The 11pm hunt for the tech rider
Press shots in one inbox, the stage plot in another, the EPK on a laptop that died. Give your band one organised home for the files that aren't music.
By @KHeavy
The venue emails at 10:47pm: “Can you send the tech rider and a couple of press shots for the poster?”
You know the band has these. You made them. The rider is attached to an email from last spring - search “rider”? Search “stage”? The press shots are in someone’s Google Drive, shared from a personal account belonging to a member who left. The EPK is on the old laptop.
Forty-five minutes later you send a rider that is one drummer out of date.
One home for the non-music files
Songs and mixes get a lot of attention in BandVolt. But bands run on a second pile of files - EPKs, press shots, tech riders, stage plots, artwork, contracts - and that pile deserves a home too.
Band file storage gives you organised folders that every member can reach. Drag and drop the rider in once. From then on, the answer to “can you send the rider?” takes thirty seconds, from whoever happens to be awake.
Everyone can reach it, nobody owns it
The failure mode of the personal-Dropbox approach is that one person becomes the archive. When they are on holiday, the band has no press shots. When they leave, the band has nothing at all. It is one more example of the hidden cost of stitched-together tools.
Shared band storage means the files belong to the band. Members come and go; the rider stays.
Deleted is not destroyed
Someone will eventually delete the wrong folder - usually at speed, usually before a gig. The 30-day recycle bin means that is an “oops” rather than a crisis. Restore it and move on.
Attach files where they matter
Files also attach to events on the band calendar, so the stage plot for Friday’s show lives on Friday’s show. The 11pm email becomes a two-minute job - or better, a link you already sent.
Topics: tech rider · stage plot · gig admin