Which music school management software is best? The answer will vary based on your specific needs, but on this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast, John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com) does a deep-dive into MyMusicStaff with Adam Pattee, the platform’s demo & onboarding specialist.
This episode digs into the benefits of integrated studio management software with. We cover the importance of time management in lesson business operations, emphasizing how integrated systems can significantly reduce manual work and improve efficiency. Adam highlights how automation and connected tools save studio owners hours, enforce policies without drama, simplify instructor training, and support growth from solo teachers to large schools.
Adam dispels the myth that MyMusicStaff is only for small studios and shares how the platform is built to grow as your studio grows. It is used by solo instructors and multi-location studios with thousands of students. Learn about scheduling, billing, website and tagging features, and how these systems free you to focus on teaching and growing your music school business.
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Episode Transcript:
John Kozicki (00:01.807)
Welcome to Rock School Proprietor Podcast. My name’s John Kozicki and my co-host Mandy York will not be joining the conversation today. Instead, I’m here with Adam Patty from MyMusic staff. Adam is a demo and onboarding specialist for the platform and he works with music school owners on a daily basis. Adam, how are you today?
Adam Pattee (00:29.026)
Great. Thank you so much for having me.
John Kozicki (00:30.941)
Yeah, for sure. So on a recent podcast episode that Mandy and I released, we were doing a little bit of a rundown, not super in depth, but just a quick like, hey, here are some platforms that music schools and lesson studios use to manage things like scheduling and billing. And my music staff was mentioned in that episode. And in that
release of that episode, there was a little bit of communication back and forth with myself and Dasha who works for my music staff. And she had emailed me saying, there, this is a quote, there have been a lot of changes and improvements in my music staff over the past few years. And we love a chance to talk about them and clear up the idea that my music staff is mainly for independent teachers, or smaller music schools.
And her comment came from me mentioning that my music staff is great for independent instructors because of the ease of use and the price point. Now, I wasn’t saying it’s not good for larger schools, but it does make me ponder that question. Where do you think that idea comes from,
Adam Pattee (01:53.236)
No, well, yeah. So thank you for the mention on the last episode. That was great. yeah, we sort of don’t know where that narrative has come from, to be honest with you, but it is sort of out there. And it’s something that we’re trying to course correct on a little bit. Because although we’ve been around for over 12 years, and we take feedback from our users who are independent music teachers, music shop owners, they have lesson programs.
John Kozicki (02:15.644)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (02:18.946)
We have a lot of large customers as well, and certainly we have the features to back that up too. Now you mentioned recent changes, and that’s absolutely right. If you’ve not checked out my music staff in, say, the last two years or so, it’s almost a completely different app now in all the best ways. So we’ve made a lot of changes for the single teacher, but also for those larger studios. like I said, we have the features to back that up. I can get into some of them if you’d like. But yeah, we’re not so much…
just for the independent music studio or the solo printer, the solo teacher, we certainly can service those larger customers as well.
John Kozicki (02:58.108)
So yeah, I think we might get into some of those features, but to kind of give you my perspective and where my statement came from, because I was doing a rundown of a few of the platforms that I’m familiar with. And my music staff is one of them that I used to use. And I used…
over five years ago, because you mentioned that five year mark. So it was a while ago. But I would also say, so much has changed in software in the last five years in our post COVID world. There’s tons that that’s different about the software world. And also, I think expectations of what not only like users of my music staff
Adam Pattee (03:24.892)
You
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (03:35.874)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (03:50.309)
like myself, like studio owners would expect, but also from the consumer side, from our students and parents, what they might expect. So it’s, you know, obviously that’s great to hear. Yeah, your, my music staff is reacting to those changes and making proper updates. So before we get into, into features, I want to go back to probably what you’ll have some great insight on and
because you’re someone who works with music school owners and instructors on a daily basis. You speak with a lot of them.
Adam Pattee (04:26.177)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (04:27.852)
What do see instructors or studio owners struggling with maybe prior to implementing a studio management software and what are the problems that you think they’re looking to solve?
