Earnings of (top) composers

Originally Posted by Arcubalis

Salaried composers in Japan cap out at about 60k, audio directors don't make much more (~80k).

<plays ignorant>What's that?</play> In my experience audio directors with the accordingly far-ranging power of decision are rather seldomly credited in Japanese games (sound directors focussed on the sfx sound design are more common, with more general music direction handle by the game's main director/producer or the composer himself), audio related staff beside the composer are mostly sound programmer, synthesizer operators and sound (effects) designers/editors. Who of those would earn more than the actual composer?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Taisai, in the most cases you mentioned have nothing to do with the difference of payment between a composer and a sound director but more with climbing the career ladder. I mean, of course a young composer usually is worse paid than someone who had been at the company for longer and raised his ranks meanwhile. Konji Kondo and Mieko Ishikawa being paid more would be a given, the opposite is what would be surprising considering their decades of loyality. Hiroya Hatsushiba is actually the co-owner and head of tri-Crescendo, so I'd hope he earns more than one of his employees. Etc.

An interesting example would be Motoi Sakuraba and Michihiko Shichi in tri-Ace's case. Sakuraba is traditionally connected to tri-Ace and popular, but a freelancer. Shichi is tri-Ace's new sound director since when tri-Crescendo stopped doing the sound work for tri-Ace this gen, he's new but worked as composer and sound director at KOEI before. (The answer is likely a tie where Shichi earns less in the same time, but as an employee has a steady income per year while Sakuraba is paid per project and could (theoretically =P) end up with less.)

Edit: Oh damn, programmer Shuhei Rokumoto worked on Mad World? o.O

There's nowhere I can't reach.