“Meditation Room – Medium to dark color please (prefer not blue)”

“A copy of the USA Today that’s got a story about morbidly obese people in it. Most amusing!”

“MASSAGE: A Female (no men)…They must be at the venue at 5pm (NO LATER) with their own table and must be ready to DO Peter at 6:20pm for 1 hour.”

Oh, temperamental rock stars and their demands. Musicians have long been known for the excessive demands they place in their tour riders (the above are from the riders of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iggy Pop and Peter Gabriel, respectively) and the tantrums they throw when they don’t get everything they ask for.

While some requests are designed to fulfill massive egos (and some just to entertain the bored roadie that had to write the thing), others are included to make sure the concert promoters are actually reading the riders, which include important technical details that must be followed to ensure the artist can achieve the proper sound for their show.

The point of all of this is to say that, when it comes to contracts, it’s all in the details. For any contract you’re involved in, you must read and, more importantly, understand every single clause, or you may end up with a bad deal that can haunt you for years to come.