Contracts are our friend.

This is a living document. The latest version can always be found at http://www.alanrowoth.com/contracts.html. Please work from the online version, rather than this paper handout as the online version is loaded with live links and is updated often. This paper is already out of date. Comments and suggestions are welcomed by the author, Alan Rowoth

Why use contracts at all?

"Aren't we all trustworthy people? Can you trust somebody more because you have a piece of paper than a handshake? Why create a paper trail that could be used against you in some other way? How much am I going to win if I sue them anyway?" I've heard all the excuses in my day, but the plain fact of the matter is that contracts are primarily an informational tool. If you choose not to use them, you're running a far greater risk of problems than if you document the agreement you are entering into.

Litigation, the awful truth

If somebody defaults on their contract to you, your chances of receiving any sort of financial compensation are practically nil. You might be able to take them to small claims or even open court. And you very likely will "win" and receive a judgement, but 80% of all legal judgements in the US go uncollected. Taking legal action may represent the moral high ground, but unless the contract is for $5000 or more, it's likely to be a total waste of your time and money to pursue it in court. This may not be true for members of the AFM (American Federation of Musicians), who used to pursue deadbeats and would even blacklist clubs with outstanding judgements against them. (Union members are forbidden to play at blacklisted clubs. This isn't always as great as it sounds as it may payoff in lost gigs from a clubowner who always paid you, but not someone else.)

What ARE contracts good for then?

The main reason you need contracts is just to spell out, in a concise and understandable manner, the terms of your performance agreement. They protect both the presenter and the performer. One of my favorite stories surrounds a popular performer who arrived at her gig to find another act setting up on the stage. Understandably peeved, she sought out the club owner and confronted him. The shoe was on the other foot when he told her that she was supposed to be there the week before and never showed up. She thought she was talking about the second Sunday of the month, but the clubowner was booking her for Sunday, the 2nd. Both lost out here, both in cash and in credibility with their audience.

Although litigation typically won't do you much good, the threat of it is sometimes a valuable tool. Plus many folks who want to argue with you will back down when you show them their signature on an agreement that proves you are only asking for what was agreed upon.

What belongs in a contract?

There are certain elements that should be a part of every performance contract:

Who the parties to the agreement are.
When and where the show will take place.
The load-in time.
Start time. Number and length of sets.
Amount and manner of compensation. Name the check should be made out to.
Production information. Who is responsible for sound, lighting, and staging.
The date of this agreement
Possibly some information on what conditions can invalidate the agreement
Possible remedies if the agreement is broken.

I'm a big fan of plain language contracts, not laden with a lot of legal boilerplate. Convoluted agreements with a lot of fine print and legal mumbo jumbo defeat the informational purpose of the document. To avail yourself of protections offered by the AFM, you may have to use their contracts (or at least adhere to their language in some cases...) My AFM local used to sell pads of contract blanks to the members. Often booking agencies inject legalese to protect their relationship (and remedies) with both the talent and the talent buyer. Artists signed to major record labels often need to insert escape clauses that allow them to first fullfill their obligations to the record company before their obligations to a concert hall. All of these are special cases. If you don't know that these apply to you, you can write a very simple contract. DOWNLOAD a PDF Sample Contract readable in Adobe Acrobat or a Microsoft Word format version that you can peruse, modify, or use as-is. You can't go much more barebones than this. Most of this information is pretty essential.

Here is another sample contract that may give you some ideas:
Karen Goldberg's Sample Contract

What's a contract rider?

