My Music Staff

Couldn't run my music school without it

Pros:

It is extremely simple and easy to use. I only use the Students, Family and Calendar portions of it, and it serves well beyond what I need it for. So easy to view schedule and filter and organize it based on location, teacher, student, etc. i LOVE , as do the parents, the 24-hour in advance automatic reminders auto-texted or e-mailed (your choice).

Cons:

Besides a couple of very minor workflow impedances, it would be nice to integrate the calendar with an existing website, rather than only having the option to do so with the current website.

Alternatives Considered: Jackrabbit Music

Reasons for Choosing My Music Staff: Google Sheets became too cumbersome as our school grow, and I wanted something that the families/students could also access directly

Switched From: Google Sheets

Reasons for Switching to My Music Staff: Jackrabbit just didn't seem to fit as well as MyMusicStaff

My Music Staff, the Music School Life Saver

Comments: My Music Staff has been the game changer for my music school. I have researched so many systems, and was recommended over a dozen. My Music Staff not only is user friendly and fantastic for music, but also cost effective! I recommend them to everyone!

Pros:

I LOVE the calendar system, attendance system, student/parent portal, and the simple integration with Stripe for payments that populates from the calendar. It saves so many hours each week!

Cons:

I wish it was easier to schedule staff meetings in MMS, and I would love it if teachers could have their own connected student account that we could put in Performances and Meetings/Events.

Looks great on the website, doesn't it?

Comments: I was SO excited to find this service. But I've been SO disappointed in them, and can't wait to transfer everything to a new service later this year.

Pros:

MMS promises to handle all of your music studio needs, from scheduling to billing to communications, and indeed, it has modules for all of those plus repertory records, lending library management, downloadable/playable resources, and even mileage. So if you want software that LOOKS like it does everything, you've found it!

Cons:

None of these modules seem actually to have been tested by actual music teachers. Scheduling is ridiculously complicated, especially when students want to cancel or reschedule. Billing leads to a minimum of five confused emails from parents each month because of MMS's bizarre policies regarding past-due payments and account balances. Emails cannot be sent to students and parents simultaneously—they're automatically BCC'ed, leading to confusing message threads and miscommunications. Even the lesson notes and blog features are poorly handled—they don't auto-save, so an accidental tab closure can lead to the loss of an entire lesson's worth of notes, and formatting is bizarrely non-standard. (Don't even think about cutting and pasting.)

Alternatives Considered: 17hats

Reasons for Choosing My Music Staff: Looking for an "all-in-one" solution

Switched From: FreshBooks and Acuity Scheduling

Reasons for Switching to My Music Staff: Liked the user interface better.

My Music Staff: A godsend for the unorganized instructor

Comments: Insanely good. Best application/ website I have ever used hands down. Six Stars.

Pros:

Where to start? I think the Number 1 reason I love MMS is because of its features. They have truly thought of everything a teacher would need to track schedule and communicate with their students. Anything I personally wanted to try or change in regards to my lessons that I teach was somehow already available for me to utilize. Its as if music teachers themselves designed it. Next is the ease of use. I have never experienced an online tool so simple and so intuitive. I learned the entire sites basic functions in a matter of days and within a week I was a pro using the advanced settings. Literally anytime I couldn't figure how something worked or anytime I had to troubleshoot any minor issue, I could resolve it within a matter of minutes by simply searching other areas of the site. Since the entire platform so seamlessly integrates one section to another, I.e contact information, billing, calendar events, etc... there is typically more than one way to solve any issue quickly. and if for some reason you cannot solve the issue on your own, MMS has an extensive FAQ list to guide you and incredibly responsive customer service team. I could go on as well about the cheap cost, personal customization options, and a plethora of other things but my main point is that if you own a music business, schedule reoccurring lessons on even a monthly basis you need to use this site period.

Cons:

Nothing. Truly. I even expected a small learning curve and even that didn't happen as I was able to use this product efficiently from day one.

My Music Staff is like having a staff!

Comments: It's a good studio management tool. My parents don't take advantage of the features that are available to then, but, that's okay. Mine is a small studio.

Pros:

The schedule is easy to set up and manage. Tracking attendance and sending lesson notes is straightforward and easy. Communicating with families is also easy. Invoicing is straightforward, but doesn't allow me to set up a percentage per student for the ach fees I have to charge for those students whose lessons are paid for under a state education program.

Cons:

Bank fees for those students who pay online are easy. Other fees, especially those that are percentages of the invoice are not accommodated, subsequently, I literally have to manual create invoices for 85% of my students every month.

Alternatives Considered: Duet

Reasons for Choosing My Music Staff: Cost

Switched From: Duet

Reasons for Switching to My Music Staff: I selected My Music Staff over Duet Partner due to cost, primarily.