When students decide that they want to play an instrument in school, parents often will scramble to find an instrument at an affordable price.
Let’s be honest – musical instruments can get expensive. And buying a nice, expensive instrument for a 10 year old is not always the most comfortable thing for a parent to do.
Thankfully, music stores like Shining Light Music offer affordable Rent-To-Own programs for both new and used band and orchestra instruments!
What is an Instrument “Rent-To-Own” program?
A Rent-To-Own program is a system where a customer pays a monthly rental fee, and a portion of each payment goes toward paying off the instrument. After a certain amount of months, the customer will have the instrument paid off entirely, and will own it.
This type of rental program is common for renting musical instruments. Oftentimes, there will be an additional service fee that provides the renter with an amount of insurance coverage. At Shining Light Music, this is called our Service Agreement, and it covers any regular maintenance that needs done on the instrument. Click here to learn more about our rental program.
Benefits of Renting an Instrument from Shining Light Music
One of the most common questions we get at Shining Light Music is about the benefits of renting an instrument versus purchasing one.
- As a renter, you will pay a monthly service agreement fee. This allows you to receive any regular maintenance or repairs on your instrument free of charge. For example: chemical cleaning of brass instruments, stuck valves, small dents, loose springs or pads on woodwinds, etc. This service agreement does not, however, cover the cost of repairs that result from an act of force.
- Our Rent-To-Own program allows you to return your instrument at any time without any outstanding fees. This is a major benefit for families who don’t know if their student will continue playing the instrument after their first year!
- Another benefit of renting an instrument from Shining Light Music is that we allow our renters to move up to larger sizes of instruments. This is most common with stringed instruments. Students who are younger typically start with a fractional sized instrument, and move up as they grow.
- If at any point you decide to move to a new instrument, we will take the amount you have paid into your previous instrument and apply it to the new one. This is a big reason why many parents will rent with us until their student ends up on the right size (or kind) of instrument.
Downfalls to Renting an Instrument
- As long as you are renting an instrument, you are inevitably going to pay more for it than if you were to purchase it outright. Only a portion of your monthly payment goes toward paying off the instrument, so the amount of “rent” per month will add to the overall amount you are paying for that instrument (should you eventually own it).
- At Shining Light Music, we do our best to be transparent about our rental process, and make it clear that you can pay off your instrument at ANY time, and no longer owe rent to us.
Benefits of Purchasing an Instrument
- What you see is what you pay! When you buy an instrument off the wall, you don’t have to worry about any rental fees or additional payments on top of the price. This is one of the main reasons why people will purchase an instrument rather than rent one.
Downfalls to Purchasing an Instrument
- When you purchase an instrument, you don’t have the maintenance coverage that you get when you rent from Shining Light Music. If something breaks on your instrument, you have to pay for it – and if you want to keep you instrument tuned-up, it really should be checked on every 6 months. These maintenance fees can add up, and end up costing more than what you would pay with a service agreement through our Rent-To-Own program.
- If your student plays a stringed instrument that you own and is ready to move up in size, we can’t take your fractional sized instrument and trade it in for the next size up. We only keep certain brands in our instrument inventory, and will only honor the trade-up offer if you are currently renting one of our instruments.
- If your student decides that they don’t want to play an instrument after you have purchased it, you now have a used instrument on your hands to get rid of.
We get a lot of people asking if we purchase used instruments, and the truth is: we just can’t pay what you are probably asking for (and most other places can’t either). The return on investment for a musical instrument is not always great – UNLESS you have taken good care of it and kept up on regular maintenance with it (check out these posts for some great tips on how to care for your brass or woodwind instruments).
Rent vs. Buy?
So what’s your choice?
Obviously, some people will be partial to renting, and others to purchasing. That’s why we offer both! However, while there are benefits to both options, there are also downfalls to be considered. That’s why the only person who can decide what’s best for you…is you!
If you have any additional questions that this post didn’t cover, feel free to email or call us. We’d be happy to answer any inquiries you may have!
FAQs
What are your rental rates?
Our rental rates can be found here. We have rates for both used and new student instruments, as well as used and new intermediate instruments.
How does your Instrument Rental Program work?
Shining Light Music has a thriving Rent-To-Own program. You will make monthly payments based on the rental rate of the instrument you choose, and a portion of your payment will go toward paying off your instrument.
For the first three months, your entire rental payment goes toward paying off your instrument. Starting in the fourth month, 75% of your payment will go toward paying off your instrument, and 25% will be considered a rental fee.
You can pay off your instrument at any time, or return your instrument at any time.
There is an additional non-taxed service fee of $7.50 every month. This covers any regular maintenance needed on the instrument.
You can find more information about our Instrument Rental Program here.
What brands do you carry?
Shining Light Music only carries reputable brands of instruments in our store. We have both used and new instruments in our inventory.
The new instrument brands we carry are:
- Buffet
- Powell
- Keilwerth
- Antione Courtois
- Besson
- Jupiter
- Azumi
- Knilling
- Howard Core
The used instrument brands we carry are:
- Yamaha
- Bach
- Gemeinhardt
- Zonda
- Bundy
- King
- Scherl & Roth
- Cremona
You can find more brands we carry in our store here.
Do you sell used instruments?
Yes. We rent and sell both used and new instruments.
Written By Julia McCall