Monday 30 July 2018

How to Choose Music Equipment Insurance?



As a music student or someone who has reached an advance level of the lessons, you ought to have an instrument on you. An instrument always helps practice and ensures you learn better. However, it is the buying that makes up for the most difficult phase in your life. Whether you are online or offline, you need to know how to make the purchase to ensure you don't end up with a faulty instrument.

Here are a few tips that should help you gather your confidence and march up to the store to invest in a music equipment.
  • Start with the markup price. The MRP is your price to start negotiation. Often shops claim that the price of the instrument is final, however it is always a good idea to try your luck, and wheel the deal in your favor. You should ideally make an offer that would save you at least 15% of the quoted amount, so that you can walk out of the place joyfully
  • The shop would hold some old instruments and equipment. Don't look past them. There are second hand instruments that work perfectly, and are in good condition. You will end up saving on the price without compromising on the quality of the instrument. That ought to be a good deal. By venturing into second hand, you can easily save up to 30% of the amount you would otherwise invest.
  • It is always a good idea to invest in an insurance when you are buying an instrument. The music equipment insurance will give you peace of mind, and will make sure you are not dealing with any extra expenses out of your pockets. In fact, if you are buying online, then the insurance will safeguard you from the shipping damages. If the courier is unable to send you the instrument in a single piece, the insurance will help you out of the problem
  • If you are buying online, photos are the only way you find out anything about the instrument. Make sure you ask them to send as many photos as possible. Don't settle for the single photo that the owners send. Ask them to send the shots from various angles to check for damages. You can also ask the owners to disassemble the parts of the vintage guitar and check for internal damages. The idea is to ensure you have the right instrument in your hand. Ask them to send the pictures with the date stamps.
  • You should buy an instrument that matches your style. If you have been learning music for a while now, then you know what is your style, and can attribute it to a single instrument. Don't invest in something that you need to learn from the scratch
  • Ask the music instrument stores to send you a detailed description of the instrument you are purchasing. Make sure they invest both time and money into creating a description that tells you enough about the instrument, and helps you confirm the purchase.

Tuesday 24 July 2018

Choosing a Good Performance Insurance Online



Performance check of the instrument helps understand whether the instrument is in working condition or not. You should do a periodical check of the instrument to safeguard it against all issues possible. Along with these regular checks, you should also invest in a good performance insurance. It will help make sure that your instrument repair and replacement charges are not completely made by you, and you are saved from extra costs.

Choosing the performance insurance is critical for every musician. Here, we will help you choose the ideal performance insurance online.

Who is it for?
Are you a musician or a music studio owner? The purpose and the objective will help define your insurance better. The performance insurance needs for both are different, and it is important that you define the purpose before buying an insurance.

For the musician, it would mean for a single or at the most a few instruments. For the music studio owner, the insurance is for the instruments, the gear as well as the musicians and other team members. The moment you change the target audience type, the insurance requirements changes.

What are your requirements
When choosing the insurance online, it is essential you know what you need. State your requirements before checking with the providers. Do you need a simple insurance with basic covers or, you need something extravagant? This definition will help you choose the right solution for you. State all the possible issues you face with regards to performance that can be ably solved with the right performance insurance. The requirement list is your gateway to the right solution. Spend some time, ask a few people, and even research before you make the list.

Have you researched the providers?
When you go online, there are numerous providers waiting to offer you the right insurance solution. They can be both local and global. You will need to make the right choice from the start. That's why a thorough research is important. It will help you identify the providers that meet your requirements thoroughly. Based on your requirements, and purpose, identify the insurance providers that are a perfect match for you.

What is the budget allocated?
When you are buying something online, there is always the availability of a good amount of deals and discounts. You need to work your way around the budget before you buy something online. So, decide how much you are ready to spend on the insurance solution. Once that is defined, check with the shortlisted providers what they are ready to offer you in the budget you have allocated. They will send you revised quotations, which will help you shortlist them further. Make sure your list is a combination of the budget and the provisions.

What's their experience and reviews?
Check their past work and the clientele, before you proceed with them. it is important to know what kind of solutions they have offered in the past, and how they have defined solutions for the clients. See, what the clients have to say about them. Once you are sure about them, from all aspects, then you should go ahead and book their services.

