Music

Have you attended a music festival recently? Then you might have been to one insured by underwriter Lucy. Just around the corner from the Bank of England, in the City of London, Lucy works for insurance company Liberty Specialty Markets, looking at complex business risks from music festivals and artists’ tours to some of the country’s biggest sporting events.

For Lucy, no two days are the same, whether it’s reviewing new business or negotiating contracts, the variety of clients keeps Lucy on her toes. “It’s a very diverse type of insurance and there’s always weird and wonderful things that pop up that are becoming more apparent or that I haven’t seen before,” says Lucy. “The music industry is the most interesting as there’s a large array of artists. Sometimes I get to work with my favourite performers, so it’s interesting to have an insider’s perspective.”

Lucy joined the insurance industry partly by accident while working in a pub back home in Essex. “I hadn’t gone to university, and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I just wanted a job that I could have a career in. I had a friend who worked for an insurer, who recommended me for a job in their operations team in Chelmsford and I got it!” But her journey to Allianz took a detour. “After two years I took a break and went travelling. When I got back it was only natural to get a job similar to the one I’d had, but I wanted to work in the City of London. I went through a recruitment agency and got a job at Allianz and started in property operations, before working my way up to the underwriting team and eventually becoming a senior underwriter.”

“If you had asked me ten years ago if I could have seen myself in insurance, I would have said no,” Lucy laughs, “but it’s also great for progression and it’s not always underwriting; you can manage clients or manage portfolios. It’s not a one-size-fits-all industry.”

Based in Manchester, Sam who works at broking firm Tysers, deals with a wide range of performers – from singer-songwriters booking their first pub gigs right up to major bands performing at the Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals.

Sam is a senior client executive working in the firm’s live music section, which also includes DJs. Working closely with one of the directors at Tysers, Sam arranges insurance for artists that protects them against damage to their equipment, their health and the possibility they might have to cancel a performance. “It may not be the most glamorous role,” says Sam, “but I get to peek behind the curtains of the music industry – and it’s fascinating.”

Sam’s route into insurance was, unusually, via a degree in film and media studies. “My degree touched on all aspects of the media including live music. But when I left, I didn’t know what I wanted to do so went back to my old part-time job at Sainsbury’s for a while. Then, my partner’s friend, who worked in insurance, mentioned they had an admin role going. My partner wasn’t interested so I went for it.”

Managers were impressed that Sam had experience of live music so he began in their south Manchester office. From that initial administration role, he was promoted to senior client executive. Now he deals with any musician with a UK-based company plus he’s taken Belgian insurance qualifications so that he can work for acts based in Europe. “We get a lot of Nordic rock bands,” Sam laughs.

Working from either office or home, Sam has been exceptionally busy over the last three months. “One minute you can be dealing with an emerging songwriter, helping them to get started – getting them basic insurance; the next you’re working on a huge tour with a stage set-up costing millions of pounds. Now that lockdown is over, I’m looking forward to going to see some clients – and some live music.”

Oddly for a woman who organises the insurance for some of the rarest and most expensive musical instruments in the world, Claire doesn’t play a note. “I can paint and draw but I’ve no musical talent” she laughs, which raises the question: how did she get where she is today?

Claire works for specialist insurance broker H.W Wood Limited. She’s based in the City of London but the firm has offices all over the world. By her own admission, she just ‘fell into’ her career. “When I was 19, I was interviewed to be an assistant in a broking firm,” Claire explains. “I worked my way up and by the time I was 25 I was managing the department and had grown the business. I just went from there. Now I’ve been in the insurance industry 26 years”.

According to Claire, her job is extremely varied and involves meeting many people of different nationalities and backgrounds. “My clients are musicians, orchestras, collectors, also dealers and instrument makers. Most are based in Europe, but our firm also deals with other countries including Canada and Australia.”

The instruments she helps insure can be the working instruments on which musicians perform, or they could be expensive collectors’ items. “An individual instrument could be worth £1,000 – that’s our starting point – and go right up to £20m for a Stradivarius violin or cello. For collections, they could be valued at anywhere between £20,000 and £100m.”

Claire’s asked to help insure some very unusual instruments, too. Aside from the odd set of bagpipes, the strangest thing she’s been called on to help with was a set of instruments made from matchsticks.

“Exhibitions can be very challenging,” she says. “There’s a lot of organisation, a lot of instruments under one roof plus they all have to be transported to and from the site. Exhibitions require a great deal of planning and plans can change in an instant, but if your lucky enough to see a completed exhibition it makes it all worthwhile.”

What Claire likes most is to see the instruments themselves, not just their values on a spreadsheet. “It’s great to see the money listed on a sheet of paper become something you can see and touch. It’ easy to see just values, but I love to see what I’m actually insuring.”