eMiNaTiC wrote:
i think it stems from the fact that japanese goods in general are expensive to overseas fans. 
Well, you can buy their European releases. They are cheaper than the Japanese version and even include the singles.
Manneking wrote:
Well He's got Moi dix Mois merchandise (for example there were 1,000 dixanadu ~fated raison d'etre~ EU dvd's for male and female and they were around £28 each soo x1000 = £28,000 approx (I have no idea how much of that he earns) and they all sold out realtively quickly), Moi-Meme-Moitie which is generally quite expensive clothing, so even if the materials are expensive he is bound to make quite a big profit. Money from the fanclub, meet and greet events (and more sales), not forgetting that he would probably get a few royalties from his MM days and he has a record company. Oh and sony! Sony are major so probably pay him a bit for his compositions and producing advice. Maybe the GLB pay him for the exclusivity of having the Moi-Meme-Moitie photoshoots as well?
M10M hasn't had any new merchandise in years, so he doesn't make money on that right now as most fans already have everything - including the CDs, so there is nothing to sell/buy ATM. M10M don't do any meet & greets, except occasionally abroad, which is less than once a year (AFAIK they didn't do any on their last Europe tour). I don't think he makes a big profit on Moitie because, as you say, the materials are expensive and the clothes are made in Japan, a country with comparatively high wages and therefore expensive production costs (many other lolita brands, e.g. BABY or Innocent World, are made in China), and in small quantities. I think the fact that he had to close several shops, including the main shop in Tokyo, is an indication of that, although the recession probably played a part too. I don't think he earns much money on the FC either, at least not on the international FC since you need to employ extra English speaking staff to run it. If having an international FC was profitable, I'm sure more bands would have jumped at the opportunity, like they jumped at international tours and record deals, but even much bigger and more popular bands, who presumably have more resources, haven't bothered with an FC. No idea how much he earns from his GLB work, but since their "renaissance" he gets fewer pages (2 instead of 4-6) and they are pushing Arika Takarano/ALI PROJECT instead.
Yes, he must still get royalties from MM, although probably not that much since they split up 8 years ago and many of their releases are out of print, and of course Sony must pay him for his freelance work. Also, as owner of Midi:Nette he must earn a higher proportion from M10M's releases than artists who only get a cut and their record label takes the rest, but he also has to pay wages to his staff. Perhaps he also has another producing/composing job on the side that we don't know about, like Hora, although he seems busy enough as it is (in the year he worked for Sony both Moitie and his FC almost collapsed and still haven't recovered). Or perhaps he just made a lot of money in his MM days and invested it well; going by Madousho he seems to have a nice apartment with a big balcony.
All put together, that must be enough to get by, otherwise he could easily do more. He wouldn't even have to be much more productive; just playing more concerts, making more merchandise that people can buy at those concerts, collaborating with other bands/events to win new fans and doing in-store events to promote his CDs would bring in extra money. Other bands do that on a regular basis, so the fact that he doesn't seems to indicate that he doesn't have to. But I guess we'll never know.