Adam Pattee (04:41.579)
Yeah, that’s a great question. Honestly, when I’m doing the demos and I’m onboarding new members to my music staff, not necessarily a feature or a problem that they come to me that they even know about, but sort of is realized as we go through the process is that having a software in place can help you sort of give off a bit more of that professional presentation, but also with that staying a bit more rigid to your policies. I find a lot of studio owners and music teachers that don’t have
those policies in place for things like cancellation. They’re typically making one-off exceptions, but on the regular bit more than they’d like to, and they’re accepting a few more cancellations and these types of things. But having a software in place where the customer can self-reschedule, self-cancel, and it very rigidly follows your cancellation policy that you’ve set up with showing them that policy text and so on, it sort of helps them.
better navigate that situation instead of constantly making exemptions, which ultimately does affect your bottom line as well.
John Kozicki (05:45.413)
Yeah, so to, I think to put it in, in, you know, more like real life practical terms and for better or worse, it creates this sort of barrier between, and again, like, I don’t mean to go back to that, like that smaller studio, the solo instructor, but I think that is where something like this really comes into play because, you know, I used to be in that world too.
Adam Pattee (05:51.981)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (06:12.636)
when I first started my first business and the second one, it was just me. And you form these relationships with your clients and your students. And you’re the one that they are talking to. you, I mean, again, better or worse, we’re empathetic. You most people are. We wanna please our customers, we wanna please our clients. And when they ask something that is maybe a little bit too far beyond what we’re comfortable with,
It’s tough to say no and to say we can’t do this. Or if someone says, hey, you know, I missed a couple of lessons last month. Can you just charge me for, you know, 50 % this this month? It’s really hard to say no. But a software platform, when it’s automated, when those payments are automated, when things like scheduling are automated,
Adam Pattee (06:45.442)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (07:09.614)
it creates this invisible barrier, right? And if you don’t have an admin in place or something like that, who is that person who’s gonna say no, and you’re paying them to say no, then it creates that barrier and gives you a little bit more freedom.
Adam Pattee (07:23.733)
Yes, absolutely. And when I follow up with those same people that are in exactly that spot and they’ve now put this policy in place and they’ve got the software in place now, they were expecting all this pushback and all this change from parents, but no. They go to cancel lesson, the software says, this is beyond our policy, you’re still going to be charged, what have you. And the teacher never hears about it, the studio owner never hears about it. So it does sort of take a lot of that burden off of them.
John Kozicki (07:50.981)
Okay. And what would you say to someone who still resistant to that idea? Like, yeah, but I like to have those personal relationships or but what if what if I’m not hearing that they’re unhappy and they just decide to quit? What would you say to someone like that?
Adam Pattee (08:13.463)
Totally, yeah. Well, what I would say to that is there’s always the human element still. That’s never going away. You as the owner, as the admin, you can always make an exemption. You can not put that policy in place right away. You don’t have to use that feature. And certainly should an extenuating circumstance come up, can. You know better. You can always override something. But in the people that I’ve spoken to, honestly, that doesn’t really come up. I haven’t heard that.
They have this mass exodus of students because they’ve introduced a software-based cancellation policy or anything like that.
John Kozicki (08:45.178)
Right. And so what have you heard that is the positive when, so let’s say we’re talking about someone who has been keeping a spreadsheet for further lessons and also another spreadsheet for tracking their payments and then maybe sending invoices, you know, through QuickBooks or some other service. What would you say those people, when they,
Adam Pattee (08:51.745)
Hmm.
Adam Pattee (08:55.533)
yeah.
Adam Pattee (09:05.005)
Hm-hm.
John Kozicki (09:15.182)
implement a software, what would you say that their positive reactions are?
Adam Pattee (09:16.535)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (09:20.267)
Yeah, well, honestly, number one is that they get so much time back. mean, keeping spreadsheets fine, but it requires a lot of manual work and oversight and really staying on top of it and always having to update it and things like that. So yeah, the number one thing I hear that they get back is their time, which either means that they can have free time or more time to teach, as well as obviously having all the systems talk to each other, having the calendar talk to the invoicing.
John Kozicki (09:24.88)
Yeah.
