This tidbit popped up in a thing about Katy Perry's rider which for the most part sounds like the kind of thing a young woman might want in her surroundings. But the last two paragraphs are revealing.

Jimmy Buffett and Neil Diamond got caught with their hands in the ticket jar about ten years ago & I've kinda figured most big tours have some of this going on.

What do you think? Are these artists cheating their fans? Or do you give them thumbs-up for making a smart, profitable business decision?

Another point to ponder... Rolling Stone reported a few months ago there is legislation being discussed to prevent paperless ticketing. The thought behind this is, this is America, and anyone who gets a hold of a ticket is entitled to whatever they can get for it. Anti-scalping measures by the artist would be considered unfair restraint of trade.

'MAY 19--As she prepares to embark next month on the U.S. leg of her 2011 world tour, Katy Perry will be
carrying a 45-page concert rider that outlaws carnations, details very specific furniture requirements, and outlines a 23-point “principle driver policy” for chauffeurs in towns the 26-year-old singer visits.

According to Perry’s rider, excerpted here, the performer’s dressing room (which has to be draped in cream or soft pink) needs to be outfitted with two cream-colored egg chairs, one of which should have a footstool. It is unclear whether Perry requires original Arne Jacobsens or cheap knockoffs. A coffee table needs to be “perspex modern style.” A pair of floor lamps should be in “French ornate style.” And the singer’s refrigerator must come with a glass door.

As for the dressing room’s flower arrangement, Perry wants “White and purple hydrangeas, pink & white roses and peonies.” If those flowers are not available, Perry will settle for a “selection of seasonal white flowers to include white orchids.” However, promoters are advised, “ABSOLUTELY NO CARNATIONS.” That warning is, of course, underlined.

In a commendable effort to curb the environmental impact of plastic bottles, Perry’s rider notes that water dispensers must be provided in all dressing rooms and production offices, and that tour personnel will be supplied with “SIGG drinking bottles.”

When it comes to hotel provisions, Perry requires a “1 bedroom presidential suite” in a “5 star property.” And free Internet service and a complimentary breakfast must be provided to the performer and her touring party.

Chauffeurs, the rider notes, are not allowed to “start a conversation w/ the client.” Wheelmen are similarly barred from conversing with Perry’s guests or fans. They also are directed not to stare at the backseat through the rear view mirror. Drivers should also not “ask for autographs or pictures, and especially not while driving!” Finally, Perry’s ride should be outfitted with four water bottles (presumably in the event she forgets her Sigg).

The rider also alerts promoters that they may be required to hold back tickets for concerts so that Perry & Co. can provide the ducats to “resellers” for “distribution to the public” on the “secondary market.” In other words, Perry reserves the right to pocket some of the proceeds from the sale of tickets--not made available at face price to her fans--scalped at inflated prices by these brokers.

The quantity and location of tickets earmarked for these secondary markets will be determined by Perry’s “Personal Manager,” according to the rider, which was provided to TSG by our pal Jester.'
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/ ... der-138490

I'd like to see an artist do an auction for their best tickets. Here's what I would do:

Announce that the 1,000 best tickets will be auctioned off to the highest bidders. Bidders have tow days to bid the best price they'd pay per ticket. After all bids are in, tickets get allocated in the highest order bid per ticket.

After those tickets are allocated, the rest are put on sale in the usual manner.

The way I see it, this method will kill ticket scalpers, because market value would have already been paid for the best tickets. If they bought some at the auction, there'd be no resale market at a higher price, because the highest price had already been paid.

And, the money would be going to the artist instead of a slimy ticket scalper.

The bad news is that people with little money would never get the best seats, but do they get them now? I'm firmly convinced that TicketMaster is either crooked or easily manipulated, and "real fans" have no chance of scoring the best seats for the hottest artists.

bobzilla77 said:

When it comes to hotel provisions, Perry requires a “1 bedroom presidential suite” in a “5 star property.” And free Internet service and a complimentary breakfast must be provided to the performer and her touring party.

Working in the industry, this is a contract most hotels would do their best NOT to win.

Free internet? No cap?

Free breakfasts for the entire group?

laughable. wo is the hotel that gets this group, makes no money, puts up with her shit and fans disrupting the building etc.,

Based on an average touring group's numbers and a typical 3 night stay, the hotel she chooses will loose approximatley $3-4000 per night entertaining her requests.

good luck with that.

She's quite a "diva",isn't she?

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and she cant even sing !!!

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blackbob said:

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and she cant even sing !!!

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lol,I think she can sing.It's just a shame that she's playing the "diva" role so early in her career.

