channel) to post, streaming even sometimes accidently mentioning their "anime" avatar Meanwhile in Kurosanji, their 2nd channel(original channel) is completely abandoned. They even make a bye bye-see you again as last videos Also when Holomember take a long break, they just turned out fine more healthy more confident. Meanwhile in Kurosanji when taking a break(not even a long one) they graduated later and there is no bye bye stream it just turned to ashes Huge W for Holo since they literally giving a freedom, for their members. Kurosanji is 100% black company because they have so much policy but not defended their members and just throwing them like trash when something bad happen
The most important part; If companies like these are hiring a SIGNIFICANT amount of talents in one go or high frequency. These are know shady tactics known among the “idol agencies” in person (the spheres where AKB46 came from). Just because it’s irl idol agencies doesn’t mean the tactic can’t be applied on vtuber. With hiring so much talents, how can they CULTIVATE said talents? It means they’re just trying to see who gets popular. Basically: produce enough people, there’s bound to be some to rake in the money at the sacrifice of the others a no.1 Black Company mark in agency type orgs. Niji is the biggest perpetrator of this. Even Holo is sorta slow since the beginning. This is why I never subscribed to Niji besides the fact that their talents are all lewd bait in some form or another. No.5 red flag is hit or miss if more companies follow the Niji model described here.
Another red flag you could add is: Criticism from former talents. Explanation: The previous talents who worked at a company you are looking into joining has said little to no positive things about it and have a lot of negatives to say instead. Reason: While trusting the criticism of single person isn't always the best choice, it's best to keep it in mind because maybe that person was hard to work with or was fighting with the staff but when the criticism is being said by multiple talents and the same thing is being said or similar to one another, that is a problem that can stem from the environment they had to work in or the people they had to work with behind the scenes. Think of it in another way, would you buy a product if it had 1000 reviews and over 50% or more of the reviews were negative? It's always something you should be careful and think over before actually going through with it.
This is the second similar stream/video I’ve watched in 24 hours because Yam Albat did one yesterday. Honestly, I suspected that you talked to her about it BEFORE reading the comment above that confirmed it because of timing.
It could be a sign that they have no ideal how to run a business if they offer a contract that is to the agency's disadvantage without any negotiations, especially if there are other red flags.
Well everything turned out fine in the end. The CEO is just a weirdo that's all. Also they sell coffee so that alone should tell you that they at least have an idea of how to run a business.
Not only this video is for those who wanted to join Vtuber Agencies but also those who wanted to invest on creating Vtuber Agencies, prevent atleast 90% of them. 4:50 bro literally roasting himself. But again he is also roasted me too *look at my pfp*
Well. I'm no expert, but if an agency implements crypto/NFTs, that's a massive red flag for me. Crypto/NFTs ruined a lot of things, including certain games, and Kizuna got in hot water because of it. 🤨 P.S. 6000something to go. Gib DN Silver Plate already! 🧐
The problem with Crypto is that it has no "backing" government money has at least a guarantee backing it, crypto doesn't even have that. When Haiti declared independance they issed currency "Paper money" based on the number of coconuts that were brought in. Not the best as they'll eventually rot but they will last a long enough time for the economy to get started Crypto was supposed to be hidden from prying eyes of the government etc. but it was the highest risk asset one could own as it had absolutely no guarantee of safety, same with NFT's no guarantee that the items would stay scarce as anyone could simply copy the digital image. We're even seeing this occur with VTubers as people create fake accounts with their names (All VTubers need to trademark their name in the country they operate as a legal protection mechanism)
On the CEO part I'd also have a "Has been in too many projects/failed startups". Some people are just braindead fraudsters who "fake it till you make it" and will have a trail of destruction behind them. Also, some times they operate as a group, taking turns on being the CEO, so you might wanna also look into the other leaders if there's multiple top positions in the firm.
Speaking of a bad vtuber model, I wanna see a vtuber with that kind of model really, since most models are having that anime artstyle and it just makes it look unoriginal in my eyes when it comes to the uniqueness of vtubing. It shouldn't be mostly associated with anime when it comes to vtubing.
hmmmmm might I add another red flag to you DN "Bundle graduation/termination of multiple talents" while on the face the agency might be colorful and developing well, a group of talents just suddenly go on to say their goodbyes and if it is a good agency then at least give each one of the talents a separate and sincere announcements rather than group them up like they are a bunch of unwanted goods, this has been applied in not only Niji (Niji-ID and the group-up 4 graduation per announcement), but even WACTOR and RIVERIE
It depends. It could be that they use the money to build a war chest you can dip into to pay for your projects. If it's neither though, yeah dip out as fast as possible.
@@MernomHard disagree. Agencies are supposed to take smaller cuts because they're taking cuts from ALL the talents. The pool will quickly add up. The agency side having the lion's share like Niji, is nothing more than exploitation of desperate people.
It's also something that is against the norm. ermch cuts should be equivalent. If you're an Indie and your manager arranges it, you get the lion's share because your manager should have multiple talents they work for
I remember going through so many auditions including nijisanji even but then i finally gave up when holostar en came, i mean how can I get myself in, comparing to the boys. I am dirt awful to even pull a normal stream right and yet i have the copium thinking I would get in. haha T - T
Practice makes perfect. Am in the same situation as you, brother, on top of having impostor syndrome. And yet, i'm pretty sure that, if I take a look at my first stream and rewatch my latest stream (been streaming for 1.5 year now, taking regular breaks, sometimes slowing down my streaming pace and never reaching more than 6 viewers at best, having 1 viewer most of the time etc), I would DEFINITELY see some HUGE improvement with the way I weave jokes into my streams, my gameplay commentary, my intonation etc etc... Just, NEVER GIVE UP :D
......... And whatever you do. Do not hire Bobby Kotick as your CEO. Sure, the man has experiance in business but he is not the kind of person you WANT as a CEO in any company much less a Vtuber Company.
