Crystal Kay and Kinjo Sukai (Sky) of JO1 do a YouTube collab and appear on each others songs — “Koi ni Ochitara” and “Lied to You”

Crystal Kay shooting the shit over some drinks and riding in a rickshaw around Asakusa is cute. But us fans wanna hear what that throat do. Especially given that Crystal doesn’t tour much and doesn’t really do the national TV circuit any more. So thankfully the throat was put to work with Crystal’s recent YouTube upload, where she performed “Koi ni Ochitara” with JO1 boy band member, Kinjo Sukai (Sky).

Not Sky wearing higher heels than Crystal.

So, there is a bit of a backstory with this cover. Sky had covered “Koi ni Ochitara” 6 months ago. And the arrangement for this joint version is based off of that cover.

“Koi ni Ochitara” is not an easy song to sing, even when it’s taken down a step. So props to Sky for not sounding a complete mess. Far too often when Crystal is paired with male singers, they cannot sing for shit. So it’s nice to see / hear her get paired with a guy who can at least carry a tune.

And because YouTube collabs is one of reciprocation, Crystal featured on a video on JO1’s YouTube channel, where she performed a JO1 song with Sky. And we even got a bit of a music video.

“Lied to You” was released in 2024 on JO1’s EP Hitchhiker. And the cover itself is a flip, with “Lied to You” being reimagined as a ballad. At its core, “Lied to You” was always a ballad. But because ‘Japanese boy band’, the song was given a beat, higher energy and some raps. But I do like this ballad version more. And the dynamic of the lyrics work nicely when you have two people singing the song, because it feels like a conversation, as opposed to having multiple members of the group just gangbang the beat and subject matter.

Sky × Crystal Kay - Lied to You | JO1 (YouTube)

There is a lot to be said about this pivot that so many Japanese acts are making to YouTube.

YouTube has become so popular in Japan over the past few years, with everybody seeing how lucrative YouTubing can be. For quite some time I feel that the perception of YouTube in Japan was this ‘Western’ thing and a platform on which only Americans could find success, and I think for quite some time this rang true. But once Takashii from Japan broke through, it massively shifted the perception and made people see that there is an audience for Japanese content from Japanese YouTubers. I also think that artists and record labels realised that YouTube has insane reach and that it has become a daily touchpoint for many people — in the same way that television and radio was. And I’d imagine for some, that YouTube has outright replaced television and radio. And then there is the financial aspect for artists. Releasing music is not only an expense, but it’s money which is harder to get back in this day and age. Record labels are absorbing less costs, spending less, music sales around the world are down and streaming is not a revenue generator for artists whatsoever. Views on YouTube will make you A LOT more money than streams on Spotify.

YouTube also allows artists such as Crystal who do not have paid fanclubs to be able to create content and monetise it so that they can still make money from it. I do wonder how much money some of these legacy paid fanclubs make and if that amount is enough to justify the effort of creating content for them and cover the costs of the systems to house that content. Having a sense of community which is gatekept is cute. But with artists having their own Instagram accounts and fans able to create communities on Reddit and Discord (where a lot of the gatekept content is often shared), the value of paid fanclubs continues to diminish. The only real value I see in fanclub memberships these days is gaining early access to concert tickets and some would argue that that’s enough.

Crystal Kay × Sky - Koi ni Ochitara | Crystal Kay (YouTube)

I think artists such as Crystal Kay saying ‘Fuck it’ and doing the YouTube thing is cool and kinda necessary for an artist whose career is where it’s at. Crystal is super personable, great on camera and has more to offer than just music. But Crystal Kay’s YouTube channel has no focus and no identity, which is the same issue with her music too. Crystal being mutli-faceted is great. But her main thing is and should be her music, and this should have a presence in every single one of her YouTube videos. The instances of her giving us performances and singing in her videos are too far and between. The lifestyle shit is cute. But there should be a balance. Because it’s not like us fans are being fed with a consistent string of music releases, tours and accessible televised performances to a point where we can just treat these YouTube videos as bonus material. No girl. These YouTube videos be all we got.

Also, where are video sponsorships? Them water people can’t hook your viewers up with a promo code and sponsor a video?

Girl. Fire the whole management and marketing team.

Sky × Crystal Kay - Lied to You | JO1 (YouTube)

This whole tirade about YouTube stemmed from one of my initial thoughts of ‘These should have been released as digital singles’. But thinking about it, I get why they weren’t. Not just because Crystal’s team ain’t shit. But because there is more to be gotten from YouTube views than Spotify streams in this day and age. It’s a real shame. Because “Lied to You” would work so well as a J-drama tie-in, which would have resulted in getting the full single treatment, which would have given Sky and especially Crystal greater offline exposure. Offline exposure still matters, even in this age of everything being about the Internet and digital. And especially in Japan where print and out of home marketing is absolutely everywhere.

I hope that Sky and Crystal do more stuff together. Their voices sound good together and they have a great chemistry.

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