SoulAlive said:

blackbob said:

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and she cant even sing !!!

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lol,I think she can sing.It's just a shame that she's playing the "diva" role so early in her career.

Blackbob is right. She really can't.

I don't think there's anything wrong with most of that rider. Those aren't ridiculous demands from an arena act.

The "no staring/ talking to the artist" thing sounds diva-ish. But I've heard Eddie Vedder talk about the fact that he can never just go hang around without everybody staring at him. "You ever take too many drugs and get paranoid and it feels like everybody's staring at you? Well... that REALLY HAPPENS to me!" So I guess I have some sympathy for that... even though I'd be way more freaked out of the moment I walked into a room, instead of all eyes turning on me, they all turned around to face the wall.

I was more interested to know - how do you folks feel about the fact that artists - she's the one caught here but I suspect this is a very common practice - can skim the best seats off the top and sell them directly to scalpers?

Would you be bummed if Prince was caught doing this? What about McCartney? Janet? The Gap Band? Do you admire their keen business sense or feel like that's messed up?

xperience319 said:

bobzilla77 said:

Working in the industry, this is a contract most hotels would do their best NOT to win.

Free internet? No cap?

Free breakfasts for the entire group?

laughable. wo is the hotel that gets this group, makes no money, puts up with her shit and fans disrupting the building etc.,

Based on an average touring group's numbers and a typical 3 night stay, the hotel she chooses will loose approximatley $3-4000 per night entertaining her requests.

good luck with that.

Oh come on. Where do you expect Katy Perry to stay? The Motel 6? The hotel will get paid by the promoter. The contract is not between Katy & Co. and the hgtel. Its not her responsibility to acquire accomodations in cities she may never even have been to before. Whoever is promoting the tour will be handling that.

Thats neither modest nor outrageous as far as riders go. Some folks go crazy with their riders. Hers is middle of the road. As for the ticket scalping thing: times iz hard.

Its probably to give the people that handle her fan club first shot at the best seats so they can justify their membership prices. Y'all know how that goes. Some of you were NPGMC members.

[Edited 5/25/11 1:04am]

bobzilla77 said:

I don't think there's anything wrong with most of that rider. Those aren't ridiculous demands from an arena act.

The "no staring/ talking to the artist" thing sounds diva-ish. But I've heard Eddie Vedder talk about the fact that he can never just go hang around without everybody staring at him. "You ever take too many drugs and get paranoid and it feels like everybody's staring at you? Well... that REALLY HAPPENS to me!" So I guess I have some sympathy for that... even though I'd be way more freaked out of the moment I walked into a room, instead of all eyes turning on me, they all turned around to face the wall.

I was more interested to know - how do you folks feel about the fact that artists - she's the one caught here but I suspect this is a very common practice - can skim the best seats off the top and sell them directly to scalpers?

Would you be bummed if Prince was caught doing this? What about McCartney? Janet? The Gap Band? Do you admire their keen business sense or feel like that's messed up?

It's not right but I guess these artists feel like.....if people are gonna raise my ticket prices and make alot money off me,then let me in on it too Can't say that I blame them for feeling this way.

BlaqueKnight said:

xperience319 said:

Working in the industry, this is a contract most hotels would do their best NOT to win.

Free internet? No cap?

Free breakfasts for the entire group?

laughable. wo is the hotel that gets this group, makes no money, puts up with her shit and fans disrupting the building etc.,

Based on an average touring group's numbers and a typical 3 night stay, the hotel she chooses will loose approximatley $3-4000 per night entertaining her requests.

good luck with that.

Oh come on. Where do you expect Katy Perry to stay? The Motel 6? The hotel will get paid by the promoter. The contract is not between Katy & Co. and the hgtel. Its not her responsibility to acquire accomodations in cities she may never even have been to before. Whoever is promoting the tour will be handling that.

Thats neither modest nor outrageous as far as riders go. Some folks go crazy with their riders. Hers is middle of the road. As for the ticket scalping thing: times iz hard.

Its probably to give the people that handle her fan club first shot at the best seats so they can justify their membership prices. Y'all know how that goes. Some of you were NPGMC members.

[Edited 5/25/11 1:04am]

You're right. The "rider" is not for the hotel to agree to - it's for the promoter to agree to handle those accomodations. Live Nation or whoever it is, is paying for the 5 star room and the breakfast for the crew. They're probably not feeding the whole crew at the 5-star hotel.

I looked on Perry's web site & the only mentions to buy tickets are links straight to ticketmaster. It would be one thing if she were giving club members first shot at good seats. That doesn't seem to be the case though.

