E and O Insurance?

[IDM]

Hi there – Does anyone have recommendations for a broker who handles E and O insurance? (Errors and Omissions, Professional Liability)

We’re being brought on to a few jobs that require $1,000,000 policy.

I’ve been calling around but I’m having a hard time getting a quote; e.g. few places offer a policy for a music production house.

Thanks

[Art Munson]

Bump

[MichaelL]

Curious. I wonder what risk they hope to protect against.

Getting too close to a temp track it seems, from a legal perspective, is neither an error nor an omission.

[IDM]

They want to protect themselves against litigation. As I understand it, most advertisement agencies (definitely film and TV production companies) have their own policies, but this company, Deutsch (anybody worked with them?), the ownness is on the music producers apparently. Anyway, we’ve never had it come up before, but we’d really like to work with Deutsch.

It seems that the term “errors and omissions” is a misnomer for Music Libraries (or composers/writers) however, I guess its possible that the ‘error’ would be considered one artist infringing on another artist’s Art unknowingly (since calling it anything else would be assuming malice/theft) and that an ‘omission’ may be the failure of one not citing another as creator.

I haven’t researched the development of the term or out of which méttier it comes, but the policy may be more generally called Professional Liability which when prescribed for a musician, composer, record company, or owner of a music library with a number of composers and so on, protects them against copyright and intellectual infringement claims.

The Gaye vs. Thicke case is a great example of when a $7.4M dollar policy would have made sense…! It has arguably changed the game of E&O insurance since, from my experience, there are maybe 3-5 companies that are willing to take on a small music house like Idyllwild Media. Everybody is worried that if a line on a clave is written into a song with a similar chord structure, the potential for lawsuit is possible.

So… anyone have any advice on a broker to contact? Or what a ballpark estimate for a year policy might run?

[Kiwi]

The PMA offers access to discounted rates for members but I don’t see any information as to who the broker is. Have you asked someone at your PRO? I know that BMI offers access to discount insurance policies but I don’t know if E&O is an option.

[Author]

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