Thursday 29 March 2018

Investing in Insurance for Musicians? Here's All That You Need to Consider



A musician's life juggles between creating music and making money. When you are supposed to mint money from passion, it has its own pros and cons. Not everyone understands your passion and responds to it with the kind of money you have in mind. For days that run low, and for money that you don't really receive for your music, you need insurance that will take care of your day-to-day needs.

The insurance for musicians helps budding and amateur musicians stay away from frustration and pursue their passion. There are many things covered in the insurance, including making up the loss for a payday.

However, when it comes to buying the insurance, you need to make the right choice. We will help you with getting through to the right insurance and spending the money wisely. Here are a few things that you need to consider.
  • It is said you need to invest wisely. As a musician, your requirements differ as per the stage you are in. If you are a beginner with a day job, your monetary requirements would differ as against a musician whose entire income depends on the music they are creating. This means you will first need to list down the requirements. This can be quite time-consuming. To understand your requirements for the insurance, you may want to consider understanding where all you may fail and how much money you may need for the same
  • Once you have listed the requirements, you will need to move on to the next step, studying the insurance that is given to the musicians. This will need a rigorous research. There are different types of insurance for musicians available in the market. You will need to study the pros and cons as well as the inclusions of the insurance that are available. Make a list of the few that have interested you
  • Now come the providers. This is again important, as providers make all the difference in completing the choice of insurance. You will have a lot of providers offering insurance for the musicians. You will need to note down all the offerings they include in their insurance.
  • The offering of the insurance with that of the provider should be compared. Once you have a provider-offering comprehensive list, you can easily come up with a list of the provider-offering that matches your requirements. This would be the shortlist that you need to refer to in order to make the final choice.
  • Setting aside a budget always helps complete the decision. You may want to have a budget for monthly/yearly premium, which you can afford. Once this budget is decided, shorten your shortlist further with choices that match your budget
  • Now, you will need to work on the final list. Start with comparing the providers based on the ratings and reviews you can see online. This would help know which ones are really good and offer the solution you are looking for
  • Check the experience of these providers, as that might help you understand if you should buy from them or not
  • Finally, seek references for their work from offline sources
  • After all these steps are completed, you will arrive at a provider who will provide the right insurance.

Wednesday 28 March 2018

How to Manage your Music Gear with Music Insurance when Traveling for Gigs ?



Traveling to a different country for your gig? This is both exciting and challenging for the musician in you. If you are a songwriter or play a small instrument, this can be easy for you. However, if you are a drummer or a guitarist or someone with heavy instruments, it can be quite cumbersome for you to travel to the new place with the equipment. You are not just stressed about the travel but also about ensuring your gear reaches the new place safely, without getting damaged. A damaged gear can add up to your tensions.

We have known musicians traveling for gigs, and how they do it. So, here we are ready to help you travel and transport the gear without really stressing about it.

Don't overload your equipment bag
The simpler you keep it, the easier it is for you to travel. For instance, if you carry six mics to choose from, you will not only end up getting confused on the last day but also get stressed about tagging these mics along with the other luggage you are carrying. A pianist might want to carry a single workstation that helps create all the sounds necessary or a controller plus laptop, which is not only easy to carry but also mixes the sounds perfectly. You will need to plan your gear before you plan your travel to make things easy and effortless for you.

Check for house gear
It is always a good idea to check for house gear, if you want to avoid traveling with your gear. This can help save the burden of transporting an entire equipment to a new place. For instance, you can carry the basic instrument, and depend on the house gear that is available in the country. This is specifically true if you are traveling to places in Europe to play music. However, if you are planning for house gear, you may want to check beforehand. You don't want trouble when you are starting to play so, an early check-in with the venue can help you prevent the last minute disasters. Again using house gears would need extra budget and time for early travel and check-in. Make sure you have made space for the same.

You can ship too
This is another option that you can try. Ship the instruments to the country you are traveling to, so that you don't have to carry them. This can ease out the stress majorly, and improve your travel options. This will obviously need a higher budget, as shipping involves money. You will also need to find someone you can rely on to ship your instruments without damaging it. Talk with companies such as FedEx before you make this decision.

Rentals are available too
If you don't want to use your own gear as it is too much stress to transport it, you can rent out instruments that will save time and efforts. You might need to spend a little extra to rent instruments that are similar to the ones you play back home. This can be an excellent way of managing the instruments when touring.

