Musical Instrument Insurance

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Musical Instrument Insurance Guide

Whether a person is a professional musician or not, musical instruments often represent a serious financial commitment. Musical instruments and music equipment could be expensive to replace, so it usually makes sense to protect these items with insurance.

Does Standard Home Insurance Cover Musical Instruments?

In some cases, a musical equipment might be covered by standard home insurance. For a relatively inexpensive item that someone plays for personal enjoyment and only use at home, the standard insurance might provide all the protection needed.
However, if someone owns high-value musical instruments they might not be adequately covered. In addition if the instruments are used professionally, or someone regularly takes them out of their home, then they may not have enough insurance coverage.
If a musical instrument is worth more than the single-item claim limit on a standard home insurance, or if someone uses their instrument professionally, it may be a good idea to consider specialist musical equipment insurance.

What Items could Music Equipment Insurance Cover?

Musical instrument and equipment insurance could cover a comprehensive range of items, including but not usually limited to instruments of all kinds:

Traditional and unique musical instruments, including acoustic and electric guitars, pianos, string and woodwind instruments, and drums and other percussion instruments. Music studio and DJ equipment such as mixing desks, laptop computers, turntables, and music collections on compact disc and vinyl. Stage equipment such as PA systems and components, including speakers, lighting equipment, microphones, and associated items such as smoke machines. Accessories such as instrument cases, amplifiers, drum sticks, bows for violins and similar instruments, and guitar pedals.

What Kinds of Loss does Musical Equipment Insurance Cover?

Most musical instrument and band equipment insurance covers the following items. Accidental damage, loss, and theft insurance covers the cost of repair or replacement of insured items if they’re damaged, lost, or stolen. This is typically a standard inclusion for music gear insurance and is covered in all policies of this kind. Theft from a non-attended vehicle is not always a standard inclusion for musical equipment insurance. If someone wants this kind of protection, make sure to find out if it’s included or if it could be necessary to buy extra coverage. Public liability cover usually applies if the policyholder injures someone or damages someone else’s property while performing or teaching. It’s a useful kind of cover for music teachers and musical performers, but if someone is a non-professional musician they may decide they don’t need this kind of insurance. Personal accident insurance applies if they have an accident while they are performing or teaching music. This part of the policy could pay out for injuries such as loss of sight or hearing, injuries that could cause disability, or other serious injuries such as loss of a limb. Some may also pay out in the event of death. Worldwide cover is included in some policies and provides temporary global coverage for people who travel abroad with their musical equipment.

Many musical equipment insurance providers offer policies that are customisable for specific needs. For instance, if someone is a professional musician who regularly travels abroad for related purposes they may decide on a policy that includes public liability, personal accident, and worldwide cover in addition to the standard accidental damage, loss, and theft insurance. On the other hand, if someone plays an instrument as a hobby but does’t perform or teach, they may only want to pay for accidental damage, loss, and theft insurance. This could allow someone to buy cheap musical instrument insurance that provides the kind of coverage needed, without having to pay extra for coverage that doesn’t apply to them.

How Much Musical Insurance is Needed?

There are usually two things to consider when deciding how much insurance someone needs for musical equipment. First, the value of the equipment could determine how much damage, loss, and theft insurance is needed. Second, if someone needs public liability or personal accident insurance, the level of coverage they need may be determined by what kind of music is performed or taught, and where or how often this is done.
Note that if someone has multiple instruments to insure, two different claim limits could typically apply. For instance, if someone needs violin, guitar, and flute insurance, each item they insure they could have a maximum cover amount, and there may also be a maximum cover amount for the entire collection.

How to Compare Music Equipment Insurance

To choose the best musical instrument insurance for a person's needs, it could be good to think about the kinds of coverage needed and look for policies that may provide it. Then it may be necessary to compare the basic policy inclusions, such as accidental damage, loss, and theft; public liability; and personal accident insurance. Also, if someone is looking at worldwide cover for travelling abroad, they may want to make sure to check specifically what kinds of coverage the global portion of the insurance includes, and for how long.
They may also need to look at the excess on the policies they're comparing. The excess on a policy is usually the amount paid on a claim before the insurance kicks in. It could be anywhere from £100 to £1,000 or more depending on the policy and the value of the item being insured. Generally, the higher the excess the lower the premiums, and vice versa.
Some policies waive the excess on claims for damage, loss, or theft of instruments, which could be useful if somone only needs insurance for this specific reason, and don’t need public liability or personal accident coverage.