Contract riders are addons to the original contractual agreement. They are just as binding as the original contract itself, but they tend to clarify items that are secondary conditions to the arrangement. Most often you hear them in conjunction with rock stars and hear horror stories about picking out the green M&M's or what brand of bottled water the performer needs, but most uses for an artist rider are much more practical than that. A few items that I have included on various past riders include:

No TV sets, pool tables, or video games allowed to operate in the room during the performance.
Clean, lockable dressing room(s) will be provided for the performers use before, during, and after the performance.
2 liters of Bottled water for each performer (or, in some cases, a more lavish deli spread)
Require full, private access to the hall two hours in advance of performance for setup and soundcheck.
In case of stairs or inconvenient vehicle loading, Presenter will provide 2 people to help load and unload equipment.
Convenient, secure, offstreet parking provided for one equipment van and two automobiles. (use your vehicles...)
Permanent or portable staging at least 12" tall and configurable to 8' deep x 16' wide or larger.
Complete control over house lighting in the performance area during the performance.
6'w x 5'd space in the audience area to locate the sound mixing consoleat least 8' from back wall.
Concise, accurate directions from the nearest interstate highway
Venue will provide a table for artist merchandising somewhere in the showroom.
Clean comfortable sleeping accomodations for 6 on the night of the show, with 6 beds and 3 bathrooms provided.
Technical requirements. (i.e. "4 channel 100Watt PA system, NO BOSE!")

Think about what is most important to you. Everyone is different. A lot of people think that the bottled water thing is picayune, but water quality is horrible in many parts of the US and some people find certain municipal tap waters almost undrinkable. Performers need to stay hydrated to perform at their best. Water is too bulky and heavy for most performers to carry more than a small supply with them. (Though I usually have a gallon or two stashed in my van.) Therefore, providing the water is usually left to the presenter.

Parking is also key. There's no reason why you can't have a house concert in a 7th floor walkup on Manhattans upper east side, but you'll need a place to park and you may have to have help loading in your equipment.

I opted not to include a sample rider with this document for fear that someone would print it up and use it without customizing it to their particular needs. No two acts are the same in what they require to put on their best show, therefore no two riders should be identical. Think about the 12 worst gigs that you ever had and what went wrong. Then write a rider that would have solved the problems before they happened.

The Technical Rider

A Technical (or production) rider is often used in the case of travelling bands with complex requirements for a provided Sound system, lighting system, or staging. These vary so much from act to act that I'm reluctant to delve too deeply into them in this document. If you need one, you probably know it by now and you have some idea of where the confusion arises between what you want and what you get.

Basically, you need to let the presenter know:

How large a stage you need.
How much AC power you require
How many input channels on the mixing console
What kind of outboard effects
Separate monitors and mixes? How many?
Special microphones, stands, DI's, etc...
Instruments they will provide (i.e. Steinway 9 foot grand piano, tuned that day.)
Additional manpower that may be required.

The key here is that anything that you can't bring with you and you can't perform without needs to be on that rider and you need a copy of the signed rider back with the contract, so that you don't wind up in a situation where you can't perform that night and y'all blame each other for the problem.

Can the Venue have a rider too?

Yup. In fact, the venue should have a rider. It should contain information like directions, load-in times, maps, nearby eateries, important phone numbers and what to do in case of an emergency. The venue rider should also contain any house rules that the performers need to know about. Sample provisions might include:

Don't park behind the owners car or block access to the dumpster.
Also don't park behind the mini-mart. They tow! (Too late? call 914-253-5676 to find your car.)
No smoking or drug use in the dressing rooms.
Sound checks must be complete prior to dinner service at 6pm, even though show starts at 10:30pm.
Performers will not use restaurant tables as speaker stands or for any other use.
No pets allowed in the provided sleeping rooms, dressing rooms, or performance area.
Don't leave valuables in the car, this is a bad neighborhood.
The show ends at 11pm, the custodian has to leave by midnight. Your loadout MUST be complete before then.
Sound system consists of one Shure Vocalmaster head, 2 columns, 2 SM58's, and 2 hotspot monitors. Deal with it!

What if they don't agree to the rider?

My unspoken division between the contract and the rider usually revolves around which items are negotiable and which are incontrovertible. You CAN'T play without a guarantee of payment and a time and place to perform. Travel is so expensive that you can't afford to travel somewhere for a gig that isn't going to happen. The contract is just the basics.

