KodamaSounds 2026 Survey Analysis

Our survey is now closed for new answers! Thanks to everyone who took the time to take it! We figured we would be sharing some stats of this year's satisfaction survey! We've had over 50 responses. Here's some noteworthy results:

About our audience

Continents Outreach

• 42% of our audience is in Europe

• 32% of our audience is in North America

• 15.4% of our audience is in Asia

Countries Outreach

• 31% of our audience is in the USA

• 13% of our audience is in France

• 11% of our audience is in the UK

• 6% of our audience is in Japan

• 6% of our audience is in UK

Discovered by who?

• 48% of our audience are regular listeners

• 25% of our audience are contributing artists to KS/CR

• 15% of our audience are artists, but have yet to contribute to KS/CR

Discovered when?

• Around 50% of people have discovered us in the past 3 years

Discovered how?

• 60% on Social Platforms

• 32% YouTube/Bandcamp/Soundcloud

• 28% Twitter/Bluesky/Disccord

• 56% Friend Recommendations

• 28% by a contributing artist

• 28% by a fan

Analysis

For now, most of our audience is still pretty American/European, which does make sense for a French circle which started out thanks to the efforts of a lot of European and American artists. However, despite our major expansion to Japanese fans and artists, Japanese representation is still at the lower end - but there are also a lot of other countries from Asia being represented, from Indonesia, to Malaysia and China. Unsurprisingly, most people have heard of the Kodama name in the past three years, likely due to our significantly bigger output of all kinds of different themes and genres, and our popularity has been exponential since 2023, which marks the time when we decided to aim for a much higher production value. On a more surprising note, I seem to have underestimated the amount of regular listeners of the circle. For years I just assumed most of our audience were our actual contributors, but that only represented a quarter of the answers!

About Physical Formats

CD Wishlist (no limit)

• 32% wish for UPRISING 2

• 32% wish for YGGDRASIL CD

• 28% wish for Legendaria CD

• About 30% of people are not interested in the CD format

• Other albums average between 8% and 26%

CD Wishlist (just one)

• 22% wish for YGGDRASIL the most

• 22% are not interested at all

• 10% wish for Detuned Alloy 2 the most

• 8% wish for PARADISE the most

• 8% wish for Border in Stasis the most

About 15x15cm Download Cards

• 36% do not care about Download Cards

• 21% would prefer a CD, even if it is more expensive

• 19% appreciate the format and consider them a good compromise

• 13% are not really opinionated on the matter

Download Cards Wishlist (no limit)

• 66% of people are not interested whatsoever (ouch)

• 11% are interested in VANTABLACK 2

• 11% are interested in UPRISING 3

• 11% are interested in Legendaria

• 9% are interested in Border in Stasis

Download Cards Wishlist (just one)

• 61% of people are not interested whatsoever (ouch)

• 9% are interested in Legendaria the most

• 7% are interested in UPRISING 3

• 7% are interested in Border in Stasis the most

Gacha Concept

Reminder of the concept:

People can spend as little as 1000 yen for a "gacha" pull of our albums, and would have a randomly picked release given. Albums between 1000 and 3000 yen would be planned to be included in the pool. We hope that a system like this would give people a surprise album they might not be originally keen on buying upfront, but would still save up on the real cost of the album. This system would be available for live events as well as on Bandcamp for direct sales, and include CDs as well as download codes.

