13 June 2026 · 5 min read

What is a tech rider — and how to write one that actually gets read

A tech rider is the document you send a venue or promoter that spells out exactly what your band needs to perform: how many inputs, what you're plugging in, where everyone stands, and what gear you expect them to provide. Done right, it's the difference between walking into soundcheck and finding the stage set up the way you asked — versus spending an hour explaining your drummer's monitor situation while the doors clock ticks down. The catch: a rider only works if someone actually reads it. Most don't get read because they're either three pages of wishful thinking or too vague to act on. Here's how to write one that lands.

Tech rider vs. hospitality rider

People mix these up, so let's separate them first.

A technical rider is about the show: inputs, monitors, backline, power, stage layout. It goes to whoever runs sound and production.

A hospitality rider is about the band as humans: green room, meals, water, parking, towels, the things that keep you functional between load-in and set. It goes to whoever handles logistics.

Keep them as two documents. The sound engineer doesn't need to know about your dietary preferences, and the venue manager doesn't need your channel list. Splitting them means each person gets only what's relevant to their job — which is the single biggest factor in whether your rider gets honored or quietly ignored.

What belongs in a technical rider

You don't need everything below for every gig. A solo acoustic set and a five-piece with backing tracks need very different documents. But these are the building blocks.

Input list (channel list)

This is the heart of the rider. List every signal that needs to hit the console, in order, with what it is and what you'd prefer to capture it with.

• Channel 1 — Kick
• Channel 2 — Snare
• Channel 3 — Hi-hat
• Channel 4 — Bass DI
• Channel 5 — Guitar (mic on cabinet)
• Channel 6 — Lead vocal

Number them. Group them by instrument. If you bring your own DIs or mics for anything, say so — that's one less thing the venue has to scramble for, and one less surprise at soundcheck.

Stage plot

A simple top-down sketch of where everyone and everything sits on stage: drums center-back, bass stage-left, two vocal mics down front, monitor wedges where you want them. It doesn't have to be pretty. It has to be readable in five seconds by someone who's never met you. A clear hand-drawn plot beats a beautiful one nobody can parse.

Monitor / IEM needs

Tell them how you hear yourselves. How many monitor mixes do you need, and who's on each? If you're on in-ear monitors, say whether you're bringing your own system and just need a feed, or whether you need them to provide one. "Four wedge mixes" and "we run IEMs off our own rack, need a stereo send" are very different asks — be specific so they can plan the routing.

Backline

Backline is the gear you expect the venue to provide on stage — typically the heavy stuff bands don't haul: drum kit, bass amp, guitar amps, keyboard stand. Be honest about what you're bringing versus what you need supplied. If you're flexible ("any 4x12 cab is fine") say so; if you're not ("we need a specific amp model"), flag it early because that's the kind of thing that can't be solved day-of.

Power

Boring, but it's where shows fall apart. Note how many outlets you need on stage and roughly where. If you're running anything power-hungry or sensitive — backing-track rig, synths, pedalboards on a shared circuit — say it. Engineers would much rather know in advance than trip a breaker mid-set.

Keep it realistic, or it won't get honored

The fastest way to get your rider ignored is to over-ask. If a 150-cap club reads "we require a 48-channel digital console and four separate IEM mixes" for your three-piece, they'll assume the whole document is a template you never tailored — and stop reading. Then even your real, reasonable needs get missed.

So:

• Ask for what you actually need, not what a band ten times your size would ask for.
• Mark what's required vs. nice-to-have. "Required: two vocal mics. Preferred: a third for backing vocals." This lets a smaller room meet you halfway instead of throwing up its hands.
• Match the rider to the venue. A festival, a 200-cap bar, and a theater are three different documents. Even small tailoring signals you're a band that's done this before.
• Put contact info on it. Who do they call with questions? A rider that invites a quick "hey, can you confirm the amp situation?" gets honored more often than one that feels like a take-it-or-leave-it legal demand.

A good rider reads like one professional briefing another. Clear, scoped, and obviously written for this show.

Generate it from your show data instead of starting from scratch

Most bands keep their rider in an aging Word doc that drifts out of date the moment a member changes their rig. That's where keeping show details in one place pays off.

In ArtistHQ, each show already holds your venue, date, and advancing details, and your Documents can be generated straight from that data — including a Technical Rider and a separate Hospitality Rider, plus the day sheet, setlist, and settlement sheet. Because they're built from the show you're actually playing, the venue and date are correct every time, and you're editing a starting draft instead of a blank page.

When it's ready, you share it as a secure link rather than an email attachment that gets forwarded and lost. You can set a password, an expiry date, and revoke the link entirely once the show's done — useful when a rider includes contact details or anything you'd rather not have floating around indefinitely. The promoter clicks, reads the current version, and there's only ever one source of truth.

You can set this up from your Shows pipeline once a date moves into advancing — the stage where you're trading details with the venue anyway. For more on links, passwords, and expiry, see the documents and sharing guide.

The short version

A technical rider answers one question for the venue: what do you need to play? Keep it to the input list, stage plot, monitors, backline, and power. Keep hospitality separate. Ask for what's real, mark what's optional, tailor it to the room — and share it somewhere the venue can actually find the latest version. Do that, and your rider stops being a document people skim and ignore, and starts being the thing that makes load-in boring. Which, on a show day, is exactly what you want.