Adam Pattee (09:47.522)
having those connections there in one platform versus using QuickBooks and a spreadsheet and all these sort of things that are disconnected. You’re doing so much admin work just to sort of keep those, you’re the switchboard, right? You’re the one connecting all those apps together and sort of keeping it all in place. And yeah, time is the number one thing that people get back for sure.
John Kozicki (09:55.281)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (10:07.556)
Okay, now, Adam, you and I were talking before we started the recording and I’d asked you, are you a musician? Do you have any ties to music? And you said, nope, not a musician. You’re a little bit more from the tech background. And I think that can be a positive for us who are in the musical world because it allows us to get a different perspective, a fresher perspective, one that is not
Adam Pattee (10:16.557)
you
Adam Pattee (10:23.488)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (10:37.06)
necessarily under that umbrella of creativity and music. So we need folks like you. Now, being that you are not a musician, but you work with them all the time, what have you learned about music instructors and studio owners from working so closely with, I’m assuming hundreds, maybe thousands at this point? I don’t know. Yeah.
Adam Pattee (10:52.716)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (11:02.869)
Mm-hmm, absolutely,
John Kozicki (11:05.594)
What’s something that you’ve learned about us? What weird quirks do we have?
Adam Pattee (11:09.965)
no, that’s a great question. Honestly, I really love our community. is great talking to, like you’re saying, the creative people. They’re a fun crowd. I always have a great time having conversations with musicians and music studio owners. There’s definitely some quirks, namely, I would say a lot of people like to, how should I phrase this, of reinvent the wheel maybe in terms of pricing.
John Kozicki (11:36.166)
Just, just freeze it. I’m not going to be offended. I’ll translate it for our audience for you.
Adam Pattee (11:39.886)
No. Yeah, so I would say that, you know, there’s nothing wrong with being creative and certainly that’s definitely needed in terms of business practice, I mean. But sometimes the simpler the better. You sometimes it really is better to charge an hourly rate for a lesson instead of this price if it’s under 30 minutes, this price if it’s 45 and a different price if it’s 60. you know, so…
I don’t directly give business advice to our members ever. We sort of stay away from that. But what I would say is sort of a quirky trait that I have noticed in the music community, which is quite funny. And a lot of people end up coming commenting back on it later and saying, you know what, Adam, I did actually just switch to hourly billing because it’s a lot easier to understand is I would say, yeah, they do all these different pricing models and things like that. But there is beauty and simplicity sometimes. It’s a lot easier just to keep it straightforward.
John Kozicki (12:08.155)
Of course,
John Kozicki (12:32.323)
Yeah, yeah, you know, it’s interesting. think, and that’s again, going back to why I think it’s important. And this, this goes to, I think for anything is, is to get that outside perspective because if, if most music instructors are like myself, there’s this trajectory and it usually follows this path of, I’m a musician and then I’m going to start teaching and I’m going to, you know, that’s
I’m just, it’s just going to be me teaching and then, maybe I will, maybe I will get a commercial location and start to grow. And then next thing you know, you’ve got like this really complex, hopefully successful business, but you can’t run it the same way when it is more complex as it has, as you did when it was just you.
Adam Pattee (13:16.556)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (13:25.771)
And I think that’s where that complexity comes in and the need to be able to simplify. I don’t think anyone goes into it saying, you know what, I think I want to have really complicated billing processes that are hard for anyone to understand. And even myself, I think they go into it thinking, this is what I do and this is what I charge. And as it evolves, it just becomes more complicated. So
Adam Pattee (13:38.359)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (13:51.725)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (13:52.665)
we need that outside perspective sometimes for someone to say like, Hey, you know, this could be a little bit easier if we just tweet things this way and that way. And then there’s the whole thing, the whole like resistance to change. But what do people think? You know, there’s a use to this now. What do how do I adapt to it? So I don’t think it’s in in the defense of our community. I think there’s, you know, that’s the problem. Yes, we’ve identified the problem. That’s the cause of it.
Adam Pattee (13:59.886)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (14:06.711)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (14:21.872)
but now let’s fix it. Because I agree with you. Yeah.
