Why Do Music Teachers Need Insurance?

Music teacher insurance is not one of the most talked-about types of insurance – but that doesn’t mean you don’t need it. If you’re a music teacher, it could save you a lot of money.

Music equipment is easily stolen or damaged, especially if you’re transporting it to different locations, students can sustain injuries while playing, and accidents can happen that result in damaged property.

For these reasons and more, you need specialist music teacher insurance.  Whether you teach at your home, the student's home, or in a hired practice space, this cover is essential for protecting your business.

Let’s look at why music teachers need insurance in more detail.

Article summary 

1. To protect your instruments – Equipment cover

2. To protect yourself – Public Liability

3. To protect your livelihood – Professional Indemnity cover

4. Your household insurance isn’t enough

5. To present a professional image

6. To have peace of mind

7. Specialist music teacher insurance from Ripe Music

1. To protect your instruments – Equipment cover

Your instruments are not only central to your business, but they can also be expensive. Therefore, if they were damaged, lost, or stolen, you could be in severe financial difficulty if you had to pay for repairs or replacements out of your pocket.

There are several instances in which your instruments could be damaged, lost, or stolen. For example, a student could drop one of your instruments during a lesson and break it, your keyboard could be stolen from your home, or your guitar could be damaged en route to a student’s house.

If such instances occur, our music equipment cover is there to protect you. It covers your equipment worth up to £50,000 if it’s stolen in or out of your home. It also provides protection if your equipment is lost or suffers accidental or malicious damage.

What’s more, we’ll repair your equipment or replace it on a new-for-old basis if it’s less than three years old and purchased new (18 months for laptops and computers). If you want to insure equipment that’s older than 3 years old then we will replace it at market value.

Better still, you can insure all your teaching instruments on the same policy without listing out every item – all we need is the collective value.

2. To protect yourself – Public Liability

Public Liability is designed to provide protection if one of the below instances happens and a claim is made against you:

• You’re held responsible for a student injury while teaching.
• You or your student damage someone else’s property during a lesson, and a claim is made against you.

For example, if your student trips over, badly injures themselves, and holds you responsible, you could face a large compensation claim. Without insurance, this could leave you strapped for cash and worrying about the future.

This is why most schools and most practice spaces will ask you for proof of Public Liability insurance before permitting you to teach on the premises.

Our Public Liability for music teachers covers your legal liability and potential legal costs up to a value of £5 million, meaning you won’t be out of pocket if an accident happens. Plus, we’ll send over your Public Liability certificate via email straight away, so you’ll have it to hand to show to a school or venue.

3. To protect your livelihood – Professional Indemnity cover

If you’re deemed to have given negligent or misleading advice to a student during a lesson, Professional Indemnity helps cover the legal costs of defending a claim made against you. This cover protects both your livelihood and reputation and is vital if you want to continue teaching.

4. Your household insurance isn’t enough

Many musicians think their household contents insurance provides them with enough protection if their equipment is damaged, lost, or stolen, but this isn’t the case.

Household contents insurance covers things you usually keep in your home, and it’s likely that you’ll have to pay more to cover the equipment that you take out of the home. There might also be a limited value of equipment that you can add to your home insurance policy without incurring additional costs. Plus, it’s unlikely to cover you if you’re held responsible for causing damage to someone’s property when teaching. Is that sufficient? Not if you’re serious about teaching. That’s why specialist music teacher insurance is important.

5. To present a professional image

Putting finances aside, having music teacher insurance is a sign of professionalism. You never know when a student’s parents (or the student themselves if you teach adults) will ask if you have insurance. By having the correct cover in place, you’ll reassure clients that they’re using the services a responsible teacher. This can only help you retain and even attract new students in the long run.

6. To have peace of mind

Our music teacher insurance allows you to share your passion and teach the next generation of musical talent with peace of mind. With your professional reputation, music equipment, and legal liability protected, all that’s left is to enjoy the music. After all, that’s the reason you started teaching, isn’t it?

Specialist music teacher insurance from Ripe Music

At Ripe Music, we offer tailor-made music teacher insurance policies so you can choose the cover options that best suit you. Plus, as you will probably have more than one musical instrument, we’ve made it easy to insure all your equipment on one policy. No fuss, just great cover at the best price stamped with our Ripe Guarantee.

Get a quote now and create your own policy in just a few clicks.