• 50% are not the target audience, but fine with the idea

• 38% could see themselves indulging in doujin music gambling

• 9% would rather not have to imagine it

Analysis

So, it turns out people are not that impartial on the physical availability of our albums! I assumed most enthusiasts were really focused on the CD format, but I don’t think most of those people even took the survey in the first place… Unsurprisingly, a lot of people would love a CD for YGGDRASIL. Which sounds good in concept, but I don’t even want to imagine the pain of doing a 4xCD Boxset of such an ambitious scale… We’d definitely need to do something handmade or go through a very specific process. Let’s keep this for later, shall we… I don’t think Kodama is popular and rich enough to make something like this anytime soon, lol. Well, at least, the booklet would already be ready to go…! For DLcards, yeah, those numbers kind of hurt… It seems there’s still a lot of misconception about DLCards. I keep advertising them to be download cards which you can use as prints, due to their quality, size, and dual sides. Most download cards in the market are business card sized, which I agree with the fact that they’re a pain! I still display them proudly, and we do keep them in business card size for our CDs, but any album “exclusive” to download cards will always have a very nice design and front artwork for you to display as if they were bigger prints. Them being cheap to produce without neglecting the artisan quality of the products is a very nice touch, I think. I am glad that 2/10 people do understand where I’m coming from, though. I very much wish I could make CDs of our entire discography, but again, we can’t really afford this just yet… Just making our new releases in the form of a CD is already such a risky and expensive thing to do. Bear with us in the meantime! And don’t shy away from Download Cards, I promise that they’re worth getting, especially with our cheap shipping and the price of the album being the same as digital on Bandcamp!! Either way, it seems like people really do want Legendaria/VANTABLACK 2/Border in Stasis download cards. I can’t blame them, they’re incredible illustrations! VANTA2 and BIS contrast one another so well too, they must look so good next to each other… We already have a bonus artwork to use (Légendes) for the back cover of Legendaria too, so maybe we can make that happen soon enough? It’s one of our most popular albums, and making a DLC instead of a CD (for now) does sound like the most affordable option. I was surprised to see that there were so many people into the idea of the UPRISING 3 DLC, despite the album existing in CD format already! I guess trying to compare 15x15cm DLCards to CDs is counter productive, maybe. Some people may probably be interested in a cool looking print, and maybe the CD doesn’t matter in this regard. Either way, that also sounds like a affordable option, since we already have way more than enough design elements to make a 15x15cm DLC for this one, and let’s just say that restocking UPRISING 3 CDs already would put us in the red… The gacha seems to be a fun idea to most people, or they don’t seem to care about it. I can definitely see it as a fun little thing to do during events, and I think we might make it happen for the next M3! Either way, there are definitely a lot of interesting things to look forward to in the future, and some very interesting things to note down.

Music Habits

How do you listen to music in general? (multiple options)

• 88% listen to music via a local library

• 80% listen to music via streaming platforms

• 34% listen to music via physical formats

• 30% listen to music via live events

How do you listen to music the most?

• 55% via a local library

• 42% via streaming platforms

• 2% via physical formats

Doujin Related Event

• 65% wish they could participate to an event, but lack such local events

• 15% wish they could, but cannot afford it

• 7% are not interested

• Less than 15% attend at least once a year

About M3

• 75+% would love to go, but are unable to do so (too far/too expensive)

• 15% don’t really know what it is

• 7% already went and/or go every now and then

Crossfades Retention

• 44% go through our full XFDs

• 23% skip through the XFDs just to lightly check the contributions

• 15% do not check the XFDs and just want a glance of the list of contributors

• 9% keep them in the background without looking at it

DJ Mixed Crossfades

• 53% believe the DJ Mixed crossfades are a nice and interesting effort, and keeps their retention locked in

• 16% would rather see the effort spent elsewhere

• 14% think they’re great, but they’re not enough to keep their retention in check

• 8% actively prefer simpler XFDs over DJ mixed ones

Long XFDs Length

• Around 30% are not concerned, as they tend to look at the short versions instead

