Alright, let’s dabble in an area with a little more substance. We’ve gone over “How to Properly Make a Hospitality Rider“, But thats only a small piece of the pie, (pun intended) when dealing with full riders. Just like in the article mentioned above, if you’re looking for all the crazy items that your favourite artist demands before going onstage, then maybe checkout The Smoking Gun instead. I’ve made hundreds of riders over the years, here’s “How To Make A Tour Rider Like A Pro”.
To have you on your way to being a pro at making riders, we’re going to need to break this down into a couple of different categories. Buckle Up Buck-A-Roos. This is going to be a longer read than normal.
- What Actually Is A Tour Rider And What Is It’s Purpose?
- What Does A Tour Rider Need To Cover?
- Who Makes The Rider?
- Do’s and Don’ts
- How To Make A Tour Rider
- What Happens Next?
What Actually Is A Tour Rider And What is It’s Purpose?
According to Adobe.com, A “Rider is a legal term referring to the additions made to an existing contract. It is tacked on to, or “rides,” the original agreement — that’s how it got its name.” I think that’s a pretty good summary of what it is for us entertainment folks, but to get a little more specific, let’s talk about how it’s used for touring in particular.
How Does It Apply To Touring?
Generally, each Agency (WME, CAA, UTA, WASS) has it’s own contract template. They use it for all of their deals with all of their artists. We use riders to get into the nitty gritty for each individual artist’s needs.
So… Contract for the agents to outline the deal notes, The rider is provided by the artist to specify their specific needs. Capeesh?
What Does The Tour Rider Need To Cover?
This depends on each team or artist, and what they’re trying to accomplish. Some riders are basic and minimal. Others are meticulous and go into elaborate details. Normally as touring goes on, you learn from your mistakes and update your rider to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. Now that I’ve started telling some stories of touring, I bet you can guess which type of riders I normally make, huh?
Here are the main points of topic that, (I think) should be in every rider. No matter what.
General Provisions
Making it clear of what exactly the artist is expecting of the promoter. (i.e. The Artist is expecting the promoter to get their permits, play by health and safety regulations, no discrimination, Box Office rules for ticketing, etc.) Pretty much a legal document saying that the artist wants to make it clear that the promoter is not a dirtbag and is not going to put them in a compromising situation.
Settlememt
Outlining how you want to get paid. Acceptable payment methods, timelines, and how you deal with shows that involve % of ticket sales.
Insurance and Cancellation
Making it clear that the promoter needs to have proper insurance for the concert or event. (Normally pretty specific of $ amounts and what exactly needs to be covered). Cancellation sections go over the details of what the process needs to be if the show gets cancelled by either the artist or the promoter. Covid times really put a new kind of stress on this section.
Recording, Merchandise, Authorized Representatives
Who’s allowed to record the show, who’s allowed to sell official merchandise, and who is allowed to speak on behalf of the artist.
Parking and Call Times
Basic needs for your tour. Letting them know what time you need the facility access from/until and when you expect departments in the building. (This normally refers to more venue staff than labor. Labor is covered in the technical section). Plus how much parking you will need.
Security/Credentials
This is my favorite part of the rider. This is where you outline how locked down you need the venue to be. You can go into details of how many guards in each area, what they’re wearing, and with a standard of how you expect them to act. (Good time to mention metal detectors and bag searches as well). Credentials defines who gets access to certain areas, when they get access, and how they will be identified)
Dressing Rooms/Production Office
This is more about the rooms themselves and how they are furnished.
Hospitality Rider
The infamous hospitality needs requested by the artist. This will often cover catering specifics as well. Link here again for how to make one.
M&G’s
Meet and Greets are a bit of a variable since it’s something that the tour often sells as a VIP upgrade. But in the event that there is a M&G from the promoter, this is where you outline the rules of what you’re willing to do to accommodate the promoter’s needs. (Casino high rollers, festival sponsors, etc).
Marketing and Media
I generally don’t go too deep into detail here. Normally just put the contact of the correct artist representative and that everything has to be cleared by the team before released to the public).
That pretty well sums up what needs to be in the rider. But First, here are some honourable mentions that many riders also like to outline.
Honourable Mentions
Flights, Accommodations, Comp Tickets, Special Requests, etc.