You should know that if you're joining a corpo, your content does not belong to you. If you plan on being a Vsinger, for instance, the corpo will take ownership of all your music you created during your time there. The same is true if you want to be a gamer. The corpo will take over all of your gaming Live Streams and possibly gaming accounts that were made while doing business. If you are more into doing projects, depending on the projects, they may also belong to the company. You should also know what sort of content you're doing and what the company can do to assist you in it. If you plan on singing a lot, you should find a corpo more dedicated towards it, especially if you want to boost your career in it. If you want to do more projects, perhaps a comapny that can promise 3D appearances. You should also be able to negotiate with the company. They can't exist without you and the company sees you as a contractor. Infact, you should be taking your contract (Before you sign it) to a lawyer and telling your lawyer what you want and be able to create the contract as you see fit. This is negotiating and if they're serious about having you, there should be no issue to go back and forth. Some things can't be changed while others can be changed. If a corpo is deadset on their contract and will allow no changes to it, that is a red flag. That is a corpo that sees things in black and white and will not accept violations in the rules regardless of circumstances.. Should look into their most popular fan favorite vtuber, their highest subbed vtuber (They are not always the same), the lowest vtuber, a a vtuber with a competely different personality than the other three and see how management treats them. Does the lowest subbed one get support from management? Is their model ever updated? Other outfits? Do they doompost management? Does management support them and advertise them on social media? Compare all that to the others. I get it, not every vtuber is fun to watch to the majority of people, but a person at the lowest rings personality may be a direct result from management misgivings or it could be that they're just not interesting to mainstream audiences. Have years of experience as a vtuber. A corpo needs to amke sure you can hold your own against a few hundred people. Not asking you to have experience with a few hundred people, but asking you to be able to handle yourself despite the stresses in performing to that many people. It also hlelps that you have experiences with collabs. Not every person is compatible with every other person. There are some people that just don't collab well together. Regardless, you have to try to keep the momentum going regardless and its good to know how to interact that way.
Another red flag would probably be, just like what happened in a certain agnecy- is members of the staff or even the CEO being too friendly and unprofessional. Major red flag and sign that who made the agency is just in it for a power trip and some weird harem fantasy.
I've seen it mentioned that some CEOs make agencies for the powertrip/be around women, but I haven't heard of any of them. Does anyone know which one(s) he mean? Maybe some clips that show it, its baffling to me that it could be real.
There was a South African vtuber corpo that forced their (underage iirc) vtubers to do yuribait on stream. Forgot their name tho, as they're defunct now.
There is one to have the necessary assistance while you build a following. Once you have enough of an audience to leave the company do so. And given the NDA issue find a way to get into contact with that audience. Some people will know your PL, as an example when BonBon left Niji he immediately collabed with Doki as 10Jin and then he collabed with Michi with the two of them coming out as second cousins. which FalseEyeD used for content thus spreading the news of him being back even further
#14 is not necessarily a red flag. Remember there are Vtubers like Aqua that has a reputation doing solo streams. This is too generalized and might be misunderstood by a lot of hopeful talents trying to break into the Vtuber sphere. Besides that, one comment also pointed out here that not doing agency collabs doesn't necessarily mean they are in a bad spot because they might prefer doing collabs with other agencies or streamers instead. It's similar to a normal workplace. Even if your department has cool and chill people in it, sometimes you just don't want to spend time with them much compared to your other friends. It doesn't mean that they are bad people or something lol. I find it strange that this was considered a red flag in the first place.
@@anonymous68514 I don't think that's the case. For Hololive to collab with Vshojo for example, the collab has to be opportune and benefit both parties, moreover the talents are required to sign contracts, this is something not all Indies to but it is smart to draw up a contract once you get to a decent size to protect self and others as well as agree upon anything in particular such as mentioning merch or if the stream is sponsored
11:27 I 1000% agree, VTuber lore is pointless. I've been watching VTubers since 2020 and I've never watched a single VTuber because of their lore/backstory. It doesn't reflect who they are as a person or their skills/talents
I enjoy the creativity of it when it is actually story-boarded by the talent, but it's definitely something that should be left until you have throw-away cash for it.
I wouldn't call it pointless, because I do think lore can be a useful tool for branding and a great source of inside jokes and even just banter within a channel, but yeah it's definitely not something that should be a major focus, either for a company, generation/wave, or individual streamer.
Not that useful, but not really useless either. Vtuber lore is a gold mine for fanartists, who then get noticed by vtubers and eventually their corpo. Lots of fanartists that now get commissions from Hololive members and even Cover corp started off this way. Cover corp actually keeps tabs on the community, 8bit Drummer has said that Cover corp gave him a heads up about Holo songs whose MVs might give him trouble, like MariBako.
And then u got Elira Shepherd pulling out a "one less loose end" moment in real life instead of the betrayal being just part of her lore. Truly a kayfabe moment ngl
List down all your Red Flags ideas here
The way I see it is 2 different jobs essentially.
1. You're hired to stream as a vtuber/character.
In this case you shouldn't have to do stuff outside of just streaming and it would be fair if the company takes a bigger cut even just having a regular salary each month would be okay. Essentially your job is just to stream/voice act.
2. You're hired to be a vtuber content creator, stream just like normal but also do a lot of other work around streaming similar to an indie except now you're also representing the company and have bigger responsibility. Probably also do other content, like videos/shorts/music videos etc, you also have to market yourself. In this case you really need to make sure your getting a good deal since you're a big part of creating the IP and success of the Vtuber character/channel and so on.
I think in most cases its somewhere in between and you'll also hopefully have a manager/staff to help you out. But as we have seen not every manager/staff seem to know wtf they are doing.
But 1. and 2. here are two completely different jobs imo.
I already mentioned it on a separate comment but sure.
Flag #16: Lawsuit Lost
Explanation: the agency has recently lost a lawsuit against their former talents or a 3rd party, especially if it came from someone doing something illegal.
Reason: This show that either the agency done something illegal itself or they failed to protect their talents from 3rd party involvement.
Example: Nijisanji vs Narukami Sabaki on Defamation of Yuzuki Roa.
it may be surprising but the agency trying to control as many aspect of the member's life as possible is a massive red flag, such as preventing having side gigs, using their PL, communicating with some people they don't want to about things that aren't private informations.
Personally,i also have a problem with agencies that own the Vtuber IP, and the character becoming effectively deleted if they are to leave the agency, it make it so easy to prevent people from wanting to leave which lets them get away with doing more and more questionable things to them, i would like them to at the very least allow the member to buy the IP once they leave if they chose to or gift it to them past a certain time in the company.
