Professional indemnity insurance (add on)

Professional indemnity insurance is designed to protect you from claims arising due to copyright or intellectual property infringement. It will also respond if there is a breach of contract, data or privacy breach and claims of libel or slander.

If you monetise your music through publishing, sync deals for advertising, film, TV or video games then it will usually be a contractual requirement to indemnify the 3rd party against such claims. This indemnification can be covered by way of a professional indemnity policy.

For songwriters who are not bound by a contractual requirement, then this type of policy can provide you peace of mind that any mistake or oversight in your work will be covered should a 3rd party bring a claim against you.

The legal costs and damages awarded from a claim, can be substantially higher than the value of the contract that is agreed for a composition or catalogue. This is because the damages are based on the financial loss of the 3rd party and could also include historical or future royalties.

If you can comply with the statement of fact (see document at the top of the page) then we can offer this coverage as an extension to the coverage you already have under your membership.

If you believe you comply with the statement of fact, please contact membership@ivorsacademy.com and we will begin to progress your application for professional indemnity insurance.

Claims Examples

A music producer was engaged to produce a track for an advert and paid £5,000 in total. Six months after the advert first aired, they received a letter from a lawyer claiming the track infringed copyright of another artist’s previously released track. The insurance paid for legal defence costs and the opinion of a musicologist. The claim was refuted and the producer was cleared. If the producer had lost, the policy would have paid for the damages as well as the legal costs (up to the sum insured on the policy).

Ed Sheeran/Matt Cardle

This is a well-publicised legal battle and it was ruled: “The chorus sections of Amazing and the infringing Photograph share 39 identical notes – meaning the notes are identical in pitch, rhythmic duration, and placement in the measure”. This case was settled in April 2017 at £16M.

Robin Thicke & Pharrell Williams/Marvin Gaye

Another well-publicised case and the composers of ‘Blurred Lines’ were required to pay $7.2m. Although this was reduced on appeal, the Marvin Gaye estate now receives 50% of publishing and song writing revenues from the song.