• Around 30% are content with the long XFDs, as they dislike short versions

• Around 13% think the length does a disservice to their retention

• Around 15% don’t mind, or don’t watch/listen to XFDs in the first place

• A few people like both short and long versions either way

Digital Prices

• 53% are satisfied with our prices

• 21% don’t even look at the prices

• 13% believe we sell ourselves cheap

• 9% believe they’re too expensive

CD Prices

• 52% don’t even look at the prices

• 35% are satisfied with our prices

• Analysis

A lot of very interesting stuff here. Unsurprisingly, almost everyone in the scene uses an offline local while also using streaming platforms. However, the biggest usage seems to be shared between the two as well. Seems like there’s no reason not to continue posting our albums on streaming platforms while recommending people to use Bandcamp. Sadly, it seems like that as anticipated, due to the location of most of our fans, most of them have never really been to M3. It’s a dream of many, but it’s such a Japan only event that it’s hard to imagine people going to such places… Europe/NA are good places for otaku and nerdy events, but when it comes to the doujin scene, it’s such an exclusively Asian subculture that it’s hard to imagine something like M3 happening overseas… Should we host a KodamaFest??? For crossfades, most people seem to agree that we can salute Volumetrique’s efforts! The results seem to align with what I imagined: the people who care about XFDs in the first place are glad to hear such high mixing efforts for what’s generally overlooked in the scene, while the ones who don’t care about them in the first place… won’t care about it either way. For now, sounds like DJ Mixed XFDs are a Kodama staple, and we have no reason to stop for now! People seem to be content with our prices, both digital and physical. There’s two noticeable groups that believe our digital albums are too expensive, while the other one believes they’re not expensive enough… I guess it’s a good demonstration that our prices are fine and don’t really need to change. Most people buying CDs don’t care about the prices, they just want their CDs, and could spend dozens or just a few bucks for’em. The “right price” is an extremely subjective matter, and I don’t think we can make something which feels like the sweet spot for everyone. So we’ll stick to how things are for now.

About Merch

Fullsets & Bonus Items

• 51% can be influenced by fullset discounts and bonus items

• 40% are not affected by such things

• 30% consider them to be an affordable way to catch up on releases

What kind of merch are people generally interested in?

• 64% like apparel merch

• 57% like prints & posters

• 48% like keychains

• 48% like unique and original merch

• 42% like stickers

• 37% like deskmat & other utility stuff

• 37% like plushies

Merch, but make it Kodama

• 60% like the idea of Kodama merch

• 33% aren’t interested

What Kodama merch do people want?

• 52% would love apparel

• 52% would love prints and posters

• 50% would love unique and original merch

• 45% would love stickers

• 42% would love keychains

• 31% would love deskmats

• 28% would love plushies

Analysis

I only want to make the classiest of merch, and for now, I feel like we’ve been delivering pretty well! We’ve already started doing keychains, acrylic stands, stickers, prints and posters. A lot of people like prints, which is good considering we already sell 15x15cm DLCards. Our Escapism posters look beautiful, and I look forward to doing more of those in the future! When it comes to apparel, I love clothes and fashion, but I don’t like boring junk. Don’t count on me for doing boring and generic “insert logo here” monochrome t-shirts. If we ever do clothes, I’d probably make sure we don’t do ugly fast fashion stuff, but I’d want us to do unique designs. We have a lot of amazing designers on our team, so we can definitely do something interesting! It might be on the more expensive side, but if they’re super high quality items, it’d be pretty awesome. We already have keychains, deskmats in progress, too. I just need more income to actually produce them… Kodama plushies sound like an adorable idea. LYSKO and the UPRISING girl, too… Lot of potential here, but it’s also some of the hardest merch to make. We’d have to partner with a commercial partner for this, which probably isn’t really ideal for a doujin circle… Things can be possible, but we’d have to wait and see!

Future of our Albums

What album series are people interested in? (Kodama)

• 53% UPRISING

• 46% Gensokyo Party albums

• 44% PARADISE

• 38% Legendaria

• 36% Solo Albums

• 32% Memories

• 30% Soundtracks

What sequel are people MOST interested in? (Kodama)

• 24% UPRISING

• 18% Gensokyo Party

• 14% Memories

• 12% PARADISE

What NEW ER album series are people interested in? (Kodama)

• 66% Codename “ROOTS” (Y2K, Jungle, Sampling, Breakbeat…)

• 56% Codename “RESURRECTION” (Emotional Breakcore, Artcore, IDM…)

• 50% Codename “LAY BACK” (Smooth & Lounge Jazz, Soul…)

• 45% Codename “TORN APART” (Experimental, Noise, Hard Breakcore…)

• 37% Codename “CRAZY” (Cute & Silly Sounds, Denpa…)

What NEW ER album series are people interested in MOST? (Kodama)

• 18% Codename “RESURRECTION” (Emotional Breakcore, Artcore, IDM…)

• 16% Codename “TORN APART” (Experimental, Noise, Hard Breakcore…)

• 14% Codename “CRAZY” (Cute & Silly Sounds, Denpa…)

• 14% Codename “ROOTS” (Y2K, Jungle, Sampling, Breakbeat…)

• 10% Codename “NOBLE” (Chamber Music, Piano, Orchestral…) 

What album series are people interested in? (COUNTERFEST)

• 47% SpeedSTARS

• 45% Katamania!!