Adam Pattee (14:23.361)
Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, it is, it is a good problem to have. the people I meet there, some of them have told me point blank, you know, they say, I just want to teach. I don’t want to be a business owner. I now have all these responsibilities. I have staff, have overhead, I have rent. I have to worry about marketing campaigns. like, I didn’t ask for this. Like it’s a great problem to have, but they need sort of that lifeline. They need that support. And that’s what we hope to provide is we, we give them some tools to help manage their business.
ease the burden, automate the processes for them, and ultimately take away some of that headache. But I’ve had people point blank saying, the last year has just been explosive for me, and they’re so happy about that, but they sort of didn’t expect all this other stuff that comes with that.
John Kozicki (15:07.43)
Yeah, yeah, and I think when you take these big steps, like implementing a software like this is a big step if you’ve not done that, if you’ve not had something. And I think when you do that, it’s worth considering, okay, what this is going to do is it’s going to buy me some time, as you alluded to. I’m not going to be spending time on.
invoicing, I’m not going to be spending time on tracking down payments, and I’m not going to be spending as much time on scheduling. So I think it’s worth looking at how do you want to use that extra time when this is in place, right? So like, what will you do with that time to get your, you know, to get your own motivation like fired up or to decide I want to generate
Adam Pattee (15:58.146)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (16:01.721)
this other income, you know, so I think it’s worth in the front end or when you’re implementing something like that to think about like, okay, yeah, I’m going to implement this. I’m going to put this system in place. How am I going to leverage that? Yeah. You had mentioned the, well, we were talking about how many music school owners and studio owners you speak with.
Adam Pattee (16:16.758)
right.
Adam Pattee (16:28.417)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (16:28.781)
Have you noticed any patterns or common traits among the more successful studio owners as, and again, going back to that idea of my music staff, yes, it works great for the solo instructor, but it also works well for larger studios. Presumably those larger studios have gone through that trajectory, right? They went from that solo instructor and had a vision and have you noticed any patterns among the more successful?
Adam Pattee (16:43.426)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (16:59.691)
Yeah, mean, just on that point too, that’s actually a really exciting thing that our team loves to sort of monitor and watch and keep note of too is because we’ve been around for 12 years, we’ve actually grown with a lot of our customers. So a lot of the people that have used us since early on have grown with us and now they’re those larger customers that we say that we’re able to serve. And it’s because they’ve grown with us, they’ve used the software, you know, since early on or since day one in some cases. And as they’ve expanded,
We’ve listened to their feedback, we’ve implemented features, we get all the payroll tracking has been added, we have the availability-based booking. So if you’re handling a large team, be it dozens or even hundreds of teachers, we can help with that now. And that’s directly from the feedback of our amazing members. So a lot of them have been able to grow with us, which is so exciting to see. I would say the trends I see…
It’s a bit of a hard question to answer, namely because every business is so unique in many different ways. And certainly we’re also not necessarily involved in their day-to-day business in terms of their offering, their policy, that sort of thing. But what I would say is an overall trend that I’ve seen with the successful studios for sure is just have a good product. I mean, the people that are passionate, the people that…
John Kozicki (17:54.245)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (18:19.297)
that know what they’re doing, the people that can identify those great instructors and make those right hires, those are the people that are succeeding. You know, the people that are maybe just, you know, purchasing a music studio because they think it’s a great business to get into. It could definitely work. And I’m not, you know, saying anything about that, but certainly the passion comes through. So when you’re, you know, talking to parents or you have those amazing instructors, if you get that word of mouth reputation, it’s all organic from there. And that’s, that’s certainly a trend I’ve seen and
John Kozicki (18:35.44)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (18:48.269)
Talking to them as well, with larger staff counts is therefore student counts too. Word of mouth is by far the number one driver for growth. They’re always doing referral programs, having referral credits for students, things like that. So just having that good product, the good service, those great people, that’s definitely the key to success there with those larger accounts.
John Kozicki (19:01.797)
Hmm.
John Kozicki (19:13.923)
Okay. yeah, we talk a lot about culture and community on this podcast. And that speaks to exactly what, what we promote here, which is yes, you’ve got to have that good community. You’ve got to have, the studio that people want to come to because they feel good coming there. And that’s, that’s going to enhance that word of mouth advertising and, and, get the word out about your studio as it grows.
