Julie Coulter, Founder and Owner of J. Coulter & Company, Inc., fell into working with an important part of the music industry – insurance brokerage and consulting for artists. Although she set her sights on becoming an actress during her days at Emerson College in Massachusetts, Julie read Rolling Stone Magazine fervently. One article inspired her to fall in love with the music industry.

“I was stimulated by the fact that there was a man doing this [insurance brokerage for musicians], named Walter Howell. Walter took care of the Jacksons on their tour, right around the time that Michael’s hair caught fire during the shoot of the Pepsi commercial. I remember reading an article about him in Rolling Stone Magazine and thinking MY GOD! Rolling Stone is writing about this guy? Are they going to make this a regular – write about the insurance people to the stars or what?” recounted Julie. “I thought, that the next time I saw something like that again in Rolling Stone, I wanted it to be about me.”

Julie’s father had an insurance business for musicians and was a pioneer in the field for what was then the emerging music business. He insured The Rolling Stones, he acted as the broker on the policy during the time The Who stampede happened in 1979, and also had Peter Frampton as a client. In 1985, Julie started working for her father. From there, she would get licensed for insurance, create a base of clients including Willie Nelson, Patti LaBelle, and continue with Peter Frampton. Throughout her career, Julie would also join several robust agencies, and help several artists along the way. Now, Julie has a portfolio of experience and a goldmine of information that Music Historian readers, especially performing artists, can find helpful. Keep reading, hear and listen to what Julie has to say in my question-and-answer interview.

Music Historian: Tell me a bit about your professional background.

Julie Coulter: I’ve gone from being in the big insurance brokerage realms to being the chief cook and bottle-washer of J. Coulter and Company. I started working for my father in 1985. I was living in Boston and after attending Emerson, took a class at Northeastern University, a Continuing Education class, for insurance and got my primary insurance certification. Then, I came home to New York to attend the Hill school of insurance and got my license. In the old days, I was licensed in all 50 states, but now I am licensed in 23.

I continued working for my Dad’s agency, Coulter and Groner, which merged with another firm called York International around 1987, the time he also passed away. After a few years with York, still servicing my father’s entertainment book of business. Then in the spring of 1989, I started my agency with a woman named Debra Kozee-Sands. Together we formed Coulter and Sands. When I left my father’s business, most of my entertainment clients came with me.

In 1996, I sold my ½ of the business to my partner, and went to work for a business in Chicago called Near North Insurance Brokerage, a nationwide firm that used to be the second largest entertainment insurance brokerage in the country. Here, I ran the music touring division, but I was the only one in that department in their NY office. I again bought my clients along to Near North, and took Near North associates from Chicago & LA offices to music touring conferences, where I introduced them to all of the concert promoters. Slowly, but surely, Near North started insuring these promoters during the formation of SFX Entertainment.

At the beginning of 2003, I left Near North and went to work for MusicPro, which was a different kind of agency. MusicPro was half-owned by a Long Island firm called Sterling & Sterling, now called Sterling Risk, and half owned by ASCAP. I brought most of my business from Near North into there, and I grew to love working with ASCAP, and getting involved with the musicians. That’s where I started to advocate more the little guy. I also started forming a different perspective. I worked with the Performance Rights Organizations and the individual bands and learned about their needs and how to address their needs. I wanted to make them think consciously. For example, on LinkedIn the other day, the lawyer, Wallace Collins posted the following:

“Musician: A person who puts $5K worth of instruments into a cheap broken-down car to drive 500 miles to a $50 gig.”

MH: Those things need to be insured just in case something happens…

Julie: Right. For a musician, that is one of the last things they think about. Unless it is put in their face and say “Oh, man. They’re right! I have $30K worth of equipment here, and if it gets stolen, what will I do?”

One of the reasons I went to MusicPro is because that agency has a musical equipment floater that cannot be beat.

MH: What is a floater?

Julie: A floater is an inland marine insurance policy that covers a specific item(s) that are not connected to one location.

MH: Just to make sure I have the right idea, is a floater specifically for transporting items across state borders?

Julie: Yes, pretty much. We tailored that floater to the musician, whether they played classical instruments, carried high valued instruments, played in a garage rock band, or whether one player slept in the car with their guitar and traveled from place to place.

Working at MusicPro helped me develop a new appreciation for this. Now, I say, I deal with everyone from the wannabe, to the has-been, to everyone in between.

I remember working from 9 to 5 for my father’s agency doing claims, and getting on the phone with Peter Frampton because he just hit a deer. That’s how exciting it got. I also worked with Patti LaBelle, who was a client until probably about five years ago. I had Willie Nelson for 20 years, who was my first big client.

MH: So, musicians don’t ask questions or get involved?