• 38% COUNTERFEST HEROES

• 36% Moonstruck Analogy

• 22% Fragments of Gratitude 

What sequel are people MOST interested in? (COUNTERFEST)

• 25% Aren’t interested in any of our previous releases

• 18% SpeedSTARS

• 18% Katamania!!

• 16% Fragments of Gratitude 

• 16% Moonstruck Analogy

What NEW album series are people interested in? (COUNTERFEST)

• 61% Rhythm Games (Arcade, BEMANI, Performai)

• 51% Nier/Drakengard

• 46% Madoka Magica

• 38% CAVE Games (DoDonPachi, Deathsmiles etc) 

• 34% Land of the Lustrous

What NEW album series are people interested in MOST? (COUNTERFEST)

• 28% Rhythm Games (Arcade, BEMANI, Performai)

• 18% CAVE Games (DoDonPachi, Deathsmiles etc)

• 16% Nier/Drakengard

• 10% Madoka Magica

• 8% Land of the Lustrous

Our Albums Output

• 47% believe it’s a lot to catch up with, but that means they can pick what to follow each year

• 45% believe the more the merrier

Analysis

I’m glad people are still onboard Touhou stuff! It truly is emblematic even to this day… For original albums, people really do have… Eclectic tastes. And I’m glad! That means we’re doing just what we want. Always a little something for everyone. Maybe our system has been diverse all along… Puns aside, it seems like people really do like the concepts behind ROOTS and RESURRECTION. ROOTS is great, but considering it might share a bit too many elements from TREMOR and PARADISE, I think it’d be better to wait a bit. For now, emotional artcore/breakcore fans will rejoice at the idea of the “RESURRECTION” project, which will be named “ECLECTIC RESONANCE HOWLING”! For COUNTERFEST, my plan was already to make a sequel to Moonstruck Analogy II next year, alongside a new album centered around Land of the Lustrous, so everything looks good to me. I’m surprised to see so many people eager for a Madoka album, too! I’m glad people don’t feel burnt out with our output too.

About our Internet Presence

Platforms used to check up on Kodama

• 67% Discord

• 53% Twitter / X

• 48% Bandcamp / BOOTH

• 36% SoundCloud / YouTube

• 19% Bluesky

• 11% Our Website

How often do you check our website?

• 37% a few times a year

• 23% know about the website, but don’t use it

• 23% didn’t know there was a website

• 17% rarely, like once a year

• 2% frequently, once or more per month

Why do you check our website?

• 44% To check our discography

• 44% To check our ongoing projects

• 25% didn't know there was a website

• 17% To check on blogposts

• 17% know about the website, but rarely or never use it

Analysis

Not much to notice here that I wasn’t already aware of. Unfortunately, it’s hard in today’s age to have people check our website out… I think it’s an imperative necessity for any organization, but I guess as time passes, less and less people are eager to check webpages. We just have to get on with the times. However, we won’t give up on the website just because not enough people check it out. We need people to rely on our first party website rather than third party SNS, the question is, how do we do that… We recently made an Instagram/TikTok for COUNTERFEST RECORDS, and my plan was to make two for Kodama as well, but for some reason, I cannot create an account for Kodama… Not gonna lie though, those kinds of platforms are just so hard to understand for someone born pre 2000 like me. I think Twitter/Bluesky will remain the most optimal social platforms, but I’ll try to use COUNTERFEST’s accounts whenever I can…

Conclusion

Once again, big thanks to everyone’s support and their time taking the survey. It had a lot of insight and we also got a few very nice and interesting comments and suggestions! We might do this again in a year or two’s time. It seems like the people have spoken, and we can do a rough estimation of the 2027 planning!

Open Schedule for 2027

Of course, it’s always subject to change, and the projects below will only be publicly contributable projects (so we shall omit special/secret albums as well as solo albums). Albums in Blue are Kodama’s, while Red is COUNTERFEST.

