Lights, mics, music, and vibes: what the wedding DJ is expected to provide.
The resources you need to fulfill those expectations don’t come cheap, and standard liability policies typically don’t cover damage to your property. This is why gear and equipment insurance is a must-have for wedding DJs.
What Can Go Wrong at a Wedding (Why Your DJ Equipment Is at Risk)
You do your best to ensure your wedding gigs go off without a hitch, but you can’t control every variable at every venue. Sprinkler systems, overly-enthusiastic guests, the weather — all can threaten your essential tech.
What could possibly go wrong, you ask? How could my equipment be at risk? Here are some wedding scenarios that can end up costing you big:
- An unobservant guest runs into a speaker, which falls and cracks your laptop screen on the way down.
- A caterer carrying a large tray missteps and spills several half-empty glasses of champagne on your controller, damaging it.
- Someone’s uncle lights a cigar inside, which triggers the smoke alarm and the sprinkler system. The water damages all your DJ equipment.
- At an outdoor wedding, a sudden wind gust causes some of your gear to fall over and break.
- While tearing down at the end of the night, someone steals your lighting apparatus, which is caught on the hotel’s security cameras.
You hope things like this never happen, but if they do, you’ll be glad you have insurance to help protect your professional equipment.
Why DJ Equipment Insurance Is Worth It
Is DJ equipment insurance really worth it? The short answer: Yes. Here’s why:
Most wedding DJs provide their own equipment, which can be expensive. Basic controllers and mixers sell for over $200 each, with more advanced versions retailing in the thousands. A single speaker easily costs $300–$400. This means you’re likely spending over $600 for essentials that don’t even include your laptop or music library.
Newer, less experienced wedding DJs or those who offer fewer services may need to charge less to stay competitive. In this case, it could take several gigs just to break even.
Now imagine you’re on your third of five weddings this season when a guest approaches you with a request. They lean too far over your booth and spill their drink on your controller. You’re able to get through the evening, but now it doesn’t work quite right.
You don’t want to show up to your next gig with faulty equipment and risk it failing completely in the middle of the first dance. So you’re forced to replace the broken gear, setting you back another few hundred dollars.
Enter: wedding DJ equipment insurance.
Instead of paying out of pocket and reducing your profit margins, equipment insurance helps you repair or replace your gear if something like this happens.
How Much (or Little!) Wedding DJ Equipment Insurance Costs
Wedding DJ equipment and gear coverage with Insurance Canopy costs as little as $7.50 a month when added to an annual DJ policy.
For $7.50 a month (or $90/year), you get $2,000 in coverage per policy period. For $15 a month ($180/year), you get up to $5,000 in coverage per policy period. With each level of coverage, there is also a $250 deductible.
Deductible: The amount you pay before insurance kicks in, usually subtracted from the check or payment made by insurance. For example, if you have an equipment claim for $1,000, insurance pays $750 (which is $1,000 minus $250 for your deductible).
Pro Tip: Gear and equipment coverage only applies to damages caused by a covered loss. Some exclusions include theft by a business partner or assistant and some government actions.
How Equipment Insurance Works With Wedding DJ Liability Insurance
Equipment insurance is an additional coverage you can add to your wedding DJ insurance policy. It is not a standalone policy by itself.
Wedding DJ liability insurance covers injuries and damages to others and their property, whereas equipment insurance (also known as inland marine insurance) is designed for your business property.
Liability insurance applies to things like:
- Medical bills after a wedding guest trips over one of your extension cords and breaks a wrist
- Repair costs for damage to a venue’s dance floor caused by your booth setup
- A lawsuit from a client accusing you of false advertising
Equipment insurance applies to scenarios like:
- A guest stumbles on their dress and spills their drink over your mixer, causing it to glitch
- The wind at an outdoor reception knocks over your speaker and cracks it
- A wedding crasher swipes your laptop, but you catch them on camera
Pro Tip: Gear and Equipment Coverage is only available on annual wedding DJ policies. DJ event policies are not eligible for this coverage.
Save yourself from expensive and potentially career-ending claims today with wedding DJ insurance. Safeguard your gear investments with DJ equipment insurance.
Story time: How DJ Equipment Insurance Can Actually Save You Money
Say you recently upgraded your laptop to one that retails for $2,000. You expect it to last for years, but then there’s an unexpected storm while you’re mixing at an outdoor wedding. The wind blows over the tent, knocks down several tree branches, and your brand-new $2,000 computer gets smashed in the confusion.
Without insurance, you’d be out $2,000 for the original plus another $2,000 to replace it. Now, instead of $2,000, you’ve spent $4,000 on new equipment — $2,000 more than you originally budgeted for!
With equipment insurance, you’d still spend $2,000 on your laptop. But when it gets destroyed during that storm, you can file a claim. After approving your claim, your adjuster sends you a check to replace your tech for $1,750 — the $2,000 cost minus your $250 deductible.
In this scenario, without insurance, you pay $4,000 out of pocket, or $2,000 more than you originally planned for your laptop. With insurance, you “pay” $250 instead of $2,000 for the replacement laptop in the form of your deductible.
If you want to get particular, you can also factor in the $90 annual cost of insurance on top of the $250 deductible for a total of $340, which is still significantly less than $2,000!
Frequently Asked Questions About Wedding DJ Equipment Insurance
Does Wedding DJ Equipment Insurance Cover Theft?
If you add Gear and Equipment Coverage to your annual policy, you have coverage for stolen property. The theft must be verifiable, and you must have a police report for the stolen items to be covered. Mysterious disappearance, unexplained loss, and theft by employees do not qualify.
How Is the Value of My DJ Equipment Determined?
The value of your DJ equipment will be the lowest of the following amounts:
- The cash value of the equipment
- The cost of restoring the property to its condition before the damage occurred
- The cost of replacing your equipment with identical equipment
Do I Need DJ Insurance if I’m a Part-Time Wedding DJ?
Yes! Even if you only DJ at weddings as a side gig, you face the same risks as a full-timer. A claim could also be more detrimental to a part-time wedding DJ, eating up all or more of your profits from working a few jobs a month. Luckily, insurance can absorb some or all of the cost of an unexpected claim.