See, Katy COULD if she wanted to, set up VIP packages of her own, charge $650 for the first three rows or whatever, and maybe the rich kids that like her would fill them up. But then the rest of her fans go "$650? Who does she think she is???" This way she gets to claim the extra dough and blame the scalpers for gounging the fans. That's dishonest, if you ask me.

bobzilla77 said:

You're right. The "rider" is not for the hotel to agree to - it's for the promoter to agree to handle those accomodations. Live Nation or whoever it is, is paying for the 5 star room and the breakfast for the crew. They're probably not feeding the whole crew at the 5-star hotel.

I looked on Perry's web site & the only mentions to buy tickets are links straight to ticketmaster. It would be one thing if she were giving club members first shot at good seats. That doesn't seem to be the case though.

See, Katy COULD if she wanted to, set up VIP packages of her own, charge $650 for the first three rows or whatever, and maybe the rich kids that like her would fill them up. But then the rest of her fans go "$650? Who does she think she is???" This way she gets to claim the extra dough and blame the scalpers for gounging the fans. That's dishonest, if you ask me.

Well, like I said, times iz hard.

xperience319 said:

bobzilla77 said:

Working in the industry, this is a contract most hotels would do their best NOT to win.

Free internet? No cap?

Free breakfasts for the entire group?

laughable. wo is the hotel that gets this group, makes no money, puts up with her shit and fans disrupting the building etc.,

Based on an average touring group's numbers and a typical 3 night stay, the hotel she chooses will loose approximatley $3-4000 per night entertaining her requests.

good luck with that.

I just stayed at a Hilton in Puerto Rico on business for 3 solid weeks with 3 other co-workers. Free internet is standard. And the deal we worked out on our own was the full buffet breakfast for free, free parking, and the resort fee waived.

And they were damned glad to have us. Because they know damn well that all that other shit they charge for is bullshit and gravy on top of the money they're actually making off of you for staying there. You don't know what you're talking about.

errant said:

I just stayed at a Hilton in Puerto Rico on business for 3 solid weeks with 3 other co-workers. Free internet is standard. And the deal we worked out on our own was the full buffet breakfast for free, free parking, and the resort fee waived.

And they were damned glad to have us. Because they know damn well that all that other shit they charge for is bullshit and gravy on top of the money they're actually making off of you for staying there. You don't know what you're talking about.

Im sure they were.

bobzilla77 said:

You're right. The "rider" is not for the hotel to agree to - it's for the promoter to agree to handle those accomodations. Live Nation or whoever it is, is paying for the 5 star room and the breakfast for the crew. They're probably not feeding the whole crew at the 5-star hotel.

Correct, promoters and third parties negotiate such rates and extras for large groups.

Im just saying, with 10 years under my belt dealing with these kinds of contracts and groups, most hotels dont care who the celebrity is, it is a business at the end of the day, and we will instantly decline such demmands.

xperience319 said:

bobzilla77 said:

You're right. The "rider" is not for the hotel to agree to - it's for the promoter to agree to handle those accomodations. Live Nation or whoever it is, is paying for the 5 star room and the breakfast for the crew. They're probably not feeding the whole crew at the 5-star hotel.

Correct, promoters and third parties negotiate such rates and extras for large groups.

Im just saying, with 10 years under my belt dealing with these kinds of contracts and groups, most hotels dont care who the celebrity is, it is a business at the end of the day, and we will instantly decline such demmands.

Then you can't afford to book Katy Perry. No celebrity at her status right now would stay in a shitty motel while doing a gig in an arena. Now her bandmates might be out of luck but if you aren't willing to put out for arena artists, then its hard to believe that you're booking the gig. Any artist with a decent tour manager would insist that their main artist have the best accomodations. Like her or not, Katy Perry is hot right now and that makes her a pretty big artist in terms of touring.

xperience319 said:

bobzilla77 said:

You're right. The "rider" is not for the hotel to agree to - it's for the promoter to agree to handle those accomodations. Live Nation or whoever it is, is paying for the 5 star room and the breakfast for the crew. They're probably not feeding the whole crew at the 5-star hotel.

Correct, promoters and third parties negotiate such rates and extras for large groups.

Im just saying, with 10 years under my belt dealing with these kinds of contracts and groups, most hotels dont care who the celebrity is, it is a business at the end of the day, and we will instantly decline such demmands.

I'm not a celebrity, and every hotel I've ever been to for business, some of them top of the line, is glad waive their bullshit fees just to have the business. How do you explain that?