are a Japanese character franchise created as a joint venture between

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and manufactures products focusing on the ''kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and Fashion accessory, a ...

and Sega Toys. The third collaborative effort after ''

Jewelpet is a Japanese media franchise and toy line created in 2008 as a joint venture between Sanrio and Sega Toys, produced by the third character designer of Hello Kitty, Yuko Yamaguchi and illustrated by the character designer of Cinnamoroll, Miy ...

'' and ''

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'', it is the first Sanrio franchise released as a musical group. The characters in Beatcats consist of Mia, Chelsea, Rico, Layla, and Emma. As a musical group, Beatcats are signed under the Japanese recording label

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

and marketed as a

virtual band In entertainment, a virtual band (also called a virtual idol, virtual singer, virtual group, virtual artists, cartoon group, cartoon idol, cartoon singer or cartoon band) is a band or music group whose depicted members are not people, but animate ...

History

''Beatcats'' was created by both

and Sega Toys as their third collaborative effort. Unlike its previous collaborations, which are meant to develop into their own Animated series and Manga, the franchise more dabbles into the music scene and made the characters a five-member virtual group. The aim for the new franchise is to appeal towards both the elementary and junior high school demographic, with "fashionable, cute and cool" appeal and "energetic dance and songs to encourage the feelings of excitement, love and friendship." Sega Toys and Sanrio worked together alongside music company

for the band's songs and vocals. The companies aim to release both songs and dance videos related to the group through social media, in hopes to resonate with the teen demographic and to build a world and lore around the group. Sega Toys also announced a smartphone game app for various mobile platform as well as release a variety of products and merchandise revolving around the group. The group officially debuted on October 8, 2020, with their debut digital single which streams on several licensed music streaming sites, including

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

, and

Amazon Music Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and digital music store operated by Amazon. As of January 2020, the service had 55 million subscribers. It was the first music store to sell music without digital rights manag ...

. The group disbanded sometime in 2024.

Members

* * * * *

Discography

Singles

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beatcats Mass media franchises Sanrio Joint ventures Sanrio characters Animated musical groups Japanese idol groups Pony Canyon artists Fictional cats Fictional vampires