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Studio Security Newsletter

Dan Daley, editor

Issue #7 — January, 2001

Insure it Now

I probably sound like your mother by now: Get insurance! Get insurance!

But the need to not only have insurance but to also know what you have, is underscored by the experience of noted percussionist Vinx, who got a nasty pre-Christmas present when he discovered, upon his return from a show in Prague in December, that virtually all of the equipment at his personal studio in Beverly Hills had been stolen. Vinx, a composer and performer who has played percussion and sung on the road and in the studio with artists including Stevie Wonder, Sting and Rickie Lee Jones, valued the theft at between $80,000 and $100,000.

Vinx tells SER that it was almost certainly an inside job, and that the L.A.P.D. had very good leads and that the arrest of one suspect was imminent; in addition, he'd already found several pieces of his stolen equipment at L.A. area pawn shops. (Details are listed in the SER database.) Vinx regarded his recording equipment as non-business, versus his touring gear, which is declared as business equipment and separately insured. Thus, he assumed that his homeowner's insurance would cover the loss of recording gear. It didn't.

So regardless of how you put your recording gear to use, regardless of whether it's in the house or across town, itemize it, document it, and insure it. The premiums are reasonable and they're tax-deductible if you use your gear for almost anything other than just amusing your friends.

Insure it. Now. And Happy New Year.

[I have a rider on my homeowner's insurance that covers all of my studio gear at full replacement value, and will even cover a lot of it when I take it out for a gig. It costs about $250 a year, and is well worth it! — Paul Lehrman, editorial director, Mix Online]

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