• COUNTERFEST BOMB DISPOSAL (January ~ March)

• ECLECTIC RESONANCE Legendaria II (M3-2027 Spring)

• Gensokyo Party Vol. 8 DJ Koishi 2 (Spring Reitaisai)

• Moonstruck Analogy -a TYPE-MOON tribute album- II (April ~ June)

• COUNTERFEST HEROES 02 (July ~ September)

• ECLECTIC RESONANCE HOWLING (M3-2027 Fall)

• Zn₂Fe(PO₄)₂·4H₂O -a Land of the Lustrous tribute album- (October ~ December)

For now, that’s the plan! We do have many more albums planned, but seven albums is already a LOT to go through just for public albums! You can also expect soundtracks, arrangements, singles and solo album projects which are not disclosed there… Here’s the full list of planned albums for 2027, and their respective descriptions/project pages:

COUNTERFEST BOMB DISPOSAL

I WANNA SEE IT GO OFF! We at COUNTERFEST are setting up a BOMB DISPOSAL for chiptunes that are too dangerous for others to handle! COUNTERFEST BOMB DISPOSAL is a compilation album specially made for chiptune artists that is free of rules and expectations. Put on a blindfold and bring out your bats, it’s time to make art.

Current release plan: Q1 2027

Project page

ECLECTIC RESONANCE Legendaria II

Our legendary heroes march through the blizzard. Pure white snow piles up as far as the eye can see, but the more they traverse through the white landscape, the more they question where they might be headed… Is it fame? Is it gold? Is it death? Is it something deeper? Their journey has taken them throughout the entire continent, and yet the world never ceases to surprise our warm and gentle crowd of heroes. They’ve witnessed both misery and happiness in the eyes of its residents, and carry a light which they all hope can reach the heart of their loved ones. A very clear hope pierces through the cold veil of those mountains, however: Their Legend is not yet coming to a close, and this here is just another brave step for our troupe to take.

Current release plan: M3-2027 Spring

Project Page

Gensokyo Party Vol. 8 DJ Koishi 2

“Koishi… Could you not make such noise, please…? What are y- oh.”

Seems like the youngest Satori has awakened her big sister from her deep sleep! Though she has her pride to keep, Satori never knows how to say no to her dearly beloved sister. No choice for her but to join Koishi in the madness! This sequel to our 2023 Gensokyo Party album focuses on the best Touhou EDM has to offer, and is bound to get you on the dancefloor and open your third eye… No need to read minds for this one -  just move to the rhythm!

Current release plan: Reitaisai 2027 Spring

Project Page

Moonstruck Analogy -a TYPE-MOON tribute album- II

It was a thrust like lightning. After five years, our very first tribute album published back in 2021 finally gets its long awaited sequel. The world of TYPE-MOON is vast, and sure doesn’t lack in content. Between the immense franchise that Fate/ has become, the atmospheric melancholy of Witch on the Holy Night, and the chilling yet beautiful world of Tsukihime, TYPE-MOON visual novels have become a staple in urban fantasy. With this album, we will celebrate it all as it deserves to be.

Current release plan: Q2 2027

Project Page

COUNTERFEST HEROES 02

Round 2. Did you guys do your homework and like HEROES 01? Good. You like LYSKO? You better, so do we. Don’t worry, she’s right there, charging up just for you and me. I heard she planned to go and dig some sample CDs and obscure otaku references in some jungle temple. Yeah, I didn’t really get it either, but hey, she’ll get the job done just like she did last year on her moon mission. Just remember, as always: SAMPLING IS GOD.

Current release plan: Q3 2027

Project Page

ECLECTIC RESONANCE HOWLING

Scattered memories. The painful yearning of a long gone past. An inherent disturbance in one’s sanity. Surely, we’ve all been at a point in our life when we were helpless, without any idea on how to be free of the shackles holding our soul down… without hope. This album is an elegiac cry to those who feel this way, and for whom the only way to heal is to resonate with the sound of likeminded individuals.

Current release plan: M3-2027 Fall

Project Page

Zn₂Fe(PO₄)₂·4H₂O -a Land of the Lustrous tribute album-

“Once you've crossed that bridge, burn it.” Zn₂Fe(PO₄)₂·4H₂O is a concept album based on the masterpiece by Haruko Ichikawa, “Land of the Lustrous”.  Within it, you will find image songs inspired by the original manga’s story, as well as arrangements of the animated series. This album, reflective of the beauty and purity of its inspiration, will record Phosphophyllite’s world and leave an eternal trace of beauty onto our own.

Current release plan: Q4 2027

Project Page

This was a massive blogpost, but it will probably be our last one before M3-2026 Fall. Please look forward to the rest of 2026, and stay tuned for more, as always! Thank you!

Robin