What do you do if your studio catches on fire, gets flooded, or is destroyed in an earthquake? What do you do if somebody breaks, enters, and vandalizes it? What if someone steals your prized guitar out of your car? How do you recover when an inexperienced hack damages your rack of priceless vintage gear? Sweetwater has the answer: get musician’s insurance. Buying musician’s insurance safeguards your financial investment in your instruments, recording gear, sound/lighting equipment, computer hardware/software, and miscellaneous audio accessories. Here’s a list of questions we hear from musicians about their insurance needs along with answers to those questions.
I Have Homeowner’s Insurance, So I’m Good — Right?
Many musicians mistakenly believe that if they have homeowner or renter’s insurance, their gear will be covered. However, that’s not always the case. Homeowner insurance is designed to cover a building that’s used as a personal dwelling, not as a commercial studio. Even if you have a modest home studio, your insurance company might look at it as though you’re running a business out of your house. For the record, we’re not making a definitive statement about your insurance policy, but you definitely need to re-examine it and read the fine print. Don’t wait until you need to file a claim after a fire or theft — by then it’ll be too late.
How Much is My Gear Really Worth?
Most insurance agents aren’t musicians, and they don’t understand the true replacement cost of your gear. Most homeowner policies have per-item or per-category limits, as well. Say your $10,000 vintage Les Paul is destroyed in a house fire. If you file a claim with your homeowner insurance, it’s possible that they’ll replace it with a modern equivalent worth far less than the original instrument. After all, Sweetwater sells entry-level Gibson Les Pauls for about $1,000! Your $4,000 max-spec’d computer that’s loaded with $5,000 of software? They may consider it an office machine that can be replaced with an off-the-shelf PC. And your vintage out-of-production rackmount gear? Honestly, you don’t want to go there. In these situations, you need a specialized music insurer — they recognize the actual value of your gear and will help you find a suitable replacement.
What About Taking My Gear to a Gig?
Some homeowner and automobile policies cover items that you take out of your house, but there are usually a lot of exceptions. For example, say you take your pedalboard to a gig and it gets demolished. Or your gear is in the equipment van and the van gets stolen. In either case, a standard insurance company may claim that you were using your gear to conduct business and refuse to cover it. Specialized musicians’ insurers, however, understand that playing out is a normal part of being a musician, and their policies take that into account.
What Are the Limitations of Musical Instrument Insurance?
Specialized musicians’ insurers understand the risks musicians face and are prepared to safeguard you from them. These policies do have limitations, however. If you accidentally drop your guitar, you’re probably covered. If you intentionally smash it at the end of a show, your insurer will most likely refuse to cover the damages. If a band in your studio breaks something, you’re probably covered. If you willfully invite a crazy person into your studio and they start busting things, you’re probably not covered. If someone takes your gear without your knowledge, you’re probably covered. If you purposely lend your gear to someone and they don’t return it, chances are you’re out of luck.
What is public liability? What about malpractice insurance for musicians?
In modern society, people get sued for all kinds of things — frivolous lawsuits are a part of our culture. So as a musician or recording engineer, how do you defend yourself? That’s where public liability insurance comes into play. Say you plug your amp into a venue’s 50-year-old electrical system and it starts a fire. Or a concertgoer gets injured in the mosh pit. Or a guitar player trips while hauling his amp into your bedroom studio. Or a band’s vocalist breaks his arm after tripping on a mic cable. Or the drummer’s girlfriend chokes on a mouthful of Skittles. Public liability insurance will protect you in all these circumstances.
Now I’m freaked out — what do I do next?
So how do you get started? Well, before you start calling up insurance companies, you’ll need an itemized list of all your gear (Sweetwater’s Wish List feature works great for this). Then you’ll need to determine the replacement value of each item. Print out the list and give it to your insurance agent. They’ll guide you from there.
Insurance is expensive, isn’t it?
So how much does musician’s insurance cost? Great news — it’s not as expensive as you might think. While premiums vary according to the amount of coverage you need, you can get a basic policy for up to $12,000 worth of gear for as little as $150 annually if you shop around.
Music is your passion, and your gear is likely among your most prized possessions. That’s why Sweetwater recommends that our customers buy musician’s insurance. It’s well worth the investment.