Here's one of my top red flags: A heavily biased sub count distribution across the talents of a small agency. It can mean one of three things:
1. Those few with the significantly higher numbers are just that more talented. The question becomes how loyal they are and what becomes of the agency when they leave?
2. The management favors those talents heavily resulting in the higher numbers. In this case you'd be at a major disadvantage the moment you join.
3. There's a clique that somehow manages to supress the other talents or the smaller creators kill their chances through infighting. Toxic work environment, better move one.
Not so much a red flag as a good question to ask yourself - "If this company was offering any other kind of job than my dream job, would I be willing to work for them?" It goes for potential colleagues as well - "Would I be happy to work with these people if this was Starbucks?"
I find it funny that almost all the Phase Connect girls in gen one were like… is this a scam? Turns out to be one of the better companies.
Gen 1 thought the same too lol. Matsuri even thought she had to pay _them_ lol, coz they lent her their vtuber stuff.
@@HudaefCares Yeah, hololive checked a good number of these boxes at one point or another. They really had no idea what they were doing, didn't they?
TLDR: Do a lot of research of the agency you want to sign up. Read the contracts thoroughtly. If you notice something off, negogiate and hire a lawyer (unless your broke) when needed. If amendments weren't made, dip it out. And also keep that in mind when contract makes changes ether with or without warning (or in some cases they make a false contract that you have to dip out immeduately for you sake of your health both physically and mentally)
Feel free to add if I miss something since I skim watched the video.
"hire a lawyer"
I'm not sure that's a good way to spend your money even though not doing it entails some risk. A lot of people trying to become corporate vtubers are probably not swimming in cash. If the advice is "don't sign this contract; now hand over my fee, please" can leave you in a bad spot too.
@@seneca983 While hiring a lawyer longterm certainly wouldn't be easy would a one time job of "look through this contract for me" really be that expensive? Wouldn't be too cheap sure, but with how important it is perhaps it could be on the line of just about justifiable.
I would say always hire a lawyer to read the contract with doesn't matter even if you are broke get one, or face the consequences witch would always be worse.
@@gokbay3057 Legal Mindset addressed this issue and said a one-time contract review would be like 200 USD. In his opinion it would be worth it if the position you were applying for could potentially net you hundreds of thousands of USD and/or prevent you from enduring a nightmare like Doki or Sayu.
@@NuclearFalcon146 That's only reallly good for those that can afford it, some people who wants to join the en branches are foreigners of different countries too where 50 USD weekly pay is equivalent to 1 month of living expenses lol. It's probably only good for those really willing to go through the trouble lol.
There's also "Generation Wave Galore" as a red flag, for me at least, if a company hires many, and i mean, many talents, such as niji, in short periods of time, rather than giving a large gap between each generation to let people get used to the newest generation and connect with them, this makes talents easily overshadowed by the others, not giving them the light of day as much as they could have if there wasn't a new wave coming very shortly after, it makes it feel like these talents are numbers than people, which we know is how niji views their talents
There's not a serious problem with generation galore as a vtuber agency effectively needs more vtubers to become bigger and be able to finance things more effectively, but if looking at the numbers and its obvious that viewership is down dramatically between each generation that's debuting, gotta know when to stop for a bit.
There's also a risk that they end up cannibalizing each other's viewers.
@@Kaimine08No, there IS a serious problem with generations galore. The problem is that it only works with an exploitative business model, one where the corpo is benefitted the most by growing viewers as a whole as opposed to growing viewers for each liver. The corpo becomes focused on the brand of the corpo versus the brand of the livers themselves. If you take a cut off the rev from each view, you DON'T CARE whether any single liver is growing, you only care whether more people overall are watching. So, it becomes rational to have quantity over quality. It gets even better for the corpo because when you have quantity over quality, then don't have to pay all but the most exceptional talents the going rate for quality. So, it leads to exactly the sort of abuse that you see in Niji where talents get ignored and the company doesn't care if you have frequent graduations, because you can always just release another 20 gens and profits still increase. The entire business model is cancer. So, yes, it IS a problem.
@@JDJeanMichel I did say there is a point where it has to stop. You can't just keep creating gens thinking it will all work out. Viewership between gens is also important.it is also important to have finances. Without it, every single talent suffers for it. If you want to do projects, you need money. With more talents creating content, that creates more money to create the ability to fund more projects. Granted, Nijisanji is a poor example because they don't believe in investing in their LIvers and as such, we never see projects outside of what the Livers create with their own money. However, Nijisanji is a good example of debut galore because they have survived this long due to it. They were able to cover a shit ton of different niches in a short amount of time due to it. This allows them to cover a variety of different audiences with different tastes and they don't necessarily have to be interested in the other Livers to watch Nijisanji.
@@WanderTheNomad That's just streaming in general though.
Timestamps for the Red Flags:
01:42 - #1: No website, official email, unregistered
02:38 - #2: CEO is a literally who
04:23 - #3: Bad Models
05:47 - #4: Inactive Social Media
06:27 - #5 Short Lifespan
07:04 - #6: PL Accounts More Active
08:30 - #7: Graduations Galore
09:48 - #8: Contract Concerns
11:21 - #9: Lore > Concept???
12:50 - #10: Staff Doko?
13:59 - #11: Leaders are out of touch
15:45 - #12: Creepy Favoritism
16:38 - #13: Delayed Payments
17:58 - #14: Lack of Agency Collaborations
18:34 - #15: DRAMA
Please pin it for convenience reason.
@depressed nousagi
Tbh, some of those applied to not just vtuber agency but just general good advise when looking for job.
During contract negoiation. Its perfectly legal to read a contract right there and let them wait for a full hour as you take a pen and underline, highlight and amend the contract and handing it back to continue negoiations.
The whole quiet pressure to sign is entirely to the contract giver's advantage but they can't force you to sign nor force you to hurry up signing or read faster. Don't give in to the pressure. Its a common tactic to coerce people. To such a point its normalised.
That's true. Thought they can also refuse to continue negotiations and reject you if you wish to alter the contract.
That's also why they fill the contract with legalese. They expect to deter you from reading it.
