According to
Miku Expo website the producers get a 100k yen voucher for music production tools. That's a worth of 647 USD / 609€ which would be fine if it was actual money and not a weirdass voucher
Given Crypton sells music production tools, it sounds like they set it up so some of the money would go straight back to them.
I think this is the description of the prize that's being discussed:
100,000 JPY voucher for music production products from SONICWIRE
It's basically a 100,000 JPY Sonicwire gift card.
How one feels about that is sort of a matter of perspective. It is being ensured that you redeem your prize at their store, which doesn't give you the flexibility to shop elsewhere.
On the other hand, gift cards are, from an accounting perspective, debt that the company is imposing on itself and giving to you. (That's the same for Target gift cards, iTunes gift cards, etc.) You aren't receiving money and giving it back, you're having the company be indebted to you and then cancelling out that debt by having them provide goods/services.
At the end of the day, you're still getting 100,000 JPY worth of free stuff from a place with a wide selection. *shrug*
One interesting aspect of this: at least in the US, prizes have to be declared as income on your taxes (e.g., if you win the lottery, which you receive in currency, the government takes about half of it). With a gift card, I would think you sidestep that hassle completely, since you're receiving someone else's debt rather than money. So you might be able to look at a gift card prize as avoiding a pain at tax time, as well as a way of ensuring you get the full value of the prize you won.
(This is actually something I've given some thought to, and I hate the nitty-gritty pain of tax season, so I thought I'd drop my two cents here.)
Update:
Regarding contest songs, the terms of the contests I've entered have basically been that you sign over some rights to CFM so they can adjust/perform your song in future concerts. A producer who wins gets to have their song performed live. CFM also may provide some financial compensation when the song is played, although they are not obligated to do this, and the compensation should be viewed as a courtesy rather than as royalties.
Personally, I've never entirely liked the idea of signing rights to a song over, although you basically have to sign at least some rights over so that CFM can play it/make a derivative work of your song (the concert performance). But I think producers do it for the basically unparalleled exposure, as well as maybe perceiving it as an honor and one of the pinnacle ways to participate in the vocal synth fandom.
I'm not sure how commissioned songs would work--I assume that a producer would be formally paid and would have to similarly sign some rights over.
Regarding non-contest songs (i.e., the other songs performed at concerts), I've never found out how those songs are chosen/what terms for them might be. But I assume there must be some sort of agreement/arrangement there between CFM and those producers--if there weren't, and those songs were just grabbed off Nico Nico without any communication with their creators, I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be legal. And given the two different license schemes offered/explained on Piapro (the Japanese PCL, as well as the Creative Commons license provided for the rest of the world--although anyone can use either), as well as the "courtesy fee" for the contest winners, something as illegal as that doesn't seem likely to me. It probably also helps explain why the same producers' songs seem more likely to keep getting included in concerts--aside from the fact that those producers are good, CFM already may have a legal history with them, so it's easier to work with them when getting the ability to play new songs at future concerts. Doesn't mean new people don't/can't get into concerts, it's just more likely that the established folks will get their songs into concerts because it's easier.
AFAIK, the credits after each concert also list producers who seem to be visiting the show, and this list seems to line up with the producers whose songs were included; I also think I actually heard somewhere that producers whose songs are included in the show get offered a ticket to come see it. Possibly that is considered in the realm of compensation for having your song in the show, too.