Apart from all this, you should invest in a music insurance, which will help you rent instruments at a lower cost and ensure you can transport your gear with ease.

Sunday 25 March 2018

Starting a New Band? Here's How You Should Choose the Music Gear Insurance




Are you starting out your own band? Let us start with congratulating you! You are no longer a bunch of people creating music but, a team that looks forward to achieving similar goals. For this to work in your favor, you also need to choose the right gear for your band.

The whole thing depends entirely on what type of music your band produces, and what type of gear suits this music. A banjo won't suit the music Ed Sheeran creates and a guitar won't sit well with Yani. This is why choosing the right gear is important. Let us help you with the points that will help you choose the right gear for your band.

The choice of gear depends entirely on the music that you create. Here we will take you through the different types of musicians that exist, the type of music they create and the type of gear they use for the purpose, to help you make the right choice.
  • If you are into hard rock and metal, the choice of the gear will vary accordingly. The heavy metal music has a particular sound that you need to follow when choosing the gear. Heavy metal instruments come with fx pedals, which help beginners. However, there are quite a few players who don't appreciate them as it does not have the amp that suits their music.
  • In heavy metal gears, there are fenders, which a lot of musicians tend to avoid, as they are clean and not designed for their music type.
  • Metal fans are used to playing signature gear, so they will make a choice accordingly
  • If you are into alternative and indie rock, then your choice of gear would include guitars with fender offset series. You can even invest in gear such as the electro-harmonix big muff.
  • Singers and songwriters require affordable yet classy guitars or pianos that help them work on the song.
Points to consider
  • What kind of gear best suits your music type? This is where you should begin your hunt for choosing the gear. The instrument choices for all the band members will depend on the music you create.
  • Next, what all instruments will the band members play? This will help list down the instrument choices that you will need to make to complete the gear
  • Once this is done, you will need choose the instrument shop that will offer all the instruments you need at a fair price. This will need some research. If need be, you should also go seek advice from people who have bought instruments in the recent times
  • Make a budget for your instrument and the other gear involved to make you a band. This will help you make sure you don't over spend
  • Finally, make space for a music gear insurance in your purchase. This will help you maintain the gear and ensure you don't spend too much in the servicing.
  • If the person selling the gear also sells the insurance, just make sure it covers all your needs and make the final purchase.
Hope this helped in completing the music gear and insurance purchase. If you think there are other points to be added, let us know!

Thursday 22 March 2018

Where and How Do I Go About Buying Insurance for Musical Instrument



Do you own an instrument? Are you an amateur musician or an artist? Why are we asking you these questions? Well, the answer is it doesn't matter if you are an artist or a budding musician; you own an instrument and you know it is a responsibility. Just like other things you own, an instrument requires regular maintenance and cleaning. You would clean the dust off your sofa once every week right? That's what you would do to your instrument too! You would keep it closed in a case, and clean it up every other day to make sure the dust doesn't spoil the tuning of the instrument.

Let's see what all you need to take care of as an owner of the instrument
  • You should tune up the instrument regularly. This would mean ensuring the strings don't underplay or overplay the sound.
  • The strings should be in good shape. In case the strings need to be replaced, make sure you do it
  • Keep the instrument inside a case. This would help keep the dust away from the instrument and messing it up
  • You should take extra care to polish it up. You might want to know what cloth and material to use to polish the outer surface
If you have insurance for musical instrument, then you won't need to spend the money or time in regular maintenance of the instrument. Here's how you go about choosing the right insurance
  • Search for the right providers in the market selling insurance for the musical instrument you own. There are plenty of providers but only a few are really good with the maintenance and support systems. You want someone who you can rely on for every little issue that occurs
  • What all to look for in the insurance provider?
    • Make sure they clear the claims as soon as possible. Any delay in claim processing can cause major issues for you
    • They should cover both replacement and rental costs for your instrument
    • The service costs should be covered in the insurance they provide
    • Their customer support should be available at all times, and should live up to your expectations
    • The budget should be flexible and the premium charged should not be premium literally
    • They should have the experience that will make you have faith in their insurance policy. They should have sold a policy similar to the one you want
    • Trust and credibility in the provider is one of the most important things to look for
  • Once you know what to look for in the provider, prepare a checklist of the inclusions for your insurance needs. This will help you know what exactly you are looking for in the policy.
  • Plan the budget and compare your requirements with the providers' offerings. This will take some time but it will actually help you reach the perfect provider eventually
Finally, you simply need to check the ratings and reviews to know if you have got the right deal.