Indeed. A contract is an agreement between two parties that one agrees to work for the other, and the other supports the one signing; if you just sign it asap, it's not an agreement between two parties.
Read it, aloud if needed, highlight things, ask questions (generally to a lawyer, they can be hired for one time things like contract signing to help), request amendments, etc, etc.
If the agency is unwilling to make any (or some) amendments, then don't sign. Don't go starry-eyed and go "Well, I do want to be a vtuber..." or something similar.
@@gokbay3057 Then they aren't an agency worth working for.
@@Practitioner_of_Diogenesyes! my dad was basically presseured into signing a contract (it was either that or he gets fired) and he refused to sign it till he recruited a lawyer, and he let his workplace know that. he later got a compromise where he would sign it but he wanted copies to take to a lawyer
Funny that my favorite agency had lots of these red flags in the beginning, even their top talent initially thought it was a scam.
Phase Connect I assume?
No, I also found it absolutely how Phase Connect started off with so many red flags, but ended up becoming a wholesome actually decent and chaotic funny company.
I loved watching how Pippa, Lia, Tenma, and Uruka’s streams went from having barely around a hundred viewers to having thousands.
@@darklazerx7913 Phase Connect
Fishman ❤
Muumi ❤
If it’s Phase you’re talking about, then I get what you mean. The fact that Pippa is so open about how bad it was back then, while openly saying she’s gonna stay for a LONG while. She even claims Phase would have fallen had Lumi never joined; along with her originally joining just to have something in her contract. Her being as open as she is reveals how comfortable she is in Phase.
It’s Idol, and the person they’re talking about is Rin Penrose, of IKEA shark fame.
Reminds me of that 4chan thread of:
Anon1: You are CEO of [big Vtuber corpo] whats the 1st thing you do?
Anon2: F*ck [Vtuber].
Anon1: How will that make profit?
Anon2: Profit?
Phase Connect has raised several of these flags 😂 and somehow they made it through
Yeah. Props to the Fishman honestly.
With the current state of vtubing, I only pray his mettle is strong and hardened to continue this journey as all eyes are on the medium corpos now, with Niji falling from grace in the west.
Damn, that first statement caught me off guard, funniest shit I've heard all week
Definitely weird timing since a similar video on this same topic came out the other day by Yam. I’ll still watch this though.
yeah, still is a weird coincidence, since making videos like this take a lot of time. yam speak of how hers was 3 month in the making
Yeah, Yam's just premiered yesterday. So, seeing this one is throwing me off.
Don't worry, Yam and Nousagi discussed it behind the scenes after they realized they were working on the same kind of video
Strange that VReverie, NijiSanji, and WACTOR all have business connections directly to mainland CN.
Perhaps that could be another red flag?
Yes, with a bunch of yellow stars in it. 🌟
Hostile takeover by the commies?
Hah!
No sht
There's one that I don't think was mentioned but is generally a red flag in any kind of business where your chances of being the top dog are basically non-existent:
Management or any staff comparing themselves to someone else in the industry an inordinate amount.
Like, it's one thing to have your CEO say he wants to be like YAGOO. But if the same guy keeps saying "You need to be like Marine" or "What would Gura do?" over and over it can be a huge problem.
Because this goes along with general advice for any kind of performance art: Don't try to be like the popular one.
Sure it can help to EMULATE the big ones. Shiori Novella had a short where she talks about what kind of camera equipment she uses. Shishiro Botan has recommendations about PC stuff.
But you shouldn't ONLY use that shit, especially if it's not in your price range.
And if your agency keeps getting random shit because "Pekora said she had it" or "Riku Tazumi used it" that's how you end up with your CEO on a fucking yacht.
By the same token, a sort of corollary to this, the opposite can also be true: Sometimes a LOT of people do something because it WORKS. A huge number of vtubers use iPhones because they work. Using some 3rd party BS because "no one's using it!" doesn't necessarily mean it's good.
It's good to find a niche. There are lots of unfilled or underfilled niches (a vtuber talking about childcare or one focusing on education without being cringe are two niches that could be filled. Giri is still the only big name cooking vtuber.) but not every whackadoo niche out there needs to be filled. We don't need a vtuber who does nothing but talk about the Roman Empire 8 hours a day every day for weeks on end. There's a reason even "Vsingers" will play games and gamer vtubers will do karaoke. There's a reason Giri gets so many people wanting to collab with her (aside from just having a good personality)
If your agency is thinking so far outside the box they forget the box exists, that's a red flag.
> Like, it's one thing to have your CEO say he wants to be like YAGOO. But if the same guy keeps saying "You need to be like Marine"
I'm chuckling after remembering that Sakana asked exactly that from Airi during her hiring process. There are clips of that :)
@@zarbis
Ironically, Phase ended up where it is today because Sakana wanted to be like Yagoo.
Not in the copycat way, (like when AnyColor tried to turn Tazumi into a forced meme) but he actually took the right notes.
What if the CEO won't stop talking about Marine?
Fine. she is based.
That just means he's based and you should buy his coffee
avoid at all costs (you will be locked inside a warehouse)
You're talking about the Fishman aren't you? He is definitely a weird one. He's more like a friend or supporter than he is a CEO. Can't really make heads or tails of how well a leader he is especially when he let's his talents bully him and disrespect him.
@@kylewood4488-b9r watch a clip of Pippa talking about the collabs in the beginning and how she felt along With talking to muumi and you'll realize he maybe bullied but he certainly knows how to be a boss
With the PL accounts. Some are just a side thing so friends can still play together, even after graduation/termination. I loved Doki's collab with RPR and people we know very well.
Ah yes, the "TSB". I mean, that's the common loophole. If you're a corpo and your IP doesn't belong to you: use the corpo for the "clean" stuff and use your PL for the "freedom" content. That's how you balance them.
I saw a reddit post about some guy named Han Byeol gifting Sayu some subs, and in the comments someone mentioned that they collabed pretty closely after Zaion got terminated.
@@gurugurumawaru7869Im pretty sure you're not allowed to do that in the other big neighbour company...Maybe a tweet or some community notes, but im fairly sure you cannot "make" content in your PL
@@FuMiO02110 Maybe not in Nijisanji but Hololive has tons of people who do stuff on their PLs
@@BRBingeDrinker Thats what im saying
Technically could be part of point 11 but when the senior management doesn't speak the same language as you and/or your only way to communicate with them is through your assigned manager.