Wednesday 18 July 2018

Tips to Handle Audio Equipment and The Need for Audio Equipment Insurance



When you are creating music, audio equipment plays an important role. It helps in making the music effective and ensures better sound engineering. However, it is important to protect the audio equipment. You should maintain the equipment, and ensure its safety at all times. Here are a few tips that will help you with the maintenance of the audio gear.

Check the earthing
The earth connections mark the safety of the audio equipment and safeguarding it is very important. That’s why this is the first aspect that we will talk about when discussing maintenance of the equipment. If the earth connections are not appropriate, it can cause issues in the audio equipment. You need to power all the sound equipment with the mains supply. Make sure the mains have a good earth connection or comes with a double insulation. You should also ensure that the mains connection does not remove the protective earth connections from the equipment. If you still feel there is an issue with the mains, with respect to earthing, then you should connect with a professional electrician.

Insulation maintenance
When you are dealing with audio equipment, you tend to use loudspeakers and amplifiers, which require a high voltage. When we say this, it means you need to check the terminals, wirings and even the connections that make the whole equipment insulated and safe to handle. You should also check the different connectors and components of the equipment, in order to see if it can handle the current and voltage requirements posed by your audio gear.

Ventilation checks
The high power audio equipment when used generate a lot of heat. This is the case, even when we are talking about normal operation. This can lead to fires in your vicinity. If you want to avoid this, you may have to ensure that the equipment is not placed very close to each other. This would restrict the ventilation, and cause fire hazards in your audio room. You can even invest in gear that come with thermal protection, which will shut down the devices in case of overheating. The idea is to have devices that keep themselves protected.

Power supply checks
You will need to conduct a thorough power supply check in your studio. This will ensure safe and sound performance of the audio equipment. Avoid phantom powering of the equipment such as gears. You should have individual power supply for the different gears. Keep microphones away from the mixing desk. Interlink the gear with multi-core signal cables. Use the same phase of mains supply to power all your equipment.

Check the fuses
The fuses should be fit correctly across all the audio equipment devices you have in the studio. This will protect the equipment against the power surges as well as short circuits. Your devices are safe guarded against all the electrical malfunctions possible. audio engineers should never bypass the fuses.

Finally, invest in a good audio equipment insurance. Even after making sure you follow all these tips, chances are your equipment may malfunction. The insurance will help save your pockets at these times.

Thursday 12 July 2018

Music Studio Insurance to Start Your Music Studio Business Today



Want to start your music studio? There are a few things that you might have to consider. It is a very important deal, and you cannot just start off with a vacant space. You need to buy the materials, and make sure your gear is ready. Marketing is key to reaching out to the people. You will need to plan that as well while starting your own music studio. Here, we will help you with the tips that should get you started with your own music studio.

The purpose of the studio
Right at the start, you need to define the purpose of the music studio. This should not take a long while, considering you would already know why you wanted to have one. Have you been into music recording for a while, and want to jump to the next level or, you are into making music, and you believe owning a music studio should give you a leverage. The purpose of the music studio should be a solid one, else your main objective lacks the worth.

Where would you want it to be?
The location of the music studio plays an important role in your management. You need to identify a location that is reasonable as well as good for your business. It is the location that will actually bring business home, and you would not want to compromise on that. A good location is normally secluded from the busy crowd, and helps in creating good music. Make sure it is not too far off, else you won't have people coming in.

How do you want the studio to be?
Now comes the major part, the actual studio business. How do you want your studio to look like? What elements have you considered for your music studio business? The look of the studio will help you win over clients, and you should plan it with the kind of theme you have in mind. It should also sync with your business objectives and the music you are planning to create. The colors, and the themes should match your needs perfectly. After all, this is the space where you will be creating stuff, so aesthetics matter.

Are you ready with the gear?
There are essentials of the music studio that you cannot ignore. If you are planning on building a music studio, you need to be ready with these essentials. You need the audio kit as well as the microphone and sound box. The sound design plays an important role in creating the right kind of music. The gear should be planned, and money should be set aside to invest in them.

Do you know your market?
Knowing the market is another important aspect of delivering quality in your music studio. You should know what they expect from you, and what kind of delivery you can offer. The quality of sound and the type of music should be defined based on your market.