Monday 19 March 2018

How to Purchase Musical Instrument Insurance Online



A good music instrument insurance is all about perfect research and knowledge about what you truly want from the insurance. It requires a lot of efforts, inputs from real people, and a sense of how to buy the insurance.

These days purchasing online has become quite a rage. Nobody wants to spend a lot of time travelling and visiting providers personally to buy the insurance, when they can get the convenience of an online buy. However, buying online requires complete understanding of what you are looking for, and the type of providers available in the market. You cannot make a wrong choice and pay a huge premium keeping up the choice.

Do you need tips to buy your insurance online? Here we will take you through the different steps that might just help

Type of Insurance
What kind of insurance do you intend to buy? Do you want general music insurance or do you want a particular instrument insurance. The technique to buy insurance changes depending on the type of insurance you plan to invest in. If you are going for instrument insurance, you would narrow down your requirements and budget accordingly

Sketch the requirements
Once you are done with noting down the type of insurance you want to opt for, you might want to dive into the requirements for the insurance. What do you want covered by the insurance you are planning to buy. Regular instrument insurance would cover everything related to the specific instrument like the damage costs, replacement costs as well as rental costs. However a general insurance for a musician will cover the musician’s medical as well as studio expenses. Do you want a general insurance as well as premise insurance in the coverage you are opting for or, do you just want the instruments you own protected. This will help you define the requirements for your insurance cover

Set the budget aside
Next on, you need to work on the budget for the insurance. Based on your requirements and the amount you can pay for the premium, you will be able to buy the insurance. This budget would be the monthly premium you are ready to shell out to the provider.

Research the providers
A lot of providers offer musical instrument insurance, both online and offline. You will need to sit down with a list of providers that offer the insurance with the requirements you have indicated. Once that is done, you may need to work on the comparison aspect. This will take some time. Make a comparison chart, and add what each provider offers and what they don’t. You would have shortlisted a few providers based on this. You can next shorten the list further by comparing them with the budget you have planned.

Check their reviews
It is time to check the reviews and ratings these providers have received. You might want to check on the experience they have in offering the insurance you want. This will help you get to the provider who suits your needs.

Thursday 15 March 2018

Facts You Should Know About Brass Musical Instrument



A brass musical instrument is an integral part of the orchestra. You will find at least one instrument that is made of brass. Trumpets, saxophone etc. made of brass make the perfect music through vibrations.

Are you aware of all the facts surrounding brass instruments? Let’s take you through some that might interest you.
  • Most brass instruments are labrosones, which translates to lip vibrated instruments. This means the brass instruments produce music through the vibrations caused by the musician’s lips. The vibrations through lips help alter the pitch of the instrument
  • If you check the instruments within the brass family, you will realize that not all the instruments are made of brass. Some instruments like trumpets, though made of brass, have some parts of copper and other metals mixed into it
  • It was during Beethoven’s fifth symphony that the trombone was used for the first time in the orchestra. The music for this instrument was written in C minor.
  • If you stretched the tubing in the trumpet, you would observe that it would reach approximately 6 ½ feet.
How do you choose a brass musical instrument for your orchestra? It is important to make the right choice in order to help your orchestra produce good music.
  • The first thing obviously is to choose the material for your instrument. Do you want pure brass instrument or, you would be ok with some metal mixed with brass.
  • Once you are sure of the metal, you start identifying what sort of instrument you want. For example there are single reed and double reed woodwind instruments. You might want to select which one works best for you
  • The instrument buy should also specify if you are buying for a beginner or someone who has reached a certain level in learning the instrument
  • The specifications confirmed, you need to set the budget for the instrument. There are instruments available in all ranges. You may not want something too expensive. So, it is important to plan your budget beforehand
  • Now, you need to start looking for the sellers of brass instrument, and what type of instrument they supply. This is essential as it will help you choose the instrument effectively
  • Check if your providers have the instrument in the metal combination you are looking for. Once that is done, check if they have it in the budget you have planned
  • List out all the providers that you have found for the instrument you are about to purchase
  • Check with your friends and people you know if they know about the seller, and how they are. This would help identify the right seller
  • You can also seek help online. Check for their reviews and ratings, and that will help you know if the seller is perfect for you

Tuesday 13 March 2018

How to Choose The Right Music Studio Insurance?