One thing about #10 that I think should be expanded upon or given its own number is a talent or talents taking on managerial duties. Yeah, that is allegedly relevant with NijiEN but there are confirmed cases like Tsunderia, Cyberlive and Akio Air.
Damn, I literally just finished watching another red flag VTuber company video minutes ago! What timing 😲
2:45 I remember my first exposure to Pippa was when she interviewed that one Vtubing CEO from the company that basically failed. This red flag instantly reminded me of that person.
You prob can add one more red flag:
Flag #16: Lawsuit Lost
Explanation: the agency has recently lost a lawsuit against their former talents or a 3rd party, especially if it came from someone doing something illegal.
Reason: This show that either the agency done something illegal itself or they failed to protect their talents from 3rd party involvement.
Example: Nijisanji vs Narukami Sabaki on Defamation of Yuzuki Roa.
Or really just any kind of excess of lawsuits.
@@kyuven
Fair. Tho that would also apply to company like Apple and Google tho. That’s why I want to specify it on lawsuit lost rather than sheer number.
If the talents have sued the company that is already a pretty big red flag. I mean, it is possible the company was in the right but you really should look into the case before deciding whether to sign on with them.
I'd just include that as an addition to Point #15. Drama is drama.
@@AyaReikoTripleElite
Lawsuit is way beyond than just drama tho. Drama usually doesn’t end with one side sue another.
#14 might be a bit too generalized, and in fact as presented in this video may be actually harmful to the perception of collaborations as a whole. Many vtubers from agencies like Hololive, VSPO, and others tend to do lots of extra-agency collabs (e.g. Laplus), and many may not be particularly inclined to collab in the first place and prefer solo streaming (e.g. Aqua in her early years), that doesn't mean the vtubers in question are in some sort of bad situation or something within the agency, it may just come down to their personal inclinations and preferences. Just throwing the entire conclusion into "whatever the reason is, it's bad" lacks the sort of nuance the other points made in the video do, and makes this particular aspect of vtubing look far worse than it really is.
Agreed with this. I hope this gets up higher in the top comments. #14 is a bad take.
Up
I feel like his point was excessive extra agency collabs and uncomfortable in agency collabs rather than more collabs outside the company than inside the company. Like, 20 out of agency collabs for every in agency collab being the norm for talent is probably worrying, more so than 7 to 1.
oof red flag 9 hurts a bit, because the Vtuber I want to be is one that has a lot of lore and stories tied to him, which I plan on having directly influence a lot of my content down the line. I'm still determined to go that path, maybe it's different for an indie, but I can tell it won't be easy
yeah it's kinda hurt but I think the main point is just to not go overboard with lore
and yeah I think no one should go overboard with anything anyway
The point is probably calling back to AkioAIR, which started out with the concept of "vtubers telling a story." You can see this a lot in their first gen's early streams, where they had scripted lore videos, story arcs, and interaction with chat and gameplay sometimes moving their story along.
Ironically, it was actually the move away from that that showed how toxic that company was. When Athy started getting popular for regular vtuber reasons (her cover of Ghost got attention when it was played as an ad before other vtubers' streams) and the lore videos proved unpopular, they pressured the talent to drop the gimmick and leave the story unfinished. This especially caused friction with Fen, who wanted to keep her devoted fanbase engaged with the story streams they'd grown to love, while the company blamed that for her low numbers (she stuck with the story thing longer and more so than the rest) and berated her until she quit.
@@SecretIdentityStudioah. Well, in that case it had more to do with the manedgement just being shitty, which would've happened regardless of the story aspect
He mentions in that part that it's excusable if the lore will actually be used for stuff, and since you intend to make practical use of it(?) it should be fine.
I think the underlying message is to have good resource management and that a "trap" some agencies seem to fall for is to put to much resources towards irrelevant lore which would be better used elsewhere.
If you actually plan to make use of the lore in a way which can help your career, for example by having lore writing streams or making an interactive comic to engage your audience, it's perfectly reasonable to put more resources towards it than for a vtuber where the lore is just background noise.
RED FLAG 🚩
(If The people that interview you seem very immature a.k.a sound like kids)
I have had a couple of interviews for some agencies mostly small to micro corps as I didn’t feel comfortable with the medium/big corps, But the most memorable interview I had was for a now disbanded company, the interviewer’s consisted of the CEO, CCO and 2 girls that I assumed to be managers at the time.
When I hopped on call with them the first thing I was greeted by was all of them laughing and they told me “sorry we were laughing at a meme another applicant sent us” I was kinda weirded out by that at first but didn’t think of it much after that, we then went on to introductions and immediately the 2 girls voices caught my attention cause they sounded so young and not in like an anime way they sounded like they were 13, the ceo and cco sounded like ur average E-boy trying to do the rough fuckboi voice but failing so overall your average discord voice chat, but like they were interviewing me while trying not to laugh, which overall kinda just fucked over my confidence for the interview. Must also add they were an hour late and did not tell me anything so I was waiting for an hour.
They also were very adamant on applicants already having a vtuber model even though they stated in their applications, you would be given a new one and you would start from scratch, well what found out later is that they be given a new channel with a new name, but still use the same model you had before, overall their whole shitck was kinda shit and there were very much putting on a front while cutting corners in all facets.
Tbh they probably weren’t the worst but definitely the most memorable, thanks for reading 🙇♀️
TLDR: immature teens not knowing how to do interviews or run a company 🚩
Phase Connect deserves some love for sure! In Sakana I trust!
If I had a nickel for every time someone made a video about red flags in Vtuber agencies and uploaded it today, I had two nickels
Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice
I think some of the key points are
1 research the company and their contracts
2 sceptical with their or your management
3 be a bit wary of your coworkers...
The 14th point is kind-of less necessary I think? As you said, some people just prefers doing solo and requesting collab can be a challenge I think? Of course your agency can help to reach or like finalize a collab between agencies but... Or you can reach out to whoever you wanna collab with...
People who didn't watch the entire video yet, but still comment. Am I right.
