Akpa

A. Situation

Star Promotions Inc., founded in 1991 has been promoting South Asian concerts all over United States, Canada, Africa and London. As an investor in this entertainment company, negotiating performance contracts has transpired into an ultimately important skill for me. These contracts include the performance date, location, time of performance payment’s and scheduled performance. Then there is the hospitality rider that typically provides us with specific information regarding the refreshments and backstage requirements. These expenses are deducted from our gross potential. So, it is easy to surmise that we get quite distressed when the artist's lavish requests become too costly or totally unrealistic.

This difficult situation presented itself in July of 2004. A major show participant wanted to be accommodated with a very atypical alcoholic beverage. Chivas Regal Royal Salute, a 50 year old rare drink was demanded on the hospitality rider. The request was authorized by the company CEO who failed to realize that there are only 255 bottles of this version ever manufactured and only 10 bottles were allotted for distribution in United States. Being unable to locate this $10,000 scarce find, I was asked to proposition a call to the international promoter and re-negotiate this part of the rider. Although most items outlined in a rider are negotiable, eliminating or even minimizing a valued item may affect the attitude of the artist and their willingness to give their best performance the night of the concert. What may seem like a worthless item (like 4 packs of Cotton Candy or Bubblicious Bubble Gum) may be the most important pre-show ritual for certain artists. Unfortunately, now the show is off to a dreadful start in anticipation of the artist even hitting the stage. With almost 13,000 tickets sold for the concert taking place on July 17th, 2004, I was well aware of the consequences but did not know where the...