#48 – Youtaite Census 2023

ADVISORY: This blog post is long! Each graph will be followed by my commentary. Please feel free to skip the text and jump directly between the images if you prefer.

INTRODUCTION

It has been a full year since the last Youtaite Census. Chorus Battles remain a staple of youtaite activities, new community resources (youtaite.com) have sprung up, and community-run events (#yttbepositive, #yttrewind, #yttshowcase) have become a regular occurrence.

In the context of the above, the writer has once again created a Google Forms-based survey to assess current trends in the community throughout 2023 and to shed light on some hot topics from the year.

This survey was promoted through X-better-known-as-Twitter, Discord, and the Youtaite Resources webpage. It ran from November 14, 2023 to January 7, 2023. In total, 429 responses were received, up from 363 in 2022.

Sources of Bias

The writer operates a Love Live-centric Twitter and results may be biased toward Love Live fans.

Financial Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Mochi, who ran previous iterations of the Youtaite Census.

RESULTS

Index

1. General Analysis Set Defined
2. Demographics (questions 1-5)
3. Youtaite Activities (questions 6-23)
4. Youtaite Sentiment (questions 24-25)
5. Youtaite Supporters
6. 2023 Youtaite
7. Free Text Responses (question 26 and bonus questions)

General Analysis Set Defined

Of 429 respondents, 421 were included in the general analysis. These respondents correspond to those who self-identified as any of the following: a youtaite, a former youtaite, a youtaite on hiatus, a member of the community who is active on projects, a member of the community who is active socially, or someone who works with youtaite on creative projects.

Individuals who support youtaite as friends/fans but who did not select any of the other above options are included in a dedicated supplemental analysis.

Demographics

This question has evolved significantly compared to 2022; take direct comparisons with a grain of salt. Many former and on-hiatus youtaite were captured in this survey, in addition to youtaite-adjacent individuals (“I am not a youtaite but work with them on creative projects”).

Between 15-22% of community members do not consider themselves “youtaite”. Amongst respondents who selected either “I am a youtaite” or “I am a member of the community” (both circles), 15% do not consider themselves youtaite. Using a stricter denominator of only those who responded “I am a member of the community” (blue circle), 22% do not consider themselves youtaite.

An oft-repeated question is “what is a youtaite?” Question 6 will expand on this question.

The average Youtaite is older. Youtaite in the 23 to 27 age bracket now make up the clear majority.

In addition to long-time youtaite growing older, working-aged individuals are joining the community. Creative expression as well as freelance work may be factors.

New youtaite make up the largest captured cohort of the current community, implying ongoing community growth.

The spikes in 2016 & 2017 were observed during the 2022 census as well, increasing confidence that the two surveys are pulling from the same population of individuals.

Former youtaite (left) and youtaite on hiatus (right) tended to have first joined in the community prior to 2018.

The results are similar to 2022.

Respondents left comments that intersect with this question.

• “I think we can work on being more gender inclusive and less cis-gendered in our naming of vocal parts.”

Representation from non-North American countries rose slightly relative to 2022.

All countries with at least 4 youtaite reported are labeled on the chart. Countries with 3 or fewer respondents include: Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Vietnam, Austria, Brunei, China, Finland, Hungary, Kenya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Youtaite Activities

The number of original lyricists, mixers, and artists might be on the rise. These categories received ~10% higher percentages than in 2022.

Translyricists might be on the decline. The absolute number of translyricists remains the same but the proportion has decreased by ~10%. Has the popularity of original works decreased the relevance of this role?

The proportion of animators remains steady at 30%.

New categories include scripter and permanent group leader/director. A notable number of individuals (64) lead permanent groups.

Other roles include: QC, sprite edits, topline, video editor, character design, writer, cheerleader.

Non-vocalists were 48% less likely to identify as youtaite compared to vocalists, when considering the 373 respondents who selected either “I am a youtaite” or “I am a community member”.

Community members who do not identify as youtaite are 14% less likely to be vocalists.

Taken together, the above two graphs suggest a correlation between vocalist status and self-identification as a youtaite. This conclusion is greatly limited by the small number of non-vocalists in this survey (making up only 3-7% of respondents). Possible explanations include:

• the vast majority of community members do indeed take the vocalist role (even if it isn’t their main one)
• non-vocalist community members self-selected out of answering the survey as they did not feel it applied to them

In general, youtaite are multi-skilled but a few community members stand out:

• 26 individuals have reached avatar status
• 18 individuals have the skills to self-produce a song from scratch to finish
• “Jack of all trades” refers to youtaite who selected at least 13 of the presented roles in this question
• “Master of one” refers to those who selected exactly one role.