Julie: They get involved on a grassroots level. They’re going to play a local catering hall, and the venue says to them, “We’d love for you to play, but you need to have your insurance.” Normally, it is the business management, accountant, lawyers, or the manager – whoever is really looking after the band – or a booking agent who might have a new band out on the road traveling to play mostly colleges, performance arts centers, and catering halls, who are asked to provide certificates. We live in a very litigious society; it has become so common now to make everybody get insurance.

MH: What kind of worries do musicians usually have regarding insurance?

Julie: They have skepticism. They say, “I don’t want to spend my cash there…” Unless it is personal insurance for them, or their homes they do not get overly involved. Musicians very rarely get involved with their insurance, but they should have concerns.

I also handle promoter. There are [for example] restrictions on bad weather coverage. You must provide at least a ten days notice, or they [the insurance companies] won’t even bother insuring you. Theft, obviously, damage to a venue, any of those kinds of peril, is usually excluded because the general liability policy itself usually excludes properties that are in your custody or control. For a promoter that would be a venue, and they’d have to buy a policy that does address those restrictions.

MH: How has the insurance business within the music industry changed over the years?

Julie: The tech industry took us all. Compared to where technology is for other businesses, for insurance, they are still coming to grips with switching from instantaneous emails and attachments to completing website forms. My bookkeeper and I just discussed this… I call it “other people’s websites”. I went from being on the phone with “Person A,” and I would say “Person B” has done 22 tours to date. I will send Person A the itinerary. Here is the information. I hang up the phone and immediately tend to what I need to get done.

Now, I’ve got to go to Person A’s website, answer all of the questions, or I cannot get any further. It [technology] went from making everybody’s life easier to not. That is technology in general.

The wording started to change as events unfolded. For example, musicians at first worried about being an additional insured. Many thought “Oh if I am additionally insured on their policy, I am okay.” That was not true.

Insurance is also very event-oriented. The rate on insurance depends very much on the band’s genre. Someone getting up on stage with a guitar and an amplifier will not have as high a rate as a rapper, especially a gangster rapper.

MH: How come?

Julie: I said this to somebody the other day, “Rap gets a bad rap.” Nothing happens in the stadium where these musicians perform but, two blocks away from there, someone is getting hurt, and the police or the victim blame the concert. They might say, “Oh, a civilian was shot right by the rap concert.” There are stigmas that can affect the rates in the industry.

Moshing was another problem; people started getting hurt [by the masses at concerts]. If you see your friend from 30 feet away, you start smashing into another person’s body to get to them. Somebody is getting hurt, and the minute that happens, of course, the lawsuits start. Moshing, therefore, became excluded from policies.

The week I started at MusicPro, in 2003, the Station Fire in Warwick, Rhode Island, happened. The heavy metal band, Great White played at a club, where they included pyrotechnics. The guy who pulled the plugs on the fireworks, before they went off that night, worked for a client of mine. I used to tell him constantly; fireworks are not covered.

The station fire was a big game changer for many things in the business. I was being driven to the MusicPro office by my Boss’ driver. He asked, “Is that [the station fire] going to affect what they [MusicPro] do?” I answered, “Absolutely.”

One hundred people died in this club; the entire place burned down, and nobody had proper insurance. The case went so far to get Anheuser-Busch involved. [People] looked to sue who had money, and they had the deep pockets. Sure enough, pyrotechnics (except flashpots) were excluded from their policy. As a result of that incident, trying to get Great White insurance today is not easy.

Now, there has not been a major change in how things get done. What has happened more now, is the insurance industry is making changes within their coverage and policies based on world events instead of something local. I’ve seen companies go crazy in not knowing where to go with ratings or risks. If something happens, and you paid $1,000 for a policy last year, but this year, that same policy is $3,500. This happens, even to someone who has many claims, cancellation and non-appearance insurance.

Michael Jackson was incredibly difficult to insure. He had concerts he would just cancel, and the claim was Hell. When he passed away just about as he was going on tour, his insurers paid a pretty penny to get him cancellation and non-appearance insurance. Then, there was that whole problem about who had that money. Concert promoters lost some money and those dates.

Then, there was the question, “Did Michael Jackson commit suicide?” before ruling out any of the benefits from the policy. Yes, Dr. Murray went to jail for giving him the drugs, but was self-inflicted? Was this the result of negligence? Will your policy pay if it excludes these sorts of things? There is insurance that picks up these problems.

There are many levels to which you are insuring a show, for a musician or an event. I have found that many bands will play all of the festivals instead of [solely] touring. They tour the festivals, and if they play five during the summer because they are headlining, then that too changes the nature of the industry.

MH: Is there a difference between touring and playing at festivals? When you perform at festivals, do you fall under the festival’s insurance?