Finally, don't forget to invest in a music studio insurance. It is important for the security of your business.

Monday 9 July 2018

Things That are Not Considered When You Invest in Concert Insurance



When you organizing a concert, there are a few things that you tend to ignore or, these things don't seem to top your mind. Insurance is one such that. From a musician's perspective as well as from the concert organizer's perspective, this is something that you just cannot ignore. It will protect you from all the issues, and make sure you have a smooth sail at the concert.
  • The musicians travel far and wide to reach your concert. They make their trips on buses, via their own car or even via train or flights. This travel can take a toll on them, and in some cases, the travel itself can become an issue. In case they are stuck at the traffic for a long time, they will be delayed for the concert, and in turn the public has to wait. What if, the bus they are traveling by meets with an accident. This too can cause an issue. You will need to keep an eye out for these issues, which can trouble your concert. Either your concert is delayed or it is cancelled, and either ways, you are supposed to pay for that.
  • From the musician's perspective, a canceled concert means loss of money, and when they meet with an accident, they have to pay for the hospital damages too. This means, they are at a loss from both ends. To save the musician as well as the concert organizer, the concert insurance is a must. It will not only pay for the medical costs but also ensure that the concert organizer does not have to pay back the money taken from the public. The insurance will cover up those costs too.
  • Crowd management at such a huge place is as important as ensuring crowd safety. You need to keep both the performers and the crowd safe, which is why you need a good insurance which will help you with both tasks. The insurance will cater to your basic management needs, and in case there is an issue with the crowd, and the stage or other things are broken, the insurance will pay up for the costs. On the other hand, the insurance will be a safety for the performers. In case, something happens to them, the insurance will take care of the costs
  • If you are performing a song, then you need to make sure your songs are protected. The insurance will keep your songs copyrighted, and save them from being stolen. It is important for your career to have a good insurance policy
  • The concert insurance will also take care of the damages that occur to your musical instrument. You may want to replace the instrument or rent a new one, because the instrument was damaged while traveling or stolen from your hotel. The insurance will pay you partly for the damages occurred, and you will simply need to shell out half of the money.
  • Finally, the insurance will also take care of your concert management team. It will ensure all types of safety and make sure you have taken all the essential permits.

Tuesday 3 July 2018

How to Identify The Best Studio Coverage for You?



Own a music studio? It is important that you secure your property with a good studio coverage. It will safeguard your property against all the issues that are likely to occur. Whether your instrument is stolen or there are issues with the instrument, you can cash in the insurance to pay for the expenses.
When you are investing in the insurance, it is important that you know the provider and have identified someone who is proven their expertise.

Here are a few things that you need to consider when you are investing in studio coverage
  • Is the provider experienced enough? It is important you have researched the experience exhibited by the provider before investing. Know how many years the provider has spent in the industry. Look into their clientele and see how they have served their customers. What kind of solutions have they given in the past, and were the solutions relevant to the customers needs?
  • Check the customer service? It is important you connect with the customers to know how satisfied they were with the service. You can even check the customer service while interacting with the team at the provider’s office. This way you would know and understand how they serve the customers. You need to check the promptness of the responses to know how quick they are with the communication. You may need to check the way they connect with the people in general. Do they treat them well or not? These questions will help you understand the customer service
  • Do they understand the requirements before offering a solution? This is an important consideration you need to make. It will help you know the provider better. If they are unable to deliver on the requirements, it will not help connecting with them. For this, you might need to have a meeting with them, either face-to-face or virtual and understand how they proceed with quoting a solution for you. Do they work on your requirements or do they offer you a solution that does not connect with your needs? These things considered, will help you know whether or not they are worthy of the investment
  • Check out what the clients have to say about them. There would be people who are impressed with the solutions while, there would be others who would tell you how they made a mistake by investing in the provider. You may want to listen to both parties and then make a decision. Connect with the past customers to tell you whether they are really good or not
  • Finally, you may want to check the quotes that you have received. Ask them to revise the quotes, if you feel they are still good but need some requirement change or budget change. Check what the premium amount is that you are likely to pay. Make sure it is in line with your budget. These things will help you decide the studio coverage provider for your business.
If you have considered one or all of these points, then you are ready to make the decision.