Mandarin (17%) and French (13%) both broke the 10% threshold in 2023, with Korean also making a modest gain (35%, up from 31% in 2022).

Other languages include: Hebrew, Filipino*, Tagalog*, Portuguese, Thai, Conlang (constructed language), Vietnamese, Malay, Norwegian, Swedish, Irish, Latin, Finnish, Esperanto, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Hungarian (*self-reported)

Aside from converting this into a bar graph, the results are similar to 2022. Most (80%) youtaite have participated in at least one chorus battle.

Youtaite were more likely to participate in chorus battles in 2023 compared to 2022. In 2023, 57% of youtaite participated in at least one CB, compared to 40% in 2022. Two youtaite reported participating in 5 or more CBs during 2023.

Chorus battles remain a very popular activity and it seems to have made a resurgence. Vintage Chorus Battle, which started registration in September 2023, saw the largest number of entries in any English-speaking Chorus Battle by the end of its first round on January 14, 2024.

When considering youtaite who want to participate in chorus battles, more than half (58%) reported being unable to participate due to not being able to join a team.

Being unable to proceed with a CB due to an incomplete team is common but to a lesser degree. This has happened to 36% of interested youtaite. 11% of youtaite report the lack of a vocalist being the limiting factor. 34% report that the lack of staff was the issue.

One commenter said that they “ended up arranging [their] own team” while another said that “existing members took on the missing [roles]”

Most youtaite (56%) who were interested in CBs or collaborations feel that they had to take on additional roles to participate at least once in the past 2 years. At the same time, one-in-five (19%) acknowledged being unsure whether doubling played any significant role in being able to join teams. Some youtaite were unable to join teams regardless of roles.

Breaking down the specific roles, mixing followed by art were the most common additional roles taken on in order to join teams/collaborations.

Non-competitive choruses and group tours/festivals might be popular alternatives to CBs.

CBs with alternate structures are likely at least as popular as the typical CB.

The idea of solo tours and open invitation choruses seem to generate similar levels of interest as a typical CB.

A significant subset of respondents expressed interest in watch parties but they are likely less popular than CBs.

36% of youtaite have vtuber models, which is nearly identical to 2022. Note: the 2023 question removed mention of PNG models.

The number of streaming youtaite rose from 27% in 2022 to 34% in 2023. This may be an ongoing trend as youtaite diversify their activities and hobbies.

Interest in ani-idol music saw a modest decline (down to 48%), while most other categories were relatively stable.

The new categories “musicals”, “jazz” and “video games” are very popular choices. A number of youtaite have already been involved in the music of various games (Noisz Starlight). Video game fan-songs have also become very popular (Hoyoverse creator events).

Tiktok has made the most gains compared to 2022. Twitch also saw a rise. Facebook and Instagram failed to make any gains.

Also: Threads, Mastodon, Telegram, Misskey, Email, Hinge, Smule, Bilibili

Participation in non-CB collaborations is similar compared to last year.

Fewer youtaite participated in more than 20 collabs (7.6%, down from 12.4%).

These numbers are also similar compared to 2022. Four individuals hosted more than 20 projects in this survey.

Regarding custom artwork on personal solo videos, more than half of respondents (51%) selected “4” or “5” on this scale. Only one-in-seven (14%) chose “never bother.”

For custom animations, the proportion of “4” or “5” is lower compared to question 20 – at only 42%. However, the number of respondents who selected “5” is similar between the two questions (27% vs 30%). Writer suspects that there is a significant subset of very motivated individuals in the community.

A large majority (72%) of respondents are more likely to attempt custom visuals when moving from solo personal content to collaborations.

One commenter wrote, “It typically depends on bandwidth and skill of the team. If there are very few who can double, I will be less inclined to include custom visuals”. Another wrote, “I am not an artist/animator, but would try to get an artist to do art of everyone’s OCs, at the very least chibis.”

This result illustrates very clearly that the days when simple nico nico videos were the default option for most youtaite collaborations are well past us.

The majority (57%) of community members did not spend any money on hardware during 2023

A similar majority (61%) of community members did not spend money on software during 2023

In contrast, most community members (63%) spent money on commissions and services during 2023. The youtaiteconomy is stimulated by 24 members (6%) who spent over 1000USD in 2023. The most frequent spend-range was 100.01-500USD.

The writer estimates that a single piece of artwork will push individuals close to (or possibly into) the 100.01+ USD range. Full artwork and animation for a medium-sized chorus will likely cost between 500.01 to 1500USD.

The above estimates do not account for trades, favors, and non-commission collabs. They also do not account for staffing on your own videos. One respondent commented, “rather than spending money on production costs, I think the community should normalize trading skills… it’s what me and my friends have been doing (exchanging art for mix… etc.)”

