, officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid voicebank and software application developed by Crypton Future Media. Her voice is generated using vocal sound samples provided by Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita. The software is personified by an official mascot character depicted as a 16-year-old girl with turquoise twintails. Marketed as a virtual idol, Miku has performed at live virtual concerts as an animated projection.
Released in August 2007, Hatsune Miku was the second product built on Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 engine and the first Japanese voicebank for the platform. Subsequent updates have expanded her functionality across Vocaloid 3, Vocaloid 4, and Vocaloid 6 technology, alongside Crypton's proprietary Piapro Studio editor.
The name of the character comes from merging the Japanese words for , , and , thus meaning "the first sound of the future", which, along with her code name, refers to her position as the first of Crypton's "Character Vocal Series" (abbreviated "CV Series"), preceding Kagamine Rin/Len (code-named CV02) and Megurine Luka (code-named CV03). The number 01 can be seen on her left shoulder in official artwork.
Development
Hatsune Miku was the first Vocaloid developed by Crypton Future Media after they handled the release of the Yamaha vocal Meiko and Kaito. Miku was intended to be the first of a series of Vocaloids called the "Character Vocal Series" (abbreviated "CV Series"), which included Kagamine Rin/Len and Megurine Luka. Each had a particular concept and vocal direction.
During Miku's development, Crypton decided to create an illustrated persona to represent the voice. The software was initially targeted primarily at professional music producers, as a broader consumer market for vocal synthesizers had not yet emerged.
The task of coming up with Miku's image went to the manga artist Kei Garō, who was already known from doing art for various doujin artists. When Kei designed Miku, his only direction was her color scheme (based on Yamaha's synthesizer's signature turquoise color), and that she was an android. Various aspects of her clothing, such as the computer interface on her left sleeve, were based on Yamaha's synthesizers.
Miku's vocal samples were taken from voice actress Saki Fujita at a controlled pitch and tone. Those samples all contain a single Japanese phonic that, when strung together, creates full lyrics and phrases.
Hatsune Miku was first released on August 31, 2007, as the third commercially sold Vocaloid library. Crypton chose to market Miku as "an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost." Hatsune Miku was released for Vocaloid 3 on August 31, 2013, including an English vocal library.
Additional software On April 30, 2010, an add-on for Vocaloid 2 called Hatsune Miku Append was released. Consisting of six different timbres for the voice: Soft (gentle timbre), Sweet (young, chibi quality), Dark (mature and melancholic), Vivid (bright and cheerful), Solid (loud, clear voice), and Light (innocent and angelic). Miku Append was created to expand Miku's voice library, and as such requires the original program to be installed on the user's computer. This was the first time a Vocaloid had such a release, and more Append versions were reported from Crypton Future Media at later dates.
It was mentioned that a seventh Append voicebank, a falsetto voice, had been recorded; however, since the developers did not think it would be useful on its own, no plans were made for an independent release. Miku's English vocal was due for a Vocaloid 2 release, but it was not released in the engine due to low quality.
To aid in the production of 3D animations, the unofficial program MikuMikuDance was developed by an independent programmer. The freeware software allowed a boom in fan-made animations to be developed, as well as being a boost for promoting Vocaloid songs themselves.
An English voicebank for Hatsune Miku was officially announced in 2013, following earlier development plans from 2010. The decision to move to Vocaloid 3 and lack of experience with English pronunciation delayed the release. It was finally released on August 31, 2013, as a digital distribution.
The Hatsune Miku Vocaloid 3 Japanese vocal library was released on September 26, 2013. It contained updates to all previous Vocaloid 2 vocals except Vivid and Light. These were later released separately, though they were initially offered to anyone who already owned Hatsune Miku, Hatsune Miku Append, and Hatsune Miku V3. Once imported into Vocaloid 4, all Hatsune Miku V3 vocals could use the new Cross-Synthesis system (XSY) built for the new engine of Vocaloid 3. The voice was imported into a device called Pocket Miku, released on April 3, 2014.
Hatsune Miku received an update for Yamaha's Vocaloid 4 engine under the name of Hatsune Miku V4X. It makes use of the new EVEC system for Piapro Studio, a VSTi plugin used as an alternative to the traditional Vocaloid Editor. EVEC consists of recorded vowels. Along with the consonant, a different vocal tone can be achieved. Two vocal tones are included in the EVEC system: Power and Soft. Along with the new EVEC system, phoneme errors found in Miku's V2 and V3 voicebanks were resolved to improve vocal manipulation. Hatsune Miku V4X/V4 English was released on August 30, 2016.
A Mandarin Chinese voicebank was released in September 2017, making Hatsune Miku the first officially trilingual Vocaloid product. Her Chinese name is ; are the kanji characters for her given name, Miku.
