I'm involved a lot with the merchandising that Symphony X does, & I can say that merch is where the money is for a band. Even in the best of record contracts, a band only gets so much per album sold, & out of that usually comes production costs, promotion costs, and so on, which in the end leaves the band not a whole lot. Merchandise is a gold mine because they can set their own profit margin (and sadly, some take advantage of this, hence the $50 sweatshirts you see at some shows..total rape IMO), and the profit goes almost completely to the band, depending on who is handling the merch.