Adam Pattee (19:32.435)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (19:42.725)
we need more tools to manage those things, right? We need, because, I mean, this is gonna sound crazy. I’ve been in this business for a really long time. The very first job I got teaching guitar, the store that I was working at, they still tracked on with pen and paper the lessons and the payments. And I think about myself at this point,
Adam Pattee (19:44.193)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Adam Pattee (20:04.429)
yeah.
John Kozicki (20:12.763)
And if I were to try and do that in my studio, it would be maddening. It would be absolute. Like I can’t even imagine how, how I would do everything on paper like that with, with in the absence of software. Um, but, uh, okay. Circling back a little, you had mentioned you’ve seen these studios grow, uh, with, with my music staff.
Adam Pattee (20:17.197)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (20:24.916)
Yeah, for sure.
John Kozicki (20:42.011)
And how do I mean, is there a process in place there on accepting the feedback from from users and how that shapes the product and the development decisions at my music staff?
Adam Pattee (20:57.705)
Absolutely. mean, that’s our primary source of feedback is our customers. I mean, in app, there’s a question mark icon. You can hit that. There’s a feature request button. You can fire off your feature request there. We ask you sort of what’s missing and how would it help you. We are constantly tracking, no joke, thousands of pieces of feedback from our community, which is phenomenal. We love it. And I promise you, every one of them are recorded and reviewed.
John Kozicki (21:19.632)
Wow.
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (21:25.687)
but it’s not always possible to sort of implement everything. As you say, we need to sort of be that solution that works really well for that single teacher, that solopreneur, but also for that large school. internally, we do gauge that all. We review that and based on popularity and how we think it could help the rest of the community, that’s how we drive our roadmap and what we develop next. But sort of on that note as well,
John Kozicki (21:25.775)
Hahaha
Yeah.
Adam Pattee (21:50.52)
We’re a completely independent company. We’re just like our customers. So we’re an independent, self-sustained business that has sort of grown organically. We don’t have outside investors, hedge funds, Silicon Valley money, none of this. We answer to our customers. So because of that, that is our number one source for feature development, improvements, and on a monthly basis, we put out a blog post too about all the changes and enhancements that we make too. So.
John Kozicki (21:54.607)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (22:18.443)
Certainly if there’s any bugs, we love to squash those as fast as possible, know, call our support team, report something, we’ll get on it right away. But in terms of developing the product, that’s right from the community and those features that our members have identified that they need as they grow.
John Kozicki (22:24.237)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Kozicki (22:34.179)
Yeah, yeah. So what were maybe, are there any like, maybe lesser known features that in my music staff that people would be surprised by to hear?
Adam Pattee (22:47.469)
Yeah. There’s a handful. And I sort of always get that question. But it does depend on if you’re a current user or not. So it depends on what you’re using. But generally speaking, I would say a feature that we’ve given. Oh, OK. OK.
John Kozicki (23:02.095)
Well, let me do this. Let me set the stage, right? So I would say for the majority of us, we’re gonna say like, all right, I need a software that is going to automate my billing. I need a software that I can utilize to manage schedule. Those are the two biggest features that I need. And I need those to work really well.
Adam Pattee (23:12.109)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (23:19.629)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (23:28.731)
And obviously with the payment, that’s going to integrate with credit card processing, right? So I need those three things to be top notch. From there, I’m going to look at what other features are involved or included and assess. Is that something I can use? Is that something that’s going to be helpful to me? And then knowing how these platforms go, we get messaging from, you know, client to, to studio.
Adam Pattee (23:32.525)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (23:47.943)
Mm. Totally.
John Kozicki (23:58.278)
we get maybe some learning management stuff there, adding assignments. So those would be kind of like in my mind, those second tier features that like, yeah, cool, I can use these, this is gonna be great. What else would be in like second tier or even third tier where you’re just like, this is amazing.
