spockitty

I'm pretty sure they're paid on a per-song basis (one of Gackt's former ghostwriters spilled this), if paid for composing etc at all;

iirc some of them are basically salaried employees, but I can't remember if this applies to all bands, or starting at a certain popularity once their label signs them full-time.

your answer might in fact have risen even more questions for me lol

my knowledge of behind-the-scenes financial goings of music industry is surface at best and I got a feeling vk is not the best place to start digging deeper

thank you though! 

vk/japanese entertainment is different from western music (in the west, record producers are paid once their songs are sold to someone + they might get a cut from each live performance, each licensing deal i.e. advertizing or movie tie-ins, etc, depending on their contract);

japanese entertainment has a talent agency that owns the band/artist and it sells the artist to a record label, and from there, it gets less clear for me because some artists are open about working for non-vk activities and getting paid for those, with others it's rly quiet (they might not get any composing money at all, settling for an office job style salary that covers everything they record and pitch to the label, regardless if that stuff ends up released under their name or sold further.)

Gackt (a self-proclaimed self-made/self-raised chanteuse and composer) paid his support musicians around $5k for composing his singles at his peak, iirc.