Thats a red flag 😂
I mean I'm not interested in seeing the cute girls all the time so I just hear dn
you are right lad 😎
But that thing was funny tho
Giving myself away but I plead guilty on these charges. (Sometimes)
Yam and Nousagi coming for these companies
Coincidentally that both made the same topic in a same day.
i once joined a starting agency, working as an artist.
i got harassed for prioritising my ACTUAL job and PAID clients over something they did not want to pay me for.
once i left, they went to my social media, found my commission promotion, and started advertising their other artists there.
there was a lot of drama, including DOXXING AND HARASSMENT, that i and the talents were left to figure out how to solve on our own.
please do your research. don't be like me.
12:44 Saida Aisu, LET'S GOOO!!
that model NEVER gets old, I love it
Hololive got insanely lucky with all the amazing fan artists writing much deeper lores and making animatiion lore videos for free.
Council lore by that artist Super appleman? Or tywn ? Is amazing.
Do not forget ma boi KUGEKI with his insane Holo Universe animations :D
Just a note, Yam Albat posted up a similar "red flags" video yesterday on her channel; from the looks of it, this video and hers overlap on a number of points, but you might want to compare what she presented with your content here.
(Edit: Okay, saw you two are already on the same page in your pinned comment. Cool. :)
after all this stuff that has happened, it's great to see a video explaining what to look out for. These corporations are really screwing up these people's lives.
It's cool that both you and Yam had the same idea, but a bunch of the points are very different. If someone makes a third one, there could be a tier list
I'm wonder how many red flags a certain "adult vtuber" agency is gonna accumulate after auditions open tomorrow
Another thing to consider- who owns the character IP and assets, you or the agency? The agency owning that stuff isn't inherently a red flag since that's pretty standard for how the big agencies operate, especially the Japanese ones, but it's something important to consider, since the vtubing scene's taboos about past lives means that if you leave the agency or it goes under, you have to effectively start over from scratch and it's not guaranteed how many of your old fans will follow you.
Was in a very small agency once. I can verify that I've basically missed every red flag in this video back then.
Remember when AkioAIR tried to sass back their haters by describing themselves as "a questionable and very shady vtuber agency" in their profile? Knowing what we know now... talk about a self-report.
Speaking of CEO's knowledge in the industry, I have a thought experiment:
If Sakana is still open with trading the entire Phase roster in exchange for taking Marine from Yagoo, how could this unfold?
A fully functional corpo that's not on the red on paper (no longer sure after JP and gen3 release, but they seem strong and promising right now, so they could probably recoup those costs relatively fast) that has very strong potential for growth in exchange for just one that's at the apex of the game.
I got nothing more, i just enjoy that internal joke in PC.
Would never happen. You should look into who Sakana is and his business history if you want to know more.
My reply got deleted twice so I'll mention it here again. Look at the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference 2016.
PC will likely expand to CN eventually.
@@DaskeXSaku this is just a joke idea, no worries. Now I need to read more about him.
@@carlorielmendez6505 It's a novel idea for sure.
BTW he deleted his LinkedIn photo for some reason but it still shows up. Interesting part to look at is his Canadian Internet Marketing Conference 2016.
@ielmendez6505 It's a novel idea.
If you want to look into him start with the name and make sure to check the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference 2016.
Phase Connect isn't the companys only investment. They are a coffee business first and foremost.
I kinda get what you want to say by that the agencies have to have enough staff, but trust me, more doesn't mean better in that regard. I've worked many years in corpo, as a matter of fact my whole working career has been corpo work, and having more and more managers, directors, chiefs and what not does absolutely not equal better quality of work in said company. Usually it means there are just more people to shift the blame on. You need skilled workers that can easily work with others, not just more workers. I've worked with people on the lower end of the corpo food chain that could do work of 4 people and wouldn't even break a sweat in their working hours. Hell they even had the time to bum around. And I've also worked with managers that didn't do fuck all and never had enough time for anything. So it's all about quality not quantity. I've worked in this shit for multiple years across multiple companies and everywhere the story is the same: having more and more managers and other higherups never ends good for regular workers.
I just realized that i haven't checked out mythos since the debut watchalong. I'll check them out again because they seemed solid.
So i just realised this, most holomember still have their 2nd channel(original channel) to post, streaming even sometimes accidently mentioning their "anime" avatar
Meanwhile in Kurosanji, their 2nd channel(original channel) is completely abandoned. They even make a bye bye-see you again as last videos
Also when Holomember take a long break, they just turned out fine more healthy more confident. Meanwhile in Kurosanji when taking a break(not even a long one) they graduated later and there is no bye bye stream it just turned to ashes
Huge W for Holo since they literally giving a freedom, for their members. Kurosanji is 100% black company because they have so much policy but not defended their members and just throwing them like trash when something bad happen
When your CEO says you need to sell more coffee so he can buy more diamonds.
Phase connect
Red Flag N°16: they sell coffee ☕🐟
lmao fishman based
When the agency conducts deficit spending.
Thanks for the video!
The most important part; If companies like these are hiring a SIGNIFICANT amount of talents in one go or high frequency.
These are know shady tactics known among the “idol agencies” in person (the spheres where AKB46 came from). Just because it’s irl idol agencies doesn’t mean the tactic can’t be applied on vtuber.
With hiring so much talents, how can they CULTIVATE said talents? It means they’re just trying to see who gets popular. Basically: produce enough people, there’s bound to be some to rake in the money at the sacrifice of the others a no.1 Black Company mark in agency type orgs. Niji is the biggest perpetrator of this. Even Holo is sorta slow since the beginning.
This is why I never subscribed to Niji besides the fact that their talents are all lewd bait in some form or another.
No.5 red flag is hit or miss if more companies follow the Niji model described here.
Another red flag you could add is: Criticism from former talents.
Explanation: The previous talents who worked at a company you are looking into joining has said little to no positive things about it and have a lot of negatives to say instead.
Reason: While trusting the criticism of single person isn't always the best choice, it's best to keep it in mind because maybe that person was hard to work with or was fighting with the staff but when the criticism is being said by multiple talents and the same thing is being said or similar to one another, that is a problem that can stem from the environment they had to work in or the people they had to work with behind the scenes.
