Seven most common mistakes that artist managers or bands make when creating tech riders
The mistakes in concert planning may not always be caused by people who are lazy readers. Quite the opposite, mistakes can be mostly caused by people who are lazy writers. After all, if the receiver needs to understand a sent message, it has to be composed by the sender in an understandable way.
By looking over your own tech riders you can ensure that every detail can be clearly read out by the organizer. This can give a headway to their best possible execution.
I have listed seven most common mistakes that bands or their managers make when creating their tech riders:
1. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to write it down short and sweet” -
It comes from a quote by Mark Twain: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
It other words, if you want your writing to be understandable, it needs to be written without unnecessary nonsense, just sharp and straightforward.
40-page riders are not really a necessity. They become that long when they are written with so many excessive words and sentences.
No one, in reality, has the ability to pay attention to every detail in 40-page tech riders. Therefore, communicate clearly and think through your wording.
Your communication should have an arrow-like focus rather than a shovel-like unclearness, right?
2 . “Not using readable font or style” -
Most of the people have a visual memory so use it to your advantage. As well as making your wording sharp, make sure that your tech rider is visually understandable. By creating distinctive paragraphs, reading comprehension will definitely improve for people when reading riders.
Do not over design your rider either. It’s not a visual identity brief.
When creating your rider, do not use any “special” fonts that you think will go so well with your band’s image. They are visually horrible to understand and the chances that the words will be read out wrong increase enormously.
3. “No cohesiveness” -
Think through your chapters. The usual layout is:
introduction, contacts, non-technical needs, technical needs (including input list, output list, stage plan) and hospitality.
Do not write about your technical needs and then add a few sentences on the towels you wait to be prepared on the stage. Instead write about them in hospitality section when needed.
Just as each band member plays a different instrument, different positions in the organizing crew take care of different parts of your tech rider. Therefore, the chances are high that the person managing artists will never find your two sentences about the towels because they are hidden somewhere in tech talk.
4. “We will never reveal what we bring” -
It is important for the organizing crew to know what you need as well as what you have or bring with you.
It depends, though. If you’re a touring crew and you have 98% of your gear with you in trucks, then listing everything might not make sense. If you are ordering from 35%….99% of your technical needs from the organizers, then please let them know what you are going to bring.
5. “We will add things in the tech rider that do not exist”
It may seem funny as a joke but it distracts the organizing crew from concentrating on the things that actually matter in your tech rider. In a way, you will be digging a hole for yourself.
Also, it communicates what kind of a work ethic you have and how well you want people to think of you.
6. “We’ll send out a full rider” -
Many riders have special cases included in them. For an example: this is only required if…. 1) 2) 3)
It may be understandable for you as the rider writer/owner but it may keep the other side puzzled and in the end they may forget to go over these special cases with you.
If you have riders that include special conditions only for festivals, then create separate rider for only festivals.
7. “We’ll send an outdated rider” -
I really hope that no one actually does that, but I have still heard cases of it happening.
Share if you relate to these as a part of the band or organizing crew.