I need to clear something up first. This is NOT the technical rider (the rider that outlines all of the gear, etc). I like to keep them separate and put all of the individual riders into a .zip file and send that out to the team. That way the appropriate people get the appropriate information. Let’s face it, a production company that provides your lights doesn’t need to know what you’re asking for behind the scenes. Eventually, I’ll write a separate article on tech riders since they’re a whole different can of worms. For now, we’re just gonna stick to the tour rider.
Which brings me to the next point.
Who Makes The Rider?
It normally comes down to whoever has to deal with all of the items in the rider on a day to day basis. The Tour Manager normally writes the sections involving most things mentioned above, where the Production Manager might write more info for the categories that are involved in their day to day duties. Leaving hospitality and runners to the Production Coordinators to take the lead. So it’s a team effort. Ultimately, everything should be looked over by mgmt and business managers. Someone with an appropriate degree should probably be the one approving the language on topics that could potentially be picked apart by the other team’s lawyers. It’s a legal document attached to the contract after all.
Do’s And Don’t’s
This can be a tough topic since it’s all preference based. Generally here are some do’s and don’t’s.
| Do’s | Don’t’s |
|---|---|
| – Get to the Point | – Write 100 words when 20 will suffice |
| – Spelling and Grammar Check | – Leave room for interpretation |
| – Be Precise | – Add confusion by trying to sound smart |
| – Have some fun with it | – Demand and refuse to budge |
| – Ask for specific things, and provide a backup solution of what will suffice | – Ask for outlandish shit. No one will take it seriously. |
How To Make A Tour Rider?
Much like anything in life, you get out what you put into it. With riders it can be brain-melting language that feels pointless when you’re making it, but I assure you, from 17 years of touring, if you put in the work, this document will have your back when you need it to.
Start by getting your hands on as many riders as you can. Ask the manager from whatever artist you’re working for to look at some of the riders for their other artists. It’ll be hard to ignore how much of the same content will be the same across multiple artist’s riders. Go through it and pick it apart. Like literally scratch it up and red line it as if you were trying to exploit it’s vulnerabilities. Once you do that you’ll be in the right mindset to tackle your own.
I do this to the riders I make as well. Finish it, print it off, then pick it apart from the opposing side.
Take Your Time
I know you often wont have this luxury, so start practicing this in your down time. You have take your time with this. As you start getting close to the finish line, you gotta walk away from it and let it fester. As you’re walking around, you’ll start to think about areas that need improvement. Send yourself emails about topics that have come up that you have missed, then compile them all after a few days and do a revision.
Since most of my meat an potatoes has years of lawyers picking it apart, now when I make a rider, it only takes a couple of hours. Most of the time is letting it sit and simmer on a subconscious brain.
Key Points To Add
On the front page of the rider, when laying out the initial information, I’m gonna recommend specifying that each page be initialed at the bottom. If you number your pages correctly, and the person signing off initials beside it, there is less room for “That page was missing” nonsense.
Also, I learned this much later in my career. Instead of putting just the timeframe for the tour, put an expiry date on the rider. “Tour Rider – Spring/Summer 2025 (Maybe tour leg). This Rider Expires July 31st, 2025”
What’s Next?
Alright, so you’ve made the rider, the whole team has signed off on it, it’s now in circulation. You’re not done. This rider will inevitably come back to you with notes on it from promoters as shows and offers roll in.
The process normally dictates that the rider gets marked up by the promoter, signed and returned. If your team accepts the amendments, one of the artist’s rep will countersign, then the deal is locked. Until then, there may be some back and forth. More than just getting your point across while making the initial rider, you’ll need to defend it in the future and know what can be omitted.
After a bunch of shows, you’ll see the areas that continuously are up for discussion. That’s something to focus on with the next round of riders. The goal is to have nothing of substance scratched out and to have it signed off on without much hassle.
Be prepared to make new riders (or update at least) on each leg of the tour where you dramtically change your plans. For example, we’ll have a fly date rider, a tour rider, a solo/corporate rider, and sometimes even a stripped down/acoustic rider. If you’re in a supervisory role, get used to making these!
Wrap It Up
Look, Like I mentioned above, you can be very simple. But if you want to make a tour rider that holds the test of time, covers your ass for when things inevitably turn sideways, and you wanna take your game to the next level, follow the steps above and you’ll be making riders like a pro in no time!
If you have a rider that you want to have another set of eyes on, As Always, I’m here. [email protected]
Travel Safe, See you out there.
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Another great article. I think you should consider writing a book