Adam Pattee (24:17.281)
You
Well, I mean, yeah, thanks for that rephrase there. That’s a great way to sort of position it. What I would say to that is it may not be sort of lesser known, but something that definitely helps set us apart as well and helps a business, you know, as you’re starting, maybe as you’re that single teacher, certainly though, as you’re growing into that larger studio, is our website builder. That’s something that not a lot of other software in this space has. You don’t need a Wix, a Squarespace. You can actually build your entire site in my music staff.
Using our templates, very easy to use. You don’t need that technical background. All the hosting is included too. Now, if you’re, you know, as you build out that site and certainly as you grow within that website feature, we have sign up forms too. So even if you have your own actual website, Squarespace, wherever that is, you can embed those forms on that site or your MyMusicStaff site. And we have sign up forms and you can have as many of those as you need. Totally customizable.
John Kozicki (24:53.659)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (25:19.435)
And those forms allow for people to join a wait list, book that first free trial, book that intro call. So it can help with funneling in from the internet, those new customers. And then sort of getting into the nitty gritty, because you asked me about some of these lesser known features, we have an awesome group tag system in my music staff. We sort of gave it a bit of a rework, a bit of a facelift. Maybe let’s call it about a year ago now. And our members have been really enjoying it. So you can now tag students based on
John Kozicki (25:19.653)
Hmm.
Adam Pattee (25:48.536)
Well, anything you want, they’re completely customizable. those signup forms, because you can have multiple of them, they can tag students certain ways. So if you had a guitar page on your site for waitlist for guitar lessons, they could be tagged as that guitar waitlist right away. And then later, maybe you’re sending them an email or you’re booking a group workshop. Or if you’re integrating with Zapier, that can send something to maybe an email campaign software like Mailchimp.
John Kozicki (26:02.17)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (26:17.077)
A combination of those features working together is a really great piece as well. So not just building the website, having those forms, but using that tagging system and then certainly the integration of those features as well.
John Kozicki (26:20.656)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (26:30.533)
So couple of follow-up questions to that. With the tagging system, that starts to, if I’m understanding this correctly, that’s starting to veer into almost like your marketing management, right? How do I make sure that the right people are getting the right information and not the information that they don’t need? Now, is aside from the tagging,
Adam Pattee (26:34.061)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (26:43.693)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (26:48.301)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (26:57.557)
is there, there’s not any sort of like email marketing integrated into my music staff, correct?
Adam Pattee (27:03.757)
Well, you can send those bulk emails. There is an email functionality, but maybe not all those marketing features like something like a MailChimp would have. mean, those are dedicated softwares for a reason. But there is definitely email functionality within our platform.
John Kozicki (27:08.762)
Okay.
John Kozicki (27:16.057)
Right.
John Kozicki (27:20.985)
And I think that goes back to what you said about feature requests that, you know, or that you get from, from users, right? You’ve got thousands of them. And I think it’s really easy for us. If we love something, we’re like, my gosh, this is great. If only it could do this one other thing. I’m a firm believer though. And like, you know, maybe when it comes to software, get something that’s really good at like.
Adam Pattee (27:25.677)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (27:30.765)
You
Adam Pattee (27:40.631)
Yeah.
John Kozicki (27:50.221)
a few things and then for other things, you know, you can go to something else that’s really good at those things. And that’s where I think there’s, there’s that delineation.
Adam Pattee (27:51.437)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (27:56.544)
Right.
It’s sort of that like jack of all trades, master of one type dilemma, right? So we know what we do well and we, like you said, the billing, the scheduling, that has to be rock solid. But there are companies like MailChimp, example, for email campaigns that that’s their whole thing. So if they’re the pros, we can integrate with them via Zapier and all this kind of stuff. But there is sort of that line where you develop a feature, but we want to give a good experience as well.
John Kozicki (28:02.722)
Yes. Right.
John Kozicki (28:21.562)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (28:27.096)
Yeah. analogy here. So I am my primary instrument is guitar. I am a fantastic guitar instructor. I play drums also. have a decent drum instructor, right? I get to a certain point and like it’s time to go to someone else because it’s just beyond my, my skillset. okay. Again, going back to the features domains and website builder. Now,
Adam Pattee (28:33.015)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (28:40.407)
Yeah, yeah.
