Did you know that every time you play live your responsible for any harm or damage you cause to third party property, belongings or people? This means it would be deemed your fault if some half-cut empty-headed clown was to trip over some of your equipment and bash their idiotic head on the floor – It would also be your fault if you dropped your amp and damaged the venue’s “new” (decrepit beer/vomit/urine encrusted) wooden floor. Basically if you work in places where members of the public are present, it’s highly recommended to insure yourself against any accidents, mis-haps, damage & theft. In today’s “no win, no fee” society your just a phone call or a click away from a claim but if you’ve got a spare couple of mil hanging around you’ll be fine.
Employers Liability
The band is liable for anyone who works with the band whether it’s a roadie, friend, family, tom, dick or harry, whether they are paid or unpaid. Just because you’ve got someone who loves the band and wants to volunteer their time to help you out, doesn’t mean they won’t be tempted to sue if they have a nasty accident. Any musician insurance worth its salt will include employers liability cover.
Cover for theft, loss or damage
It’s a common misconception that Household insurance will cover your musical instruments. In some cases it can offer cover, but not always for the correct amount or correct uses of the equipment. Household insurance may not cover your instruments if they are outside of the home or are used for commercial purposes i.e. gigging. Household insurance may offer a payment limit per item for example the maximum you can claim may be £2000. In some cases, this may not be enough for expensive equipment. Also, if you’re planning any gigs in Europe or the rest of the world it’s important to check that your policy has European & Worldwide cover. It’s unlikely that a household insurance policy would cover this.
Many insurance companies will even refuse to offer a home insurance quote to people whose occupation is ‘musician’. Apparently you music lot are seen as quite a big risk to insure. This must be something to do with the amount of expensive gear the average musician has and the fact that they will probably at one point be planning on taking this gear outside of their home to play gigs.
When looking to get adequate cover for your instruments and other gear it’s important to ask the insurance company the right questions. It’s the old adage ‘ask and ye shall receive’ or more to the point ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’. When you ring an insurance company looking for instrument insurance it’s best to ask if they have a tailored musician policy and you should always ask if they cover hired equipment, laptops, theft & accidental damage, transit (loading and unloading risks and on-stage use), European & worldwide travel (if you do that type of thing) and cover on a new for old basis. Cover on a new for old basis means that any item that is lost or destroyed will be replaced with a new item to the value of the original without any deduction for wear and tear.
The lovely folks at Sentric Music who specialise in royalty collection, synchronisation and licensing for independent (unsigned) artists gave us some feedback about how much the average bands equipment costs and what you would have to achieve through Sentric Music in order to re-coup your losses. That is if you didn't have insurance of course! We've used this information to knock-up a handy diagram/infograph type thing as we always find images help us to really understand things.
