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)>.