As a DJ, there are several reasons for why you need insurance. Firstly, you own a lot of expensive equipment, so keeping it safe should be your number one priority. Secondly, you perform live, so most venues require proof of insurance. Thirdly, you could suffer a bad injury and be unable to work or earn money for long periods.
Put simply, specialist DJ insurance is a must if you want to protect yourself and your equipment. Here’s an overview of what DJ insurance covers and why you need it.
What kind of insurance does a DJ need?
There are three main types of cover a DJ should have:
- Public Liability insurance: in the event you injure someone else or damage someone else’s property and are held responsible
- Equipment cover: in the event your DJ equipment is damaged, lost or stolen
- Performance cover: if you suffer an injury whilst using your music equipment, your electronic equipment breaks down or you need to hire equipment whilst yours is being repaired or replaced.
Why do you need Public Liability insurance?
Public Liability insurance covers you if you injure another person or damage someone else’s property. For instance, if you’re playing live and someone trips over a wire and holds you responsible for their injuries, or if you accidentally damage the stage whilst setting up.
If this happens and a claim was made against you, Public Liability will cover the cost of your potential legal bills, to ensure you’re not left out of pocket.
Public Liability is arguably the most important form of cover for DJs because most venues won’t allow you to perform live unless you have a valid Public Liability certificate as proof of insurance. That’s why we email your certificate straight to your phone after you take out Public Liability, so you can show this to the venue.
What Public Liability insurance cover do we provide?
At Insure4Music, we offer DJs specialist Public Liability at the best price and at three different levels, meaning you only pay for the cover you need.
DJs can choose from up to £1m Public Liability insurance, up to £2m or up to £5m.
Why do you need Equipment cover?
Equipment cover protects your DJ gear if it’s damaged, lost or stolen, at home or when you’re out and about.
This covers you if, for example, your decks are stolen from the venue you’re playing at, or someone accidentally spills their drink over your controller. If anything like this happens, your Equipment cover will provide protection against the cost of potential repairs or replacement.
If your DJ equipment is less than three years old and was bought new, we’ll cover it on a new-for-old basis (18 months for laptops and computers). This way, you’ll be back to playing live in no time and you won’t have to pay to fix or replace your gear out of your own pocket.
What’s more, unlike some home insurance providers, we understand you’ll often take your DJ equipment out of the home, whether you’re performing in a studio or live performance space. That’s why our DJ Equipment cover includes theft from a secure studio or car.
After all – you never know what can happen to your DJ equipment. A recent example is the DJ who had thousands of pounds worth of equipment stolen from their trailer in a car park in Norwich, including their booth, speakers and stage lights.
Unfortunately, this is a far from isolated example. One of our policyholders recently had £14,000 worth of DJ equipment stolen after thieves broke into his garage. Fortunately, because he had specialist DJ insurance, he could replace it quickly and returned to playing live soon after.
Instances like these show how important it is to have DJ Equipment cover. Ultimately, it pays to be protected.
What DJ Equipment cover do we provide?
We provide Equipment cover for your DJ gear up to a total value of £50,000 with a maximum value limit per item of £15,000. Simply click here, enter the value of your DJ equipment and get a quote now.
Why do you need Performance cover?
Performance cover insures you if you can’t play live. It provides protection against three circumstances:
Loss of Earnings – this covers you if you injure yourself while DJing and can no longer work, whether you’re a full-time DJ or have a day job. Loss of Earnings cover will pay towards missing income for a maximum of 52 weeks. This will make sure things keep ticking over, so that one incident doesn’t cost you your livelihood.
Just look at the recent incident of international DJ Martin Garrix. Garrix broke his ankle simply by jumping off stage and had to pull the plug on all upcoming performances*. If you face a similar situation to Garrix, you could be looking at weeks out of work. That’s why Loss of Earnings is a great idea.
Equipment Breakdown – this covers you if your electronic equipment fails. For example, if your amp stops working or your decks malfunction and it’s not because of an accident.
Equipment Breakdown cover ensures the costs to repair or replace the equipment are sorted. Electronic equipment over seven years old won’t be covered.
Music Equipment Hire – this covers the cost of hiring temporary equipment from a reputable dealer whilst waiting for your equipment to be repaired or replaced. After all, the show must go on.
Other cover:
Worldwide – this covers you if you travel outside of the UK with your DJ equipment.
So, if your decks are damaged whilst you’re playing abroad or you cause damage to a venue you’re playing at overseas, you’ll still be covered.
Imagine your disappointment if you took your equipment on tour and discovered it wasn’t there when you got off the plane.
That’s exactly what happened to one claimant, who travelled from London to Frankfurt and lost items worth a combined value of £2,000, including two Macbook Pros and a Pioneer DJ console.
In instances like this, you could be left both out of pocket and unable to play, which is why you need to extend your cover worldwide.
Personal Accident – this covers you if you have a serious accident whilst performing.
So, if you fall off the stage and break a bone, we’ll pay out compensation for your injuries. After all, a serious injury could mean you can’t work for a long period of time.
DJs can choose from up to £10,000 Personal Accident insurance, up to £20,000 or up to £30,000.
To sum things up...
Whatever DJ equipment you have, and wherever you perform, specialist DJ insurance gives you all the cover you need.
With our specialist DJ insurance, you can perform knowing that you and your equipment are protected from unfortunate accidents, meaning you can focus solely on the music. If you need help to become the best DJ you can be, check out our blog explaining what makes a great DJ.
We know what DJs need and our customisable policies have been designed to provide the right cover at the right price.
Find out how Insure4Music’s DJ insurance can be tailored to suit you and get an instant online quote in just a few clicks.
*Please note – we only cover live performances to 1,000 or less people, unless agreed by us in writing.
Please note the information provided on this page should not be taken as advice and has been written as a matter of opinion. For more on insurance cover and policy wording, see our homepage.