At 2019, head of Crypton Future Media's Character Development Wataru Sasaki announced that Hatsune Miku would be departing Yamaha's Vocaloid engine, and would not be utilizing Vocaloid 5 for any further development of their voice banks. It was established that the "identity" of the voices would remain the same, however. Then, on December 24, 2019, Sasaki announced that information about Hatsune Miku NT (Newtype) would be released. On the same day, Sonicwire announced that the release of Hatsune Miku NT was planned for summer 2020, and those who had registered for the software early would be able to access a prototype of the new engine, Piapro Studio NT. After delays, the Piapro Studio prototype was released on June 4, 2020. The full version of Piapro Studio and Hatsune Miku NT were released on November 27, 2020.
On August 1, 2024, Sonicwire posted that on August 30, 2024, they would be releasing the Piapro Characters Super Pack, a voicebank bundle that includes a Hatsune Miku variant for Vocaloid 4. In this post, it was also announced that a Hatsune Miku V6 would be released, compatible with Vocaloid 6 and its AI voice synthesization tools. Hatsune Miku V6 was eventually released on April 14, 2026 after prolonged development delays, and included two voicebanks; Original and Soft, capable of singing in Japanese, English and Chinese. It was also announced that an updated version of Hatsune Miku NT was anticipated for the end of the year. Early access for Hatsune Miku NT V2 was released on October 23, 2024, before being officially launched on March 18, 2025.
Marketing Miku has been promoted since 2008 and was originally aimed at professional musicians. On September 12, 2007, Amazon.co.jp reported sales of Hatsune Miku totaling 57,500,000 yen, making the character the number-one-selling software of that time. She was the first Japanese vocal to be developed and distributed by Crypton Future Media. Following its launch, the software achieved notable commercial success in Japan, selling approximately 40,000 units by July 2008 and averaging 300 units a week. By January 2011, she had sold 60,000 units.
Merchandising Following the commercial success of the initial software release, merchandising and brand licensing expanded significantly from 2008 onward. Miku's persona continues to serve as the primary brand for Crypton Future Media's commercial products. In March 2012, the Nomura Research Institute estimated that total sales of Hatsune Miku-branded merchandise reached approximately since 2007. A 2013 survey by Tokyo Polytechnic University found that Miku had the highest name recognition among all Vocaloid products.
In 2011, Crypton expanded its marketing to North American audiences. In May 2011, a digital release of Supercell's song "World is Mine" on iTunes reached number seven on the platform's world music chart in its debut week. Crypton also solicited feedback from Japanese consumers regarding promotional strategies for overseas markets.
Good Smile Racing
In 2008, Good Smile Racing began licensing Hatsune Miku and other Crypton Future Media-related Vocaloid content. Studie participated in the 2008 and 2009 seasons using a BMW Z4 E86 painted in official Hatsune Miku art, and fan-derivative versions of Hatsune Miku in some races in the 2009 season. During race events, the team featured promotional models styled as "Racing Queens" wearing costumes inspired by Hatsune Miku and other Character Vocal Series figures.
Winter festivals Sapporo has been a major target of sponsorship since 2010, with Crypton Future Media sponsoring the Sapporo Snow Festival. The portrayal of Hatsune Miku for the event is a derivative design called . Although originally this was simply a recoloring of the normal Hatsune Miku, unique designs have occurred every year since 2011, and figurines based on the design have been made based on the year's design.
The 2012 design was chosen via a contest. The winning entry was referred to as "Fluffy Coat Snow Miku". The 2013 design was called "Strawberry Daifuku Shiromuku Miku". The 2014 design was based on a magical girl design by dera_fury, who was the winner of the 2014 Snow Miku contest. The illustration was "Nekosumi". The design featured a pet called Rabbit Yukine, based on a mountain hare. From 2015 on, design submissions also include a costume for Rabbit Yukine. The 2015 design was called "Snow Bell Snow Miku" and was illustrated by Nardack.
In 2012, several ice sculptures of the Character Vocal series and several snow sculptures of Miku were produced for the event. However, on February 7, 2012, one of the Snow Miku sculptures collapsed due to thawing temperatures and was rebuilt with reinforced structural support; the incident caused minor injury to a spectator.
Cultural impact
Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese video streaming website similar to YouTube, played a fundamental role in the recognition and popularity of the software. Soon after Miku's release, Nico Nico Douga users started posting videos of songs created using the character's sound bank. According to Crypton, a popular video featuring Miku's chibi version, Hachune Miku, singing and dancing to "" while spinning a spring onion in homage to Loituma Girl's original video (which led to Miku being commonly associated with spring onions, as well as leeks, due to the Japanese variation looking similar to them) demonstrated the potential of the software in multimedia content creation. As Miku's recognition and popularity grew, Nico Nico Douga became a place for collaborative content creation. Popular original songs written by a user would inspire illustrations, animations in 2D and 3D, and remixes by other users. Some creators would show their unfinished work and ask for ideas.