Whether you perform at venues every weekend, play an occasional wedding, or are just getting started with your band, you’ll want to make sure you have band insurance. You may not think purchasing insurance for your band is necessary, but after reading this article, you’ll see why band insurance is essential.
At Insurance Canopy, we provide small businesses with insurance—bands and musicians included. Today we’ll cover some common risks you face as a band, and the policy details so you can know the coverage you’d be getting with Insurance Canopy.
Common Band Risks
There are several risks you face as a band. Some of the most common claims have to do with your equipment. If you’re playing at a wedding and someone trips over your microphone cord and sprains their ankle, you can be held liable for their medical expenses. Someone may spill their drink on your speakers and cause damage to the point that you need to replace your speakers. This is where insurance can come in handy where you are able to file a claim easily online and have the small business support you need.
Another common claim is a venue claiming your equipment scratched their floor and you are now responsible for repairing the damages. Perhaps your equipment gets stolen or damaged while you were transporting it. For these claims and more, you’ll want to make sure you are insured before performing at any shows, venues, or events with coverage for tools and equipment, an add on to your annual policy.
Insurance Canopy Policy Details
Band insurance from Insurance Canopy includes several different aspects, and may be hard to understand if you are not familiar with insurance terms. We’ll break it down for you.
General Liability
General liability insurance can protect your business from the cost of third-party bodily injury and property damage claims—the example of someone tripping on your equipment would be considered a general liability claim. This part of the policy also protects against the cost of copyright infringement claims, personal and advertising injury claims, and more. There is a $2M aggregate limit, which means life of the contract.
Professional Liability
Professional liability insurance can protect your band from the cost of a negligence claim from professional errors and omissions, like giving bad instruction or failing to provide necessary information on a subject. If you teach classes or run demonstrations as part of your band business, this additional coverage option is strongly recommended. The aggregate or annual limit on this is $200,000.
Damage to Rented Premises
This coverage can protect your business from the cost of claims arising from damages done to rented spaces, like a studio or event booth. The example listed above of scratching and damaging a venue’s floor may be covered with this part of the policy. The aggregate limit is $300,000.
Equipment Coverage
You can purchase tools and equipment coverage for an additional cost when filling out an online application. For $2,000 per item and a $4,00 policy year, this coverage will cost $3.33 For $5,000 per item and a $10,000 policy year, the cost is $5. This extra cost is only paid once per year for the annual band insurance policy. Tools and equipment coverage is not available for band event insurance.
Additional Insureds
It’s common for venue owners and event organizers to require bands to list them as additional insureds on a policy before renting a space or playing there. Insurance Canopy provides unlimited additional insureds for $5. You simply provide the additional insured’s information when filling out your application or come back at any time to add them to your policy from your customer dashboard.
Cyber Liability Insurance
If you would like to have protection for online information or data, you will want to look into purchasing cyber liability insurance. This insurance is helpful if you collect or store customer information, whether that be names, addresses, payment information, etc. This protection has a $100,000 cyber coverage limit and is available for $99 per year, or $8.25 per month.
How to Get Insured
When you are ready to get insured, you can fill out an online application in less than 10 minutes. You can select the date your policy is active, whether that be for a year or the 1–3 consecutive days for an event policy. On the application, you will provide some information about your band—like how many people are in your band, your gross sales, and if you would like to add additional coverages like tools and equipment or excess liability insurance.
You will also be asked to provide your personal information (name, email address, etc.) and what types of events you will be playing, and more. If you have any questions about the band insurance policy in general or how to fill out the application, feel free to reach out to licensed insurance agents.
We wish you the best of luck with all your music endeavors!
