Why Venues Should Pay More Attention To Tour 'Riders'

In today’s entertainment business industry, artist managers wear more than one hat throughout their busy day. Artist managers have to be planners, advisors, organizers, strategists, overseers, coordinators, traveling companions, and close observers of extreme detail; they also have to be a friend to the artist (but not a “yes” man). An artist can be anyone from actors, musicians, vocalists, sports stars, motivational speakers, comedians…. to voice-over/dialogue artists, creators of fine art, motion capture artists, and writers of all entertainment art forms. One of the important tasks of the artist manager is to oversee that the rider for each venue is fulfilled for the artist. A rider is an attachment to the main portion of the contract that specifies standard production requirements for the artist’s performance, as well as any personal needs the artist has prior to and during the performance (Allen, 2011). Riders include very technical specifications for production crews to follow when preparing the stage for the performance. Venues should pay special attention to riders because the safety requirements that the rider includes are there to protect the artist and the venue. A lot of venues that have more of a historical build and require special upkeep, often have specific riders of their own that tell artists what they will not do.

Riders also refer to the little extras an artist receives from the promoter at a gig, usually in their dressing room. Typical riders include items such as food and beverages, or pre-arranged amount of money that the promoter will provide an artist or band to buy them a meal and some drinks with. Most often riders include information about special dietary requirements or preferences of the band (The Huffington Post). For major artists on tour, concessions of this type are often justified as a way to reduce the rigors of being on the road for lengthy periods of time. The new artist can expect small but reasonable personal concessions in a rider. But at the end of the business day, all of the expenses associated with any rider are charged directly back to the artist as costs of the artist’s performance, and are deducted as an expense from the receipts from ticket sales. This is an important consideration for the artist manager or business manager as they create a budge for a performance tour (Allen, 2011).

References: Allen, Paul. Artist Management for the Music Business 2e, 2nd Edition. Taylor & Francis Group, 03/2011. <vbk:9780240815015#page(94)>.

Public Company Not For Veteran Music Manager: Irving Azoff’s Sudden Flight From Live Nation

As the New Year rang in, the music industry was abuzz with the sudden resignation of Live Nation Entertainment’s executive chairman, Irving Azoff. The former executive chairman is a 65 year-old veteran music manager, and responsible for the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger of 2010. Azoff has been managing huge acts like the Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Van Halen, and Fleetwood Mac for years. The merger of Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation, Inc., created the world’s largest concert promoter after they conquered the antitrust opposition. According to Rolling Stone Magazine, when the two companies joined forces, their common goals were to have the power and flexibility to cut costs, make more money from the lucrative resale market, and ultimately reduce ticket prices and service fees (Knopper, 2010). So what went wrong, and what made the executive chairman split before the calendar year ended? Many questions and suspicions have surfaced since Azoff’s departure from Live Nation.

Irving Azoff revealed that he felt trapped in the new public company, and had a growing frustration that he couldn’t use his position to lower ticket prices, kill service fees and create a long-planned online market to bundle tickets with T-shirts and downloads (Knopper, 2013). Azoff as quoted by interviewers, “I thought I could push a button and get it done. Couldn’t get it done.” Azoff also let it be known how he was very disappointed with being unable to achieve his goals, he blames the travails of running a public company as well as the conflicting interests between managers and promoters within Live Nation.

Azoff tells an interviewer from Billboardbiz, “It came down very quickly. We had a board meeting on December 10^th and we got it done by last night (December 30^th). Really, all it was about was it was time for me not to work for a public company. That’s all.” (Waddell, 2012) Azoff came out of the negotiations of his contract wealthier then he walked in. The timing of his resignation allowed him to take home over $3.5 million dollars in bonuses and salary payments, and 196,000 Live Nation shares (Knopper, 2013). The veteran music manager holds a two-year non-compete agreement with Live Nation, it allows him to still work on projects involving recorded music, TV, movies, music, and book publishing. What Irving Azoff regrets the most about the multibillion-dollar merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation Inc., is the grueling and daunting experiences he had in Washington. The experiences he had battling the progress of the merger was the worst experience of his life. Azoff is currently running his old management company, Azoffmusic Management, and continues to manage major acts like Christina Aguilera and the Eagles today.