It all starts with owning a music studio and goes on to maintain it and keeping it going. There are a lot of things involved, including finances. You need a lot of investment, constant gigs and bands interested in working with you to make sure your studio has enough business and earns profits.

Profits for studios don't start with having good composers and gigs on-board; it also means the studio has to build trust that results in long-lasting relationships with the consumer and the bands. What we need is authenticity of the studio to make sure enough trust exists between the one consuming the music, the bands and the studio.

In order to make sure you have all your assets protected, you should own music studio insurance. It is important to choose the right insurance though. Whether you purchase it online or offline, it is important to make the right choice. Here we will take you through the steps that will help you make the right choice.
  • Are you planning to buy it online or offline? This would be your first consideration. When it is online, there is more convenience associated with it as compared to when you opt for offline purchase. Once you have chosen the path, you might want to start with the real deal.
  • Next on, you will need to start penning down the insurance inclusions. What all do you want to add to the insurance cover to make sure your music studio is protected. For instance, you want to insure your studio against natural mishaps, you might want to include it to your insurance. Similarly, you might want to add protection against robbery. In such cases, if anything happens to your studio or the instruments, you won't need to shell out the money, and you have things covered by the insurance
  • Once you have written down the inclusions, your next step is to prioritize the inclusions. Not every requirement is a priority. There would be some providers who might give you certain coverage but would omit some. Would you be ok with the omissions, and which ones are you ok with? Once the priorities are set, we move on to the budget aspect
  • Set your budget before you start looking for providers. This will help you know which ones can actually provide what you need.
  • Let's start with searching for the providers. When you want to search for providers offline, you want to start with making a list of the top-notch providers who are known to offer this insurance. Visit their offices, meet their agents and find out more about the insurance they offer and the inclusions. In the online world, you will need to repeat the same thing, except you don't need to visit their offices
  • Once you have a list of the providers who meet your requirements, start comparing, prioritizing and analyzing till you zero down on your provider. The ratings and reviews from people you know can help you find the ideal provider.

Sunday 11 March 2018

5 Tips to Measure The Performance of Your Studio's Acoustics



Mixing sound the right way can have a huge impact on the music you create. The studio room has a significant role to play in determining the sound that you mix and the music that is created. It is important to treat your studio acoustically for the best musical outcome. How do you measure the acoustics and its performance in your music studio? We know five tips that might help you build your studio the right way.

Just look around
Your eyes and what they infer helps you know a lot about the acoustics of the room. You are aware of the acoustic properties present in the room. You will now need to calculate the resonance within the room, and measure it with precision to plan the acoustics. For this, you will need to consider the room’s shape, size as well as the other material properties. Everything needs to be considered at this point. You will need to check the furniture, the wall hangings, the paint on the walls, the material used to build the wall, and the windows and every dimension of the window. This will help you understand how the room’s sonics are, which in turn will help you measure the studio acoustics.

Play with approximations
In some cases, you just need to calculate a few acoustical facts based on approximations to help with the measurements. You should ideally divide speed of sound with twice the length of the space, which in this case is the studio for right acoustics. The resonant frequency will be calculated with this formula. You can measure the same by using width and height of the room instead of the length for end-to-end resonance.

Use real-world measurements
One of the best ways to measure the acoustics of your room is to use real-world measurements. This will get you accurate results that you can use to measure the performance of the studio acoustics. For this you will need a good omni-mic, a sound card and two inputs and outputs. This will identify the indirect signals, and help you calibrate the sound according to the calculations made.

So, now that you know how to measure acoustics, maintaining it can be quite difficult. You will need performance insurance to make sure your acoustics sound well even after a long time. The performance insurance will help with the studio acoustics maintenance and regular calibration, which is not so often done by the studio owners.

The insurance will also help maintain the performance of the instruments in the studio as well as the audio equipment used by the studio. You can seek service help from the insurance providers and in case there is something wrong with the overall performance, you can get it checked.

The idea is to get the insurance from the right provider, who can help you get unwarranted help at the right time with the lowest possible cost. Searching for the right performance insurance provider requires some research from your end. Make sure you choose well!

