Project DIVA AC Holding Fourth Recruitment Drive for Songs

A new post on the Project DIVA Arcade website has announced details for an upcoming recruitment drive for new songs to use in the arcade game. A special upload page will be open on niconico at 3PM on March 6 and the contest will run through the end of May 6. Winners will have their songs added to the arcade game and also receive a special IC card for use with the arcade machines. The Project DIVA staff had also announced recently that an Aime IC card with a new design will start being offered around Miku Day (March 9) at arcades.

The rules for this recruitment drive differ little from the previous three times such a song contest was held. The song must use only VOCALOID sound banks released by Crypton (the page specifically mentions KAITO V3 as a possibility) and needs to be between 2:20 and 3:00 long. The recommended song duration is 2:40. As this is a rhythm game, uptempo songs that induce a feeling of speed will be prioritized over other types of songs. Furthermore, this time, up to three singers will be allowed for a song, taking advantage of new features in Project DIVA. As with previous contests, the genre and whether the producer is a professional or not does not matter. The uploader must be the one who made the song, the song must not be entered in other contests, and all rights for the song must fully belong to the uploader. Thus, a remix is only allowed if the person who made the original song did the remix. For songs where multiple people were involved in the creation, all of them must agree to the contest rules and for youths under the age of 20, a parent’s permission is required to participate.

Unlike previous contests, a special page will be set up on niconico to allow for submissions, and the video description must include a clear list of nicknames/pseudonyms/handles (usage of real names is strongly discouraged) and what role each person did in the production of the video/song. Judging will be by the Project DIVA Arcade development team and will be based on the song itself as well as number of views, faves and comments. Disqualification will occur if the song is not an acceptable length, the lyrics defames specific persons or are in violation of public decency, the song is possibly infringing on rights of a third party or if the song contains personal information, such as real names of people. Winners will be announced in stages starting in June, and they will receive email correspondence from dwango regarding necessary paperwork, etc. If there are aspects of the song that make it unsuitable for a rhythm game, changes to the song will be requested. Lastly, copyright regarding the submitted songs will still belong to the original creators, leaving them to freely post the song elsewhere. The contest rules page also points out some additional notes regarding the contest:

• For song endings, a sudden stop is preferred over a gradual fade-out, as the former is more suitable for rhythm games.
• Once a song is chosen, if the creator wishes to transfer rights to a different party [such as JASRAC], then correspondence is requested beforehand.
• Entries must abide by the rules of niconico.
• Uploads that have nothing to do with the contest will be deleted.
• There are no specific restrictions regarding uploading updated versions of previous songs.
• For mistakes in uploading, uploaders are requested to send email correspondence to [email protected] [in Japanese], preferably from the same email address as their niconico account. SEGA will make a decision on whether to remove such uploads.
• Songs shorter than 2:20 or longer than 3:00 will be deleted.
• Songs that infringe on other parties’ copyrights will be deleted.
• There are no restrictions on tempo (BPM).
• People who previously have gotten songs into Project DIVA through these contests are welcome to enter again.

Furthermore, such contests have usually been followed by solicitations for PVs from fans. This time, while solicitation hasn’t opened yet, SEGA will be doing something slightly different with regards to PVs. When a song is announced to be included in Project DIVA, the staff will be looking for “moving storyboard” style videos, from which the Project DIVA Arcade staff will make the final PV. Even if the video is not of high quality animations, it would still be fine for this purpose as long as it describes clearly how things are supposed to move. Video makers will be allowed to use footage from any of the Project DIVA games released on PSP, PS3 or PSV. For those not using that footage, these video submissions must not violate other parties’ copyrights and the only VOCALOID characters allowed are the ones from Crypton. Usage of 3D models for these submissions must be of those models created by the uploader; SEGA wishes to avoid possible licensing problems involved even if the uploader gets permission from someone else to use their models. A sample of acceptable videos is shown in the recruitment announcement video:

Furthermore, it appears that there’s a possibility of solicitation for edit mode PV based on the edit mode feature in Project DIVA f and Project DIVA F. For song announcements after the second batch, solicitations for PVs may either be edit mode PVs or moving storyboard PVs; which one it will be has not been decided yet. Audio for edit mode PV submissions can be obtained in the form of MP3 files from the Project DIVA Arcade official website once songs are picked, and the video should show the player starting edit mode playback in the game.