When comparing age brackets, younger youtaite tend to spend less. Using 23 years of age as the cut-off, 49% of older youtaite spent at least 100.01USD compared to 31% of younger youtaite.

Youtaite Sentiment

As a sign of success, 75% or more selected the following as “important to me”:

• being proud of one’s work
• making progress in one’s craft

50% or more selected:

• being liked by other community members
• being respected by other community members
• audience metrics

25% or more selected:

• social media engagement
• participation in non-CB collabs
• earning side-income

A viable main career, popularity, and chorus battles were the least popular answers to this question. This is in spite of the high profile of chorus battles. Perhaps chorus battles represent pride and progress in one’s work rather than the end goal themselves.

When respondents were limited to no more than 3 answers, pride in one’s work, making progress in one’s craft, and viable main career maintained the greatest proportion of their original respondents (more than 70% kept these as their top answers). The overall relative rankings remained stable.

The most common “other” answers were related to having fun, finding community, and making friends.

• “Finding other community members with similar musicality…”

• “Being able to interact socially… [having this] as my main online community…”

• “Having fun was always most important to me…”

• “Creating a safe space and helping people in the community”

There was a modest increase in the “Yes” responses compared to 2022 (82% vs 75%).

Youtaite Supporters

This subset of individuals selected that they are not youtaite but support them as friends or fans.

Sanity check: their near-zero participation rate in CBs is consistent with their self-categorization as youtaite supporters instead of youtaite.

86% of supporters are at least thinking of participating in the community in 2024.

Three of these individuals were exposed to the community through their friends. Two of them discovered the community through covers/cover artists.

Of these 7 respondents, one described themself as an “aspiring youtaite”. Three of them are vocalists. There are two artists, one lyricist, one translyricist, a composer and instrumentalist, and a group organizer.

In this group of respondents, the most popular music genres were Vocaloid (5), J-pop (5), Video games (5), Anime (4), J-rock (4).

2023 Youtaite

This subset of respondents indicated that they joined the community during 2023. They are considered in this analysis to be “new” youtaite.

Although 2023 youtaite tend to be younger and over-represent the 17-or-younger and 18-22 age brackets, the majority (73%) are still adults (18 years of age or older).

Most new youtaite are vocalists, just like in the general analysis, but they have much lower rates of mix/master/audio editing experience.

Regarding staff skills, the proportion of artists (solo) in this subset appears at least as high as in the general analysis. The proportion of animators is slightly lower (24% vs 30%).

Despite having just as many vocalists as the general analysis, the number who do harmony guides/arrangements is significantly lower.

As seen in the Q12 analysis, Youtaite often feel they need additional skills to be able to participate in CBs. This may pose a barrier to newer youtaite, who report having fewer staff skills on average. In the comments, one respondent wrote “I know that I wouldn’t be able to join teams with only vocals role.”

The writer recognizes that CBs are highly competitive and are unlikely to become more beginner-friendly in the near future. Fortunately, the community has benefited from additional types of events drawing everyone together.

The overall ordering of measures of success is similar between 2023 youtaite and the general analysis. There appear to be modest differences in proportions for some options but these were not statistically tested.

For example, compared to the general analysis, 2023 youtaite are (using absolute percentage change)

• 7% more likely to select audience metrics
• 8% less likely to select pride in their work
• 8% more likely to select earning side income

When options are limited to no more than 3, they are

• 11% more likely to select audience metrics
• 7% more likely to select social media engagement
• 14% less likely to select making progress in their craft
• 7% less likely to select participating in non-CB collabs

Below are some selected comments from 2023 youtaite

• “Why is it so hard to be a newbie ytt in 2023”

• “I feel like the community is very biased and it is difficult for newbies, who do not necessarily fit in behavior-wise, to find their spot in it that easily”

Several 2023 youtaite discovered the community through franchise-specific events (Enstars, Love Live, PJSK):

• “tried pjsk dubs then found out the youtaite/utaite comm exists 💀”

A few stumbled across the community on social media (Smule, Tiktok, Twitter)

• “smule SOBBBB”

Those who wrote comments were most likely to point to friends as their entry point into the community

• “Through youtaite friends! [At first], I was an artist… I decided to start singing this year”

• “Through a friend who was in the community! I ended up befriending them because I really loved their singing and we ended up working together ^^”

Free Text Responses

Q26. Any last words about the survey or the youtaite community?

Positive memories and experiences

• “The community has come a really long way and we even have professionals in the middle so we should all be proud of our little hobby that makes so many happy”

• “Genuinely proud to see the community stand up against hatred so often”

• “I’m excited to experience my first CB and manage a large non-CB project in the coming year!”

