Importing an existing rider PDF

Most artists already have a rider floating around somewhere — a PDF a manager made, a file from a bandmate, something from two tours ago. You don't have to retype any of it. Plot can read a rider and turn it into editable sections.

Why this exists

Retyping an old rider is the worst kind of busywork. It's slow, you miss things, and at the end you have the same document in a new place. The import tool was built to skip that step entirely: upload what you have, let AI do the first pass, then clean it up.

How it works

Behind the scenes, Plot uses Google's Gemini model to read the PDF, recognise the sections, and fill them into the editor. You never leave the app and you don't have to prepare the file.

1. 1

   Start the import

   On the Rider dashboard, pick Import from PDF. Choose a file from your computer. PDFs work best, but images of rider pages (for example, a phone photo) also work.

2. 2

   Let Plot read it

   The file is sent to the AI. This usually takes 10–30 seconds depending on how long the rider is. A long rider with lots of pages takes longer.

3. 3

   Review the preview

   Plot shows you what it extracted, section by section. Read through it. Fix anything that's wrong or missing.

4. 4

   Apply to a new rider

   When you're happy, confirm. Plot creates a brand new rider with those sections filled in, ready to edit further.

What works well, what doesn't

Being honest about the tech: it's impressive but not magic.

Works well

• Typed PDFs from Word, InDesign, Pages, Google Docs.
• Clear section headers like "Audio FOH" or "Input List".
• Normal tables — contacts tables, input lists, Backline lists.
• Riders in English or Norwegian.

Gets noisier

• Scanned paper riders.
• Photos of printed pages — they work, but lighting and angle matter.
• Heavily designed riders where headers are tiny and the layout is clever.
• Handwritten notes on the margins (these usually don't make it).

Expect roughly 80% to land correctly. The remaining 20% needs your eyes. That's still a massive time saver over starting from scratch.

After the import

You land in the normal editor with your sections filled in. From here it's the same as any other rider — toggle sections on or off, fix things that look wrong, add the pieces that got missed.

A good habit: right after import, open the Input List and Backline sections first. Those are the ones venues read most carefully, and they're the ones AI is most likely to need help with.

What's next

Once the text is roughly in place, you can polish individual sections with AI. See Polishing text with AI.