Thursday 8 March 2018

Investing in a Cheap Instrument? Here's Everything You Need to Know



Have you just started learning cello? Learning an instrument helps ease your mind and soothe the soul. It is a good idea to get started with one. However, continuous practice and staying in tune to the instrument will help you build your skills.

It is a good idea to invest in a cello, if you want to have a long-term commitment towards learning. A lot of you sway towards buying a cheap instrument. It may save your money in the short term but, it is not a long-term investment that you are looking for. Cheap instruments have a way with repairs and damages, which will in turn, will make you pay more than you did when you invested in it.
  • Let's say you are travelling with the instrument to your classes. Chances are the instrument gets damaged while you are on the road. A slight scratch to the cheap instrument can cause a major damage to the pocket
  • The material used in the instrument may not survive the repairs you make or damage the instrument further. This is the negative side to buying the cheap instrument.
  • The precision with which the cello plays can also be hampered if your instrument is not tuned properly or, has been constructed the wrong way. This can cause issues in your learning
  • The damage repair costs are higher than the cost of buying the cheap instrument. This combined with the classes you are taking to learn the instrument cost you a lot more than you had initially planned for
  • Most repair shops avoid repairing cheap instruments that can be broken with slight touch. You may not find anyone investing time and effort in your hobby
Considering all these points, even as a beginner you may want to consider buying something durable. Here are certain points that will help you buy a good quality cello in your budget
  • The first thing is to set a budget. A good budget helps you know what you can get and what you cannot
  • Once the budget is fixed, you need to start looking into your insurance requirements. Yes, you may want to fix that as well before you start looking for sellers. The idea is to keep the checklist ready when you get to buying
  • Now start looking for the sellers who offer this insurance. You may want to make a list of all the sellers and their insurance cover.
  • Once the list is ready, compare it with your checklist. This will help you know which sellers meet your requirements
  • Once this is done, you might want to compare the list with the budget requirements set by you
  • Before making the final purchase make sure you check the reviews of the seller
It is important you invest in cello insurance before you own the instrument. This will help you pay for the repairs and manage the costs and other maintenance aspects of the cello.

Wednesday 7 March 2018

How Important is Studio Coverage for The Music Studios?



Do you own a studio? Ever thought of investing in a studio coverage that can protect your studio? If not, then here are a few reasons that can tempt you to purchase one immediately.

Before we give away the reasons to invest in studio coverage, let's understand what it takes to own a studio
  • The studio space, either bought or rented, is not just your asset but something you ought to take care of. If anything happens to the studio, say the glasses are broken or something, you are liable to pay for the damage. This means you are going to pour in your pockets to get things done.
  • The instruments in your studio, which are meant to create music, face reasonable risk of being damaged or stolen. If your studio is hit by a robber, you might not even know when you are hit with a bill that costs thousands of dollars. Getting that amount overnight can be quite a painful task
  • Owning a studio comes with the risk of running into copyright issues. Studio owners can vouch for that. There are times when a music record that goes famous is charged with copyright. Studio owners most often can get through it. However, sometimes your day is just not good enough, and you end up with a law suit
The thing we are trying to get at is the studio owners never have a similar type of day. The industry is hectic and there are just too many things happening at the same time. The studio can have a field day or a bad day, depending on how the day finishes.

The above mentioned issues are enough to persuade a studio owner to buy the studio insurance. Here we will list out the benefits of owning studio insurance.
  • When faced with a copyright lawsuit, you can hire a lawyer and fight the suit with the help of the insurance. You will be insured in case the lawsuit filed against you is wrong
  • When an instrument is stolen from the studio or returned damaged, you can use the insurance to take care of the repairs. You won't need to shell out the money necessary to get it back in one piece
  • When a mishap destroys your studio place or the instruments within, you can use the insurance to get the instrument replaced or the studio repaired. This will help you save a lot of costs
Here's how you can choose good studio insurance
  • Make a checklist of all your requirements. This is where you need to look at the studio requirements, what all can befall upon your studio, and make the list accordingly
  • Check the providers and what they include in the insurance they offer the studios. Compare it with your checklist. The one that matches perfectly will be your provider
  • If you have a set budget, make sure your provider meets the budget set as well
  • Finally get the ratings and reviews from the people who have opted for this insurance to know if it is worth the money.