Kayoko Kusano, the composer of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s amazing opening theme “Gurenge,” recently appeared on Nihon TV’s “Downtown DX” program and shared some insight regarding the reception of the song. Kusano is estimated to earn over 250 million yen from the song (via ANN), which roughly translates to $2.2 million.
The biggest contributing factor for the “Gurenge” was Karaoke in particular, where it became the most selected song of 2020. Kusano earned 3 yen for each time the song was selected. The other contributing factors include royalties from CD’s, subscriptions, and downloads from music subscription services.
TV presenter suggested that it would make over 100 million yen (roughly $910,000) if half of the entire Japanese Population decided to sing “Gurenge” at once in Karaoke at the same time. Kusano stated, that the numbers were not that high, but she never expected that it would amount to so much sum.
However, Kusano expected more from the “Gurenge” as she said, if it weren’t for the coronavirus, its earnings would have been five times.
A fellow guest and musician Takanori Nishikawa said praised Kusano as her songs are inseparable from Karaoke and said “Gurenge” has can earn more in the future of karaoke. Kusano also stated how Demon Slayer is “a remarkable show” and has become “a household name”.
“Gurenge” was also the most profitable song of 2020. It was announced by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers. They awarded singer LiSA, with a Gold Award of the 39th JASRAC Award. The award takes into account the royalties from various distributions, like karaoke and online distribution.
The song debuted digitally in April 2019 and on CDs in July 2019. Singer LiSA became the first female artist to top the annual chart of the digital single ranking after the song had over 1 million downloads by July 2020.
Even the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics featured the song. LiSA sang the song during her performances on Kōhaku Uta Gassen (“Red and White Song Contest”), Japan’s most-watched music television program, in 2019 and 2020.