6 Reasons Why Teaching Music Online is a Great Source of Income

Guest post by Nicole McCray

Music teachers often utilize classrooms and home studios to host students. But in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many musicians and instructors turned to learning how to work by teaching music online. Musicians learned the ins and outs of email marketing. They embraced technology as the primary resource to keep their business afloat in uncertain times, and many were able to do so successfully.

Now that things are returning to normal and everything has opened up, teachers went back to their usual instruction methods and stopped teaching online.

But why stop teaching music online?

Believe it or not, teaching online is an excellent source of income.

Teaching online is profitable for multiple reasons, the most noticeable being the ability to expand your reach.

Instead of being localised to one area, you make things convenient for students to find you from literally anywhere in the world. This article will go in-depth with six main reasons why teaching music online is a fantastic source of income for your brand.

Reason 1 - Convenience in Saving Time (and Therefore Money!)

As a parent, you understand how challenging it can be to keep up with your children and their schedules. Practices, lessons, and school all require driving time and carting around. In addition, depending on where you live, there may be more travel on the part of either yourself or your students when you have to teach.

Vincent Reina, the co-founder of Music To Your Home's drum lessons, says that having their instructors offer online classes has saved costs a LOT by way of time on behalf of the instructors and students. Travelling costs money, and with gas prices skyrocketing, it can be a welcome convenience not to pay for travel when you can teach (and learn) right from home.

For many teachers, time is money. And if you are constantly waiting on a late student and it’s making you run over in your day, that’s stressful, time-consuming, and costing you dollars. Offering online lessons eliminates the need to be late; you’re both at home and have the convenience of just sitting in front of your computer, laptop, or other devices.

Reason 2 - Easier Access To You (and Your Students)

As mentioned above, technology has allowed musicians and teachers to expand their reach in many ways, one of which is offering online lessons. Teaching music online presents the ability to help students that may not be able to travel to you locally but still want to take classes. With a broader reach, your teaching gig becomes that much more profitable.

Reason 3 - Less Space and Paperless

For musicians who teach out of the home and rent or lease a cramped classroom, consider the amount of space needed for an online lesson. You only have as much room as your laptop camera, or computer camera allows, so you don’t need much space to conduct your classes.

Your workspace will only take up a tiny portion of a room, and you can still give your students a top-notch lesson. That means you don’t have to shell out to rent or lease a studio, and you can work right from home.

You also save money with sheet music - think about how much you spend on printing papers and writing notes for your students. You can communicate via chat and email and send pieces, and practice music in a digital format. Doing this can save you lots of money in the long run (think no need for printers, ink, paper, pens, pencils, etc.!)

Reason 4 - Take Lessons On The Road

You still need to take breaks, no matter what your profession. Therefore, you should make an effort to provide some self-care and time away from your job. However, an added benefit of working online means you can take your computer, mobile device, or laptop and teach from wherever you happen to be when you travel or aren’t home.

This option can be more convenient than having to cancel a lesson by either you or your student when you have the opportunity to be online. If you’re a musician and you are going on tour, for example - it’s an excellent option to offer online lessons and still make money by teaching your lessons while on the road.

Reason 5 - Workshops and Group Lessons

As a teacher, you sometimes have to be creative to keep your students engaged. As fun as they are, music lessons can sometimes feel redundant to the younger generation. You come to your lesson; you warm up, then you play or sing the piece you are working on for the duration of the lesson, find trouble spots, get notes, and go home. After a while, this might even seem a bit boring.

Online lessons can spice up your curriculum! For instance, you can create group lessons where you teach more than one student at a time. You can also be more creative with your lineup - say you want to have students perform together, such as a duet or a trio. You can pull together extra lessons online where you can have all of the students in the same setting.

The possibilities with online lessons in this way are endless. Consider adding to your income by creating workshops, group classes, and more. A great example is if you are teaching students who are all auditioning for the same college or school of music - you can create a side income with extra group sessions for those who want the extra help. You can also branch out of lessons and provide your knowledge by marketing lessons for music composition, reading music and solfege training, or music theory.

Reason 6 - Help Your Students Absorb More Information

One of the most impressive advances technology gives us when we conduct online video chats is the ability to record our sessions. For students, this is an excellent way to absorb further the information being learned. Your students can revisit their lessons and be reminded of what needs to be addressed, worked on, or understood before their next one.

How does this help you earn more income? Think about providing your students with recordings of their lessons to help them practice as an added benefit. In addition, it will further solidify your stellar reputation as an online instructor and excellent music reviews. Soon you’ll have students lined up to take your online lessons!

Get Started Now

If you are a musician or music instructor who isn’t offering online lessons, what are you waiting for? You can open up doors for your income by cutting costs and increasing profits substantially.

Remote lessons benefit you by expanding your brand by making your name more well-known and growing an online community. You can also end up branching out of your typical curriculum or teaching lessons only by offering some new means of passive income. Explore your interests (and your students) and allow the endless opportunities of the online world to help you grow your brand and your profits.

Guest post by Nicole McCray