Think of it in another way, would you buy a product if it had 1000 reviews and over 50% or more of the reviews were negative? It's always something you should be careful and think over before actually going through with it.
not here about joining an agency, just wanna learn out of curiosity
6:29 something sus on the bottom left 😂
This is the second similar stream/video I’ve watched in 24 hours because Yam Albat did one yesterday. Honestly, I suspected that you talked to her about it BEFORE reading the comment above that confirmed it because of timing.
This is the second Vtuber agency red flag video I have seen today.
lol did you see Yam's vid and think "she forgot a couple points?"
Thank you for showing me the flags!
Wait if the contract is too good to be true and you confirmed it with a lawyer then why the fuck wouldn't you sign it? xD
It could be a sign that they have no ideal how to run a business if they offer a contract that is to the agency's disadvantage without any negotiations, especially if there are other red flags.
Did you and Yam chat or something or is this just a bizarrely timed coincidence?
We just share a brain cell! 😂 (we did discuss it ahead of time!)
@@YamAlbatThank you for commenting.
Good thing I am the artist and CEO who is learning to do models and ensuring to learn professional grade
lmao this is funny that I've watched another video of almost similar title and focus on red flags to this.
Funny enough some of this flags describe phase connect Gen 1
Well everything turned out fine in the end. The CEO is just a weirdo that's all. Also they sell coffee so that alone should tell you that they at least have an idea of how to run a business.
@@kylewood4488-b9r The coffee merch is probably pretty lucrative online as most of NA drinks coffee. It probably gets the company costs to balance out
Not only this video is for those who wanted to join Vtuber Agencies but also those who wanted to invest on creating Vtuber Agencies, prevent atleast 90% of them. 4:50 bro literally roasting himself. But again he is also roasted me too *look at my pfp*
We also now have track records for a lot of the agencies that can be compared to.
Well. I'm no expert, but if an agency implements crypto/NFTs, that's a massive red flag for me.
Crypto/NFTs ruined a lot of things, including certain games, and Kizuna got in hot water because of it. 🤨
P.S. 6000something to go.
Gib DN Silver Plate already! 🧐
The problem with Crypto is that it has no "backing" government money has at least a guarantee backing it, crypto doesn't even have that. When Haiti declared independance they issed currency "Paper money" based on the number of coconuts that were brought in. Not the best as they'll eventually rot but they will last a long enough time for the economy to get started
Crypto was supposed to be hidden from prying eyes of the government etc. but it was the highest risk asset one could own as it had absolutely no guarantee of safety, same with NFT's no guarantee that the items would stay scarce as anyone could simply copy the digital image. We're even seeing this occur with VTubers as people create fake accounts with their names (All VTubers need to trademark their name in the country they operate as a legal protection mechanism)
On the CEO part I'd also have a "Has been in too many projects/failed startups". Some people are just braindead fraudsters who "fake it till you make it" and will have a trail of destruction behind them. Also, some times they operate as a group, taking turns on being the CEO, so you might wanna also look into the other leaders if there's multiple top positions in the firm.
YOU MEAN EVEN IF I CREATE MY OWN VTUBER AGENCY I CAN'T MAKE IT INTO MY OWN PERSONAL HAREM? OH NO... 😂
Speaking of a bad vtuber model, I wanna see a vtuber with that kind of model really, since most models are having that anime artstyle and it just makes it look unoriginal in my eyes when it comes to the uniqueness of vtubing. It shouldn't be mostly associated with anime when it comes to vtubing.
hmmmmm might I add another red flag to you DN "Bundle graduation/termination of multiple talents"
while on the face the agency might be colorful and developing well, a group of talents just suddenly go on to say their goodbyes and if it is a good agency then at least give each one of the talents a separate and sincere announcements rather than group them up like they are a bunch of unwanted goods, this has been applied in not only Niji (Niji-ID and the group-up 4 graduation per announcement), but even WACTOR and RIVERIE
Ayo, is it me or do you have new expressions in this video? Also some of them are not fully transparent and have white chunks flying around.
Green flag is having a fish CEO
wactor has all of them tbh. just like quagmire from family guy
The Small cuts is the biggest giveaway a company is a possible Black one
It depends. It could be that they use the money to build a war chest you can dip into to pay for your projects.
If it's neither though, yeah dip out as fast as possible.
@@MernomHard disagree. Agencies are supposed to take smaller cuts because they're taking cuts from ALL the talents. The pool will quickly add up.
The agency side having the lion's share like Niji, is nothing more than exploitation of desperate people.
@@gurugurumawaru7869 I'm saying that if they do take bigger cuts, the least they can do is provide financial support for projects.
It's also something that is against the norm. ermch cuts should be equivalent. If you're an Indie and your manager arranges it, you get the lion's share because your manager should have multiple talents they work for
5:06 NEED
That's inami yoki. She's fun.
Red flags with a bunch of star in it
I remember going through so many auditions including nijisanji even but then i finally gave up when holostar en came, i mean how can I get myself in, comparing to the boys. I am dirt awful to even pull a normal stream right and yet i have the copium thinking I would get in. haha T - T
Practice makes perfect. Am in the same situation as you, brother, on top of having impostor syndrome. And yet, i'm pretty sure that, if I take a look at my first stream and rewatch my latest stream (been streaming for 1.5 year now, taking regular breaks, sometimes slowing down my streaming pace and never reaching more than 6 viewers at best, having 1 viewer most of the time etc), I would DEFINITELY see some HUGE improvement with the way I weave jokes into my streams, my gameplay commentary, my intonation etc etc...
Just, NEVER GIVE UP :D
Hearing Okay - 13ounce, You know it's gonna be shitshow
......... And whatever you do. Do not hire Bobby Kotick as your CEO. Sure, the man has experiance in business but he is not the kind of person you WANT as a CEO in any company much less a Vtuber Company.
Peak content
You should know that if you're joining a corpo, your content does not belong to you. If you plan on being a Vsinger, for instance, the corpo will take ownership of all your music you created during your time there. The same is true if you want to be a gamer. The corpo will take over all of your gaming Live Streams and possibly gaming accounts that were made while doing business. If you are more into doing projects, depending on the projects, they may also belong to the company.