Julie: Yes/No. In the old days, the band would be covered by the festivals or promoter’s coverage. Not so anymore. Now they do a hold harmless where everyone carries their own insurance and you are responsible your actions, and then the festival picks up the rest of it.

These days since festivals are much more prevalent, a lot of musicians “tour” the festivals as opposed to doing an outright tour on their own.

MH: I’ve noticed that too with many musicians. Why do they only tour festivals?

Julie: That’s where they can headline, get a better dollar. For the ones who have been in the business for several years, they can make as much playing ten dates for ten festivals, as opposed to trucking their stuff around the country for three months. It is attractive. Most festivals offer second stages so that the younger emerging artists can get looked at or get new fans they might not get when they tour around on their own. Exposure is big, and these are places where you can become known.

MH: Returning to the topic that insurance is very event-oriented, would you say that like the music industry, it is volatile?

Julie: The players change, the names change, but the song remains the same. As intriguing as it is to insure different clients, the truth of the matter is, at the end of the day, it is still insurance. I’ve been blessed with good clientele whom I have had for twenty some odd years. The industry itself gets funky, and that’s when I have issues. My clients bring up rate increases and stuff like that. It is the same as any other insurance business except it is ten times more important that you get it done now.

I often hear, “The guys are picking up a van, but we don’t have van insurance for them…” Then I say, “Oh, I see. The guys are picking up the van tomorrow. You didn’t tell me they are on tour yet! Would you like to send me an itinerary, maybe we will cover this one?” It’s always a lot of laughs.

I [also] find a whole other ball game. The event people a week before the show call me and say “Oh, I didn’t realize I needed insurance for this!” Or, they might say, “Oh, I need $10M to cover this,” and then I respond, “You need this much? The band that is playing is only getting $100!” If the insurance is going to be more than the gig, they will not buy it like that.

MH: Do you work with negotiating?

Julie: Yes. I am a licensed consultant as well for insurance in New York. I am always amazed at what people sign before they realize what liability and responsibility they take on. I will often get back to my client and say “You should look at this and that, and why are they asking you for this? What are you really doing there? They want you to have $10M in insurance for a one hour gig involving you and a guitar.”

Many of my clients now, when they get a contract, send it to me for insurance purposes to make sure they have everything they need. Then, I might go back and say, “You don’t have those limits. Here is what it will cost you to get that.” After they hear this, they will go back to their party and talk it over.

MH: Aside from going to get certification for an Insurance License; what else would someone need to do to get involved in your line of work?

Julie: One of the other things I did which helped, I used to go to music conferences, like the one held by Pollstar Magazine. When I started at MusicPro, I went to Folk Alliance because musicians there had a lot of instruments, and we had a program for that. I became a member of Women in Music in the mid 90’s so that I could learn more about the music industry and understand what I needed to insure.

I took another Continuing Education class about the Music Business at Baruch College, to learn about all of the other facets of the industry. The professor who taught this class started SoundScan. It was a very multifaceted class; he brought in different managers. Between that and the professional women in WIM, which had peaked my interest.

MH: I also graduated from Baruch this past December. I got my Masters in Marketing at the Zicklin School of Business.

Julie: Oh, funny! They were one of the only schools – this was before you could get degrees in music industry – who taught classes specific to the industry. I also worked on the New Music Seminar, which was a whole different animal, and one of the bigger conferences. Places like that had an industry gathering.

MH: Do you hear myths that people often bring to the table when they first talk about why they want to get involved in the music industry?

Julie: I find that many come to this with a lot of naivety. I have been to conferences where people say, “Here is so-and-so, and he will be the next, whatever…” I also find that musicians as a general category – not to stereotype any single kind of musician – like anyone else, must research what they are doing, and take an interest in their tools and instruments.

About J. Coulter & Company Inc.

J. Coulter & Co. Inc., a “boutique” insurance agency with a niche in entertainment risks, specializes in coverage for the music and special event industries. This company’s mission is to provide accessible, affordable and understandable insurance coverage and consulting services for our clientele. These services include the following:

Consulting – Review contractual obligations and needs for insurance purposes. Oversee all policies, brokerage activities, claims, and any other insurance needs. Act as management liaison for all insurances.

Brokerage – Through a network of top agents and carriers, help clients find the proper coverage for the best pricing. Coverage involves:

– Insurance offerings for the entertainment industry with niche in Music Industry, Touring and Musicians
– Special Events
– Personal Lines Coverage
– Studios
– Errors & Omissions (all types entertainment related)
– Cyber-Liability & Cyber Security

Insurance Specialty Programs:

– Musical Instruments & Equipment
– Special Events (one offs; festivals, private and public events)
– Individual & Group Trip Travel Accidental plans