Unless you’re a staff jingle writer at an advertising agency, chances are you don’t have any sort of insurance from a company – you have to get musician’s insurance on your own. The ACA made health insurance more affordable for people in the music industry, but health is not the only type of insurance musicians should consider. I was an audio engineer and co-owned a small recording studio, which required many different types of insurance to protect not only myself, but the business. In this post we’ll look at insurance for musicians, producers, studios, and their gear. No one ever wants to need musicians insurance, but if you plan on making a living as a musician you need to protect your business and your business assets: which is you and your gear.
Musicians insurance to consider: Health, Event, Instrument, Professional Liability, Commercial Liability.
Health Insurance for Musicians
As mentioned above, health insurance isn’t as big of a problem as it was in my earlier days. Whether you like Obama or not, the ACA makes insurance more affordable, and more importantly accessible for musicians, producers, and audio engineers. Before the ACA, being a musician was a pre-existing condition.
Freelancers and self-employed persons don’t have health insurance through a company, and before the ACA the private industry was a nightmare… especially because those who choose music as a career are thought to have “risky lifestyles” according to underwriters. (What? “Sex, Drugs, & Rock n’ Roll” as a universal slogan of the music industry sounds risky?).
Nevertheless, there are still private insurance providers who cater specifically to the entertainment industry, so we’ll look at some here. Getting health insurance through an organization that caters to musician can give you benefits because they can still get more leverage, plus they can pre-package policies (because most of them are basically re-sellers or something like HMO managers, anyway) that fit the total insurance needs of a working musician (more on those below)
Commercial Liability Insurance for Recording Studios
We’ve all heard stories of people slipping and falling in a business, then suing the business owner for 10 million dollars in damages. That’s why a recording studio needs liability insurance. Thankfully, the personality type of musicians tends to make them less likely to sue on a whim, but trust me, it’s highly likely that in the normal course of business, there will be minor injuries happening in a recording studio. Whether someone was intoxicated, under an influence, or just a drummer, why an injury doesn’t matter. All that matters in order to get sued is that it happened in the first place. You need the liability, anyway, just to meet your business license requirements, but you want a little more to cover costs of frivolous lawsuits just in case.
Again, I admit its cynical, but the cost is not out of this world, and one lawsuit can put you out of business. Just look at the cost like the cost of an alarm system: you’re protecting your business from theft. That’s all these sorts of lawsuits are anyway, but in this case they’re stealing all your money and assets.
Musical Instrument Insurance, Gear Insurance
There are actually a lot of insurance options for musical instruments. Basically, you’re just insurance an asset just like getting home or renter’s insurance. There are some companies, however, like Clarion, Total Instrument Insurance, and Anderson Group who pretty much specialize in instrument insurance. So long as you’re not playing a million dollar Stradivarius, the costs aren’t too high.
Keep in mind that you might only want instrument insurance for a long enough period to cover a tour. This is different than event insurance (which is a grand package of liability, no-show, etc. coverage). If you have home or renter’s insurance there’s a very small chance that your gear would be covered outside the boundaries of where you live, but chances are it’s not. If you take your rig with you on a daily basis, then making sure it’s covered is a good idea. It is your livelihood, after all.
Event Insurance for Music Concerts & Tours
There are thousands of providers of event insurance because there are thousands of types of events. You can even get a separate insurance policy to cover your band meetings if you want to (ahhhhh… capitalism, eh?)
First: why do you need event insurance? You might not if you’re just playing a gig, but you better makes sure wherever you’re playing does. If not, then you could very well be liable if someone is injured during your set. Does the music matter when getting a rate for event insurance? Yup. A Bar Mitzvah band’s cost for event insurance is a lot less than a metal band. It’s the way of the world, my friend. Overall, though, it’s pretty low. If your band is throwing its own show somewhere you can get the event covered for $30-$60. If you’re playing a gig somewhere, though, just make sure the venue has itself covered.
Professional Liability Insurance for Music Producers & Recording Engineers
Musicians don’t run into this possibility much, but producers and engineers who are work for hire sometimes do, particularly in America where suing people is a source of income.
Professional liability insurance (also called Errors and Omissions insurance) is basically malpractice insurance, but for people who provide professional services that aren’t law or medical related. It pays all your legal fees and should someone sue you. The better policies (i.e. the more expensive ones) cover damages (i.e. the money awarded to the plaintiff of the lawsuit) should you lose the lawsuit. Consultants often have professional liability insurance because they might give advice to a client that doesn’t work out so well, then their client turns around and sues them for an obscene amount of money.
Is it sad? Yes. It’s pathetic, but it’s the way of the world. It is very rare that a producer or recording engineer is going to get sued by one of their clients for any sort of professional damages, but it’s not impossible. There are tens of thousands of musicians out there who think they are gods’ gift to music when in reality they make dogs howl when they sing. If a recording comes out terrible, they might blame you. If they are really insecure, then they might even sue in hopes of getting the money back that they spent on the session and production costs. This sort of insurance helps protect you by covering costs should anything like that happen.
How & Where to Find Musicians Insurance
Whereas when you search online you can find a lot of “musicians insurance” policies, many of those are just basic health insurance that is marketed to musicians. There are a couple companies out there that specialize in all the types of insurance a musician might need. Music Pro Insurance is one of those. You can even get short tern coverage (say, if you want some extra, personal coverage for a tour). They also offer liability coverage for studios, music instruction facilities, etc. There are also various organizations that are regionally based, like HMOs based by city or region like HAAM. Again, things are better with the ACA, but you can still get some additional benefits in joining with these sort of musician-centric health organizations for coverage.
