X Announcement

> All talents will have the option of continuing under Brave Group or becoming an indie and keeping their identity and accounts.

Oh HECK that option of continuing as indie is awesome!

Rin Penrose had a stream today to explain the situation, which makes a bit of sense since she apparently was on good terms with the (now gone) CEO. The major bullet points were:

- Idol ran into money problems* and Brave stepped in to bail them out

- Brave has met with and talked extensively with all of Idol's talents about what's happening and things going forward

- Most of the staff are planning to stay on with the company under Brave's ownership

- Even if talents choose to leave, they won't be immediately kicked out the door so don't expect a wave of graduations in the immediate future.

- The talents are planning to get together and discuss things before making a decision (she figures a couple weeks at most before we hear anything)

- Rin personally is appreciative of Brave allowing any talents who do graduate to keep their IP, as most companies (even those circling the drain) would hold onto such.

- She emphasizes that Idol isn't shutting down, that Brave wanted to keep everybody (all talents got the same offer), that those who stay will not be barred from collabing with those who leave, and not to assume that talents going dark in the next few days means they've been canned.

- She finished by saying that nobody's indicated they're planning to quit streaming entirely over these events.

So yeah, a lot is going on, but overall it sounds like Brave is giving Idol a fair shake, something a lot of talents in other agencies can't say. Honestly, there is this overall growing impression that the industry's rapid expansion during COVID has stalled out and is now starting to rationalize itself with the smaller corps getting gobbled up by the bigger players.

*There had been a lot of stories in recent days/weeks about Idol failing to pay invoices from outside artists and animators, so it is weirdly positive that such was due to money issues and not management deliberately screwing them over.

Incidentally, from what I'm given to understand, Rin seems to be the biggest talent in the now entire Brave group in it's entirety. By over a factor of *ten* over Brave's JP side, which had their biggest talent having 60-some thousand subs, to Rin's *seven hundred thousand*.

>Incidentally, from what I'm given to understand, Rin seems to be the
>biggest talent in the now entire Brave group in it's entirety. By over
>a factor of *ten* over Brave's JP side, which had their biggest talent
>having 60-some thousand subs, to Rin's *seven hundred thousand*.

Er...no, not even close. Brave group is huge, they're the 3rd biggest org for a reason (maybe even 2nd biggest as Anycolor is having issues). Most of the older VSPO members are just as big as Rin.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-03-24 AT 00:27 AM (EDT)
 
Really? Wow, was I misinformed.

Edit: Wait, maybe it was Brave US that was pretty low.

Yeah, Rin's more than ten times larger than Brave US's previous biggest, in V4Mirai.

>Honestly, there is this overall growing impression that the
>industry's rapid expansion during COVID has stalled out and is now
>starting to rationalize itself with the smaller corps getting gobbled
>up by the bigger players.

This is a pretty standard phenomenon in any industry that lasts long enough. Think of all the automobile marques, or aircraft manufacturers, or PC-clone brands, there were in the early days of those industries, compared to the handful there are now.

(Brave seems to be angling for the General Motors ending, buying up all the little nameplates and making them part of the machine...)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>This is a pretty standard phenomenon in any industry that lasts long
>enough. Think of all the automobile marques, or aircraft
>manufacturers, or PC-clone brands, there were in the early days of
>those industries, compared to the handful there are now.
>
>(Brave seems to be angling for the General Motors ending, buying up
>all the little nameplates and making them part of the machine...)

Indeed, though it remains to be seen if the major corps driving down prices by investing money into the core tools of vtubing will have the same effect of creating a healthy market of smaller agencies that cater to specific niches.

Rin's out, but not right away, and not specifically because of the takeover--but the deal Brave offered those who wanted to leave definitely didn't hurt.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Rin's out, but not
>right away, and not specifically because of the takeover--but the deal
>Brave offered those who wanted to leave definitely didn't hurt.

And taking heterosexual-life-partner Juna Unagi with her*.

Bonus points that she made the announcement in a fashion that the Python crew would have approved.

*Gin will be absolutely thrilled.

Rin gotta Rin~

And honestly, that 'retirement package' for lack of a better term is *unbelievably* generous.

>Rin gotta Rin~
>
>And honestly, that 'retirement package' for lack of a better term is
>*unbelievably* generous.

Yeah, she's absolutely correct that just being offered to buy the IP from the company would have been more than most are willing to offer, but to exchange the whole kit-and-kaboodle for a single year of profit-sharing? AND being allowed to continue playing in the clubhouse even after you've officially left? That's one hell of a deal if you're already 3/4 of the way to a gold play button.