My Music Staff works great. So does Presently. The fit is different.
I'm James, half-owner of a dance studio. My Music Staff is excellent for the "private lessons with one teacher" model — individual instructors, per-lesson billing, scheduling that revolves around teacher availability. Presently is built for music academies running term-based ensemble programs, recital prep, and family-level billing.
If your music school does both, this comparison is for you.
What My Music Staff gets right
What My Music Staff genuinely does well.
Designed for music teachers first.
My Music Staff was built by a music teacher, for music teachers. Practice logs, teacher notes, repertoire tracking, lesson recording integration — these are first-class features there.
Per-lesson scheduling.
Teacher availability, recurring lessons, rescheduling — all the things an individual music teacher needs to manage their book. Solid.
Strong solo-teacher use case.
If you're a single music teacher or a small group of independent teachers sharing a roof, MMS fits. The pricing model matches.
Where Presently is genuinely different
Where Presently is built for a different operational pattern:
1. Term tuition vs per-lesson billing.
MMS bills by the lesson or by lesson pack. Presently bills by term — "$95/month for Chamber Ensemble, September through May." With automatic sibling discounts, holiday-aware proration, and family-level caps. The way most academies actually invoice.
2. Ensemble and recital workflows.
MMS focuses on individual instruction. If your school runs ensembles, year-end recitals, or showcase events, you'll find the tools missing. Presently's recital lineup editor, song selection workflow, costume tracking (for music-theatre programs), and event management are designed for this use case.
3. Family-level data model.
Families with multiple kids in music programs end up with multiple logins and fragmented billing in MMS. Presently unifies a household: one family account, all students, all enrollments, one ledger, automatic sibling discounts.
4. No payment markup.
MMS processes payments with fees on top of standard Stripe rates. Presently uses Stripe Connect directly — Stripe's rate, no added margin.
Side-by-side
Not a checkmark table. Real differences, in prose.
Ideal customer
Individual music teachers, small private-lesson studios, per-lesson billing.
Music academies with term-based ensembles, recital programs, multi-student families.
Pricing
Per-teacher pricing, around $20/teacher/month + family fees. Payment processing fees on top.
$49, $99, or $149/month flat by student tier. No per-teacher fees. No payment markup.
Recital and event tools
Limited event handling.
Recital lineup editor with conflict warnings, multi-show events, PDF/Excel exports. (Event Management add-on, $9/mo.)
What switching actually looks like
Migrating studio software is real work. Here's how we'd handle it:
A 30-minute call.
Not a sales demo. What's working in My Music Staff, what's broken, what scares you about switching.
Migration during a quiet stretch.
Not during recital, not during enrollment. Usually late summer or mid-winter. I run the data import personally.
Parallel run before cutover.
Keep My Music Staff available read-only for 30 days while Presently is primary. We fix anything missing before the full switch.
Extended trial if you need it.
Standard trial is 30 days. I'll extend it on a case-by-case basis. Nobody should be racing a clock.
Questions worth asking
Should I stay on My Music Staff?
If you're a solo teacher or small private-lesson studio, yes. MMS fits your shape better than Presently does.
What if I run both individual lessons and ensembles?
Presently handles ensembles and term-based programs natively, and is workable for privates (especially with the new instructor enrollment tools). Worth a 30-min call to talk through your specific setup.
Can you import my MMS data?
Yes. Students, families, lesson history, payment records. I clean up the CSV and run the import personally.
How small is your company?
Small. My wife and I run a dance studio; I'm the developer.
Want to talk it through?
The best next step isn't signing up — it's a 30-minute call with me to see if Presently actually fits. Two studio owners comparing notes.