Adam Pattee (28:56.013)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (28:57.156)
The website builder’s built into my music staff. And I’m just, just to clarify this stuff. if I’m in my music staff user and I just want to, I want to build my website through my music staff, what is that URL going to look like? And can I maybe get a domain name for my business and then, what do they call that? Port the website over to that domain name or reroute? Yeah.
Adam Pattee (29:25.461)
Right. So yeah, excuse me. So out of the box, you do get a yourname.mymusicstaff.com domain. That’s free, that’s included, that’s there from day dot. But certainly you can purchase your own domain. Now we’re not a domain registrar, so you’ll go to GoDaddy, something like that, buy your domain for 15, 20 bucks, whatever that is. And through something called a CNAME record, which you have to only set up once, you’ll point that domain to our hosting service.
John Kozicki (29:43.566)
Yes.
John Kozicki (29:48.218)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (29:54.486)
We have a help article on how to do that. honestly takes about five minutes, but our support team, we do it all day. So we’re happy to help with that if there’s any struggles. So yes, you can have a MyMusicStaff website, but with your own custom domain, in fact.
John Kozicki (30:08.282)
Okay, all right. All right. Any any lesser known features that might surprise me? Because again, I probably should have mentioned this I used think I used my music staff, I want to say like 2017 2018. Around then. So it’s been a while.
Adam Pattee (30:23.181)
Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. We got a lot of changes.
John Kozicki (30:30.54)
Okay. All right. Well, Adam, this has been, this has been enlightening. I, One more question then. So, and I want to clarify and again, going back to why I had recommended my music staff as like a great platform for someone just getting started. And I, I still stand by that. If, if you’ve got a larger studio, like what, what’s maybe like
Adam Pattee (30:44.589)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (30:57.666)
a really large studio that uses my music staff, not by name, but like by numbers.
Adam Pattee (31:00.991)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so we don’t share specifics for sure, but I can comfortably tell you, you know, we have customers with hundreds and hundreds of teachers using our platform. Yeah.
John Kozicki (31:11.278)
That’s incredible. Okay. All right, gotcha. I know my understanding is that pricing is based on per teacher, right? For the most part. Okay.
Adam Pattee (31:18.077)
Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. So we have a very simple transparent pricing model. What we don’t do is charge you per student, per appointment. We don’t charge you extra for website hosting, for SMS lesson reminders. There’s zero other charges of any kind for our services. We charge you just based on the number of teachers you have. Now, there’s also no contract, no smoke and mirrors, no commitment to that. You can actually even upgrade and downgrade as you please many times in a month.
John Kozicki (31:28.986)
Mm-hmm.
John Kozicki (31:42.01)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (31:47.785)
So, you know, over the summer if you add on a couple temporary teachers for those summer programs and you take them off a few months later, you’re only paying for them while you’re using them.
John Kozicki (31:57.722)
Okay, this has been great, Adam. So obviously mymusicstaff.com is where someone would go if they were interested. The features are gonna be listed there, the pricing is gonna be listed there. Any other things that you wanna share with our listeners, should they reach out to you? Should they reach out to other people if they wanna get maybe a demo or talk about specific features?
Adam Pattee (32:08.737)
Mm-hmm.
Adam Pattee (32:24.929)
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we’d love to hear from anybody. We can answer any questions. MyMusicStaff.com is definitely the best place. There’s a join free button. No contract, no credit card, none of that. You could just jump into a trial, 30 day free trial. You get full access to the entire software. We also have on our website the phone number. You can give our team a phone call. We’re real humans here, no phone trees and AI bots. So send us an email, give us a call. Also on the site is a book a demo button.
You could check out our pre-recorded sort of on-demand demo at your own time, or if you want to actually have a sit-down chat, ask those specific questions, you can meet with very likely myself or somebody else from our team. We would love to help out.
John Kozicki (33:08.216)
rights. Okay, Adam, Patty, I appreciate you coming on the podcast and clearing up any misconceptions and correcting my my any false statements I made about my music staff. That’ll wrap it up for Rock School Proprietor podcast. We’ll see you next time.
Adam Pattee (33:27.48)
Thank you.