I used to preface some of my riders with the paragraph,

"This rider enumerates what we need to give you our very best show. We can negotiate alternatives to some of these conditions prior to the day of the show IF WE KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEMS IN ADVANCE. If we find out about problems upon arrival, it may well be too late to solve them. If there is anything on this rider you cannot comply with, contact us immediately and we'll see what we can work out."

It also makes sense to enumerate the individual conditions of the rider in a list form so that the presenter can individually cross out and initial the terms that they are unable to comply with. They may also want to add their proposed solutions to the problems for the artist representative to initial. When you get back a rider that has been "amended" in this way, you may choose just to accept (and initial) the changes or you may need to fax or email them some alternatives until you find some common ground. Sample modifications might include:

WAS-Clean, lockable dressing room(s) will be provided for the performers use before, during, and after the performance.: AMENDED-Performers will dress in the equipment van, parked directly next to the stage door.
WAS-2 liters of Bottled water for each performer (or, in some cases, a more lavish deli spread): AMENDED-2 pitchers of Tap water per set. 4 glasses and 3 Chicken Gorditas 2 hrs in advance of performance.
WAS-Require full, private access to the hall two hours in advance of performance for setup and soundcheck.: AMENDED-Custodian will arrive 90 minutes before performance. Doors open to public 10 min before showtime.
WAS-In case of stairs or inconvenient vehicle loading, Presenter will provide 2 people to help load and unload equipment.: AMENDED-elevator provided within 50 feet of stage area. NO LIFTERS.
WAS-Convenient, secure, offstreet parking provided for one equipment van and two automobiles. (use your vehicles...): AMENDED-Parking for one equipment truck behind night club. Cars will fend for themselves.
WAS-Permanent or portable staging at least 12" tall and configurable to 8' deep x 16' wide or larger.: AMENDED-Our stage is only 8" tall, but the tables are terraced. Actual stage dimensions, half circle with 10' radius.
WAS-Complete control over house lighting in the performance area during the performance.: AMENDED-except for aisle walkway lighting, task lighting in the bar area, and dance floor in the back of hall.
WAS-6'w x 5'd space in the audience area to locate the sound mixing console at least 8' from back wall.: AMENDED-Sound booth is a loft above the bar with full view of stage
WAS-Clean comfortable sleeping accomodations for 6 on the night of the show, with 6 beds and 3 bathrooms provided.: AMENDED-Performers can sleep in the parking lot in their van and use the club bathrooms.
WAS-Technical requirements. (i.e. "4 channel 100Watt PA system, NO BOSE!"): AMENDED-Sorry, it's a BOSE. If you don't like it, bring your own...
WAS-No TV sets, pool tables, or video games allowed to operate in the room during the performance.: AMENDED-Bite me!

Actually the NO TVs or video games rule was the one thing that I never would bend on with a club owner. They are just too distracting. I only put the requirement in the rider instead of the contract so I would seem like less of an *sshole.

What about the IRS, INS, ASCAP, BMI, and the rest of the alphabet soup?

Wherever you go, there are laws. Most of them are on the books to protect someone. (Maybe not YOU, but someone...) In any case, the law is the law and pretending that the law doesn't exist or isn't fair isn't a valid defense against arrest and prosecution. If you don't pay your taxes, eventually the IRS is going to catch up with you (or the tax dodger that you are doing business with, who will then turn you in as part of their deal to avoid prosecution.) Obey the law. You'll probably be sorry eventually if you don't. At the very least, don't force the well meaning people you want to do business with to break the law in order to work with you. That's just rude.

Document the business that you do. Keep the receipts and contracts. Give them to your tax man and let him work it all out. In the long run, you'll be glad that you did.

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Was this useful to you? This is a living document and I hope for valuable feedback from folks who use it to enhance and update it. Please let me know if you have suggestions or corrections for the information presented within.

Thanks!
Alan Rowoth alan@folkmusic.org