You should also know what sort of content you're doing and what the company can do to assist you in it. If you plan on singing a lot, you should find a corpo more dedicated towards it, especially if you want to boost your career in it. If you want to do more projects, perhaps a comapny that can promise 3D appearances. You should also be able to negotiate with the company. They can't exist without you and the company sees you as a contractor. Infact, you should be taking your contract (Before you sign it) to a lawyer and telling your lawyer what you want and be able to create the contract as you see fit. This is negotiating and if they're serious about having you, there should be no issue to go back and forth. Some things can't be changed while others can be changed. If a corpo is deadset on their contract and will allow no changes to it, that is a red flag. That is a corpo that sees things in black and white and will not accept violations in the rules regardless of circumstances..
Should look into their most popular fan favorite vtuber, their highest subbed vtuber (They are not always the same), the lowest vtuber, a a vtuber with a competely different personality than the other three and see how management treats them. Does the lowest subbed one get support from management? Is their model ever updated? Other outfits? Do they doompost management? Does management support them and advertise them on social media? Compare all that to the others. I get it, not every vtuber is fun to watch to the majority of people, but a person at the lowest rings personality may be a direct result from management misgivings or it could be that they're just not interesting to mainstream audiences.
Have years of experience as a vtuber. A corpo needs to amke sure you can hold your own against a few hundred people. Not asking you to have experience with a few hundred people, but asking you to be able to handle yourself despite the stresses in performing to that many people. It also hlelps that you have experiences with collabs. Not every person is compatible with every other person. There are some people that just don't collab well together. Regardless, you have to try to keep the momentum going regardless and its good to know how to interact that way.
Another red flag would probably be, just like what happened in a certain agnecy-
is members of the staff or even the CEO being too friendly and unprofessional.
Major red flag and sign that who made the agency is just in it for a power trip and some weird harem fantasy.
Kind of curious what certain agency you are referring to here
I think KoMETA. Or AkioAIR.
thank you nousagi very cool
Just commenting to let everyone know that I love Nene.
Why did you decapitate ember like that in the thumbnail😭
Anyone know who the vtuber at 10:24 is?! She looks cool as hell! Hopefully not with "that company".
The model and bf art is so pretty
lorelai loch, seems to be indie
@@lycheesodamusic Thank you! 🙏🙏
Good job pointing up the warning signs of possible #000000 company woes 🙍♂️👍
I've seen it mentioned that some CEOs make agencies for the powertrip/be around women, but I haven't heard of any of them. Does anyone know which one(s) he mean? Maybe some clips that show it, its baffling to me that it could be real.
I've seen people reference AkioAIR. Though, that may be a case of what it became versus it being its original intent.
AkioAir
Mysterialive was even shadier about it than Akio. Hiring a minor and asking her to roleplay your daughter.
AkioAir and Wactor. Both horribly exploited talents and women. Bad "human" beings in general, if they even deserve to be called humans.
There was a South African vtuber corpo that forced their (underage iirc) vtubers to do yuribait on stream. Forgot their name tho, as they're defunct now.
There is no reason to join a agency at this point.
There is one to have the necessary assistance while you build a following. Once you have enough of an audience to leave the company do so. And given the NDA issue find a way to get into contact with that audience. Some people will know your PL, as an example when BonBon left Niji he immediately collabed with Doki as 10Jin and then he collabed with Michi with the two of them coming out as second cousins. which FalseEyeD used for content thus spreading the news of him being back even further
Yam Albat made a similar video to yours 20 hours ago... I trust that you take more than 20 hours to make that, but it still is interesting
weird coincidence that this is so close to another content creator's similar video
18:24 - 18:34 mika in the nutshell
...Melatika?
@@Kaimine08 the one and only
bro, naomi just got her final paycheck yesterday or so after graduating over a month earlier
wtf? mcdonalds does better than that
Hopefully this will help a lot of talents from getting into bad/black companies
UP UP UP UP UP UP
12:45 saidu aisu clip
YAGOO......PERHAPS......JUST SAYIN
What is the background music at the beginning of the video?
Your rent is $150/month? It's gotta be in Laguna
#14 is not necessarily a red flag. Remember there are Vtubers like Aqua that has a reputation doing solo streams. This is too generalized and might be misunderstood by a lot of hopeful talents trying to break into the Vtuber sphere.
Besides that, one comment also pointed out here that not doing agency collabs doesn't necessarily mean they are in a bad spot because they might prefer doing collabs with other agencies or streamers instead. It's similar to a normal workplace. Even if your department has cool and chill people in it, sometimes you just don't want to spend time with them much compared to your other friends. It doesn't mean that they are bad people or something lol.
I find it strange that this was considered a red flag in the first place.
More collab with other agency = More possibility the important information of corpo being leaked
@@anonymous68514 I don't think that's the case. For Hololive to collab with Vshojo for example, the collab has to be opportune and benefit both parties, moreover the talents are required to sign contracts, this is something not all Indies to but it is smart to draw up a contract once you get to a decent size to protect self and others as well as agree upon anything in particular such as mentioning merch or if the stream is sponsored
Riku tazumi has 0 work experience pre niji
5:09 who’s this smug gremlin? And what’s with this girl? 12:48
You and Bat girl have both now made vids on this.
11:27 I 1000% agree, VTuber lore is pointless. I've been watching VTubers since 2020 and I've never watched a single VTuber because of their lore/backstory. It doesn't reflect who they are as a person or their skills/talents
I enjoy the creativity of it when it is actually story-boarded by the talent, but it's definitely something that should be left until you have throw-away cash for it.
I wouldn't call it pointless, because I do think lore can be a useful tool for branding and a great source of inside jokes and even just banter within a channel, but yeah it's definitely not something that should be a major focus, either for a company, generation/wave, or individual streamer.
Not that useful, but not really useless either. Vtuber lore is a gold mine for fanartists, who then get noticed by vtubers and eventually their corpo. Lots of fanartists that now get commissions from Hololive members and even Cover corp started off this way.
Cover corp actually keeps tabs on the community, 8bit Drummer has said that Cover corp gave him a heads up about Holo songs whose MVs might give him trouble, like MariBako.
And then u got Elira Shepherd pulling out a "one less loose end" moment in real life instead of the betrayal being just part of her lore. Truly a kayfabe moment ngl
MY OLD AGENCY SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED
WingedMyth you really fucked me up