• “I love to see the creativity and kindness of the community”

Reminiscing

• “I’m becoming a little bit more detached from the YTT community (by choice), but I will always consider myself a part of it”

• “A lot of my friends moved on from their channels, but I still get joy from singing the songs I like to sing and seeing how much I’ve improved. I hope to rejoin the youtaite community socially some day, but I’ll get there! For now, I’ll just keep enjoying singing.”

• “Hoping to reintegrate after a long time. Once a youtaite, always a youtaite.”

• “I love the people I found – thanks for letting me remember the memories through this survey 🥰”

Newbies, Competition, and Standards

• “I wish it was a bit easier to get help with the singing aspect of being a youtaite I wish someone made like a video series of how they go through the process of making a cover.”

• “I find that the ‘professionalisation’ of the commu that happened those last years tends to make it a bit scary to post when you don’t have the skills or the connections/money to get others with the skills to do ‘pro’ looking content”

• “I feel like there was less drama around CB’s which was nice. I’ve also seen more just choruses outside of a competition setting which is awesome.”

Sage wisdom

• “Youtaite will always have an irresponsible bunch every generation. The oldies have been that way and the newbies too. Just don’t get too into that and you’ll be less angry. Remember to keep singing and do the things that bring you joy. It’s a journey so take your time c:”

• “Remember to keep singing and do the things that bring you joy. It’s a journey so take your time c:”

Making Friends

• “CBs seem to be the main way that people make friends and get exposure these days. I think it can be harder for us in the community who aren’t interested/don’t have time for them to make meaningful connections.”

• “its so hard to make other rookie friends who aren’t minors WAAAHHHHH 😭”

Memes

• “join howlcb”

• “this year i dmed howl and he responded so basically i won”

• “insert youtaite president joke“

• “Math is blue”

• “Math is blue”

Bonus Question: How did you “find” or become aware of the community?

• Osu, Google+ and Sudomemo were each mentioned once

• there were 18 mentions of “casting call club”, “dub”, “btva”, “recruitment”

• there were 50 mentions of “CB” or “chorus battle” (12% of respondents)

• there were 52 mentions of “friend” (12%)

• there were 86 mentions of “utaite” (20%)

• there were 105 mentions of “cover” (25%)

• a specific video, group (excluding CBs), or singer was mentioned by approximately 40 respondents (10%). The most frequently mentioned song was “Blessing”

• a specific franchise was mentioned 20 times – Mermaid Melody (3), Love Live (14), Ensemble Stars (2), Fairy Tail (1)

• other social media were mentioned 24 times – smule (8), nico nico (6), YTC and other forums (10)

Bonus question: what is the best CB team name that you’ve ever seen (do not include your own teams’ names)?

• tenpan: That Time I was Reincarnated as a Piece of Bread in Another World, so I Became an Adventurer in Space with a Sheep and a Cat to Look for the Sacred Tree (10 mentions)

• Krussy Krab; One Track Noise; I, tired : I, A Retired Youtaite, Got Hit By Truck-chan and Woke Up Back In 2016 When CB Was All The Rage (6)

• 69qooq; A Latte Trouble; Cypher Chorus; OBNN; x = −b ± √(b² − 4ac) / 2a (4)

Bonus question: who are your favourite producers/composers at the moment?

*198 people submitted responses to this question, often with multiple producers. Consider the following only a rough tally of each answer.

• GigaP (20 mentions)

• deco*27, Pretty Patterns (15)

• Harumaki Gohan, Pinocchio-P (12)

• mafumafu (11)

CONCLUSION

It has once again been my greatest pleasure to write up this year’s youtaite census. The raw data can be found here, if you wish to pursue your own analysis. Free text answers have been reordered alphabetically to increase anonymity.

A few thoughts, if you’ll indulge me…

In the 2022 census, many respondents voiced concern that vtubers would siphon away youtaite community members. Based on two years of results, I am confident that our community continues to grow, not just in size, but in skill and influence.

This has not been without growing pains. Creating quality works is a top indicator of success for most youtaite. More youtaite are in the working age demographic and have income (whether disposable or as work expenses) to spend on their craft. There is clear willingness to go beyond the basic cover video now. Expectations (internal and external) on new youtaite are extremely high.

I am encouraged that in light of the above, so much effort has been placed on creating new types of events and sharing resources with new youtaite. My worry is that the capacity for veteran youtaite to mentor newer ones grows thinner as they have to manage the realities of life in addition to the expanding complexities of youtaite works.

Let’s wrap it up here. As always, I welcome healthy discussion with regards to the census results. If you’re comfortable, leave a comment directly on the Twitter thread sharing this blog post.

Thank you all for affording me the honor of administering the 2023 Youtaite Census.

Wishing you all the best

Mathew