How Music Teacher Directories Hurt Private Music Teachers

“Why be the cow when you can be the farmer?”

I’m not sure where this quote originates, but I heard it in a Leverage episode from season 3 titled, “The Studio Job.”  The context in this case was to ask, “Why write songs yourself when you can steal others’ songs and sing them?” In other words, it’s more profitable to let others work for you than to do the work yourself. This abuse can surely be found in every profession, but I’d like to discuss one way it manifests in the context of private music lessons.

Music Teacher Directories

I was once one of very few teachers in the United States to have their own website, and this isn’t an exaggeration.  I had a website in the days when there was no such thing as “graphical web browsing” – one had to use the Unix lynx command to surf the web with arrow and enter keys.  Today, it has become so easy to put up a website that a Tibetan monk could do it using a limitless supply of website creation services and templates, many of them free.

So, try doing a Google search for piano lessons in a random city.  Given the ease of putting up websites, one would think a search like this would yield search results of all the tons of piano teachers who have websites.  This is simply not the case.  Let’s take Atlanta as a random example.

When I searched on 9/27/12 for “Atlanta piano lessons” on Google, I got a total of 13 matches on the first page of results.  Not a single one of the results is a private piano teacher.  Two of the results were bricks and mortar music stores that rent out studios to teachers and who therefore offer lessons.  The other 11 results are places like inhomemusicteachers.com, takelessons.com, musikalessons.com, etc.  These websites do not specialize in Atlanta piano lessons;  they “specialize” in piano lessons everywhere. This isn’t exactly a “niche” market, although they would love for you to believe it is when you see their sites. You’ll find these same domains coming up in search results for pretty much any city in the U.S. For example:

  • inhomemusicteachers.com has a subdomain for various areas, such as atlanta.inhomemusicteachers.com
  • musikalessons.com has a webpage for each area such as
    musikalessons.com/pianolessonsatlanta.htm.

In other words, you’re still being connecting to the same website no matter which city you’re in. The only purpose of these subdomains and subpages is to make search engines and visitors unaware of the fact that these websites are nothing more than glorified national databases of teachers. They are NOT local websites.

So, is there only one private piano instructor in Atlanta who has their own website?  Of course not. It’s just that the people running these directories know how to play the search engine game better than piano teachers do. Some of them even spend thousands of dollars per year in advertising. All of this search engine optimization and paid advertising bumps legitimate piano teachers down in web search results.

If you owned a piano store, and suddenly a bunch of “piano store referral” businesses started popping up on your street, constructing signs that are so big and tall that people can no longer even see your own store (and buying Yellow Page ads that are so numerous and large that you can’t afford to compete), how would you feel about paying these businesses for referrals? This is no different from paying the mafia for “protection” against themselves.

Adding insult to injury, the value of piano teacher referral services to consumers isn’t even high enough to be considered neutral – it is actually negative. Without these services, Google would be connecting potential students directly to music teachers. These services are doing nothing more than creating an extra unnecessary step in looking for teachers.

Somewhat recently, Google’s Flight Search Sparked Antitrust Fears. Using Google, people are now being directly connected to airline flights instead of going through middle men like Expedia or Kayak, and this is making these services very unhappy. Google is not competing with these services; Google is eliminating the need for them, because Google doesn’t connect you to Google; Google connects you directly to the airlines, all for free. Ford motor vehicles eliminated the need for horse-drawn carriages. Did carriage companies sue Ford? I’m sure they were upset to be put out of business, but even they couldn’t dispute that society was being advanced by innovation. People adapt. Transaction fees are typically around $11 with services like Expedia and Kayak, but they’re only about $1 when done directly on the airline’s website. When the airline middle man industry says, “This is costing us billions,” remember that this is just a dysphemism for, “This societal evolution/adaptation is saving consumers billions.”

Even if all of these music teacher directories were free to everyone, they’d still be a disservice to the matchmaking process between student and teacher because of the middle man effect previously described. But it gets worse, because they’re not free. Most of these websites either charge teachers a monthly fee or a per-student referral fee for the disservice they are providing to society. Some of them even take a percentage of the tuition each month, which you might call an “eternal finders fee.” If such a referral were to produce a 10-year teaching relationship between student and teacher, this unnecessary middle man makes an untold number of hundreds or thousands of dollars because they did nothing more than connect two people together who probably would have been connected anyway had the Internet music teacher mafia never come into existence in the first place.

Some of these websites claim that setting up your own website is a daunting task, and that they level the playing field by making it so anyone can establish a web presence. This is not true – it is fearmongering. They don’t want you to know that Google Places allows any bricks and mortar business to easily establish a legitimate business identity that will show up when people search for piano teachers in a given area. Best of all, it’s tied in directly with Google Maps, so that when you search for “piano teacher” on Google Maps, you’ll instantly see a bunch of pins placed where all the nearest piano teachers are.  Having a Google Place listing isn’t exactly a website, but it’s still an extremely powerful web presence for any business to have – arguably enough to justify not having a website at all.

We already added insult to injury, but let’s now add annoyance to insult.  These piano teacher directories persuade teachers like you and me to sign up for their service by submitting a bio, profile, rate, etc. Suppose you signed up for 10 of these directories. Instead of just having your own single website to update to whenever you need to change your photo, teaching philosophy, address, etc., you now have ten. A simple three-minute task of updating your contact information becomes a major chore.

The real kicker? There is already a free nationwide database of teachers that is far superior to any of these services. And no, I’m not talking about Google, although Google and especially Google Maps certainly would qualify, wouldn’t they? I’m talking about a directory that, unlike other teacher directories, does not allow teachers to be listed unless they have met certain competency and professionalism standards. It is the “Find a Teacher” section of the MTNA Certification website. For-profit teacher directories have every incentive in the world to make it as easy as possible for every teacher (even those who are severely underqualified to teach) to be listed in their directories. This is not the case for the MTNA Certification directory, and in fact I’ve personally seen some teachers try and fail to get certified. It’s a process that encourages growth since teachers get feedback about what areas they need to work on.

There is also, of course, your local area’s music teachers association website (sometimes there is more than one, such as in my area which has both MTNA and NFMC presence), which very likely has a searchable database of teachers. Not all teachers found this way are MTNA Certified, but it is true that there are a lot of non-certified teachers who are still good teachers. Certified or not, the fact that a teacher joins an association at all already shows me that they do not wish to stagnate as a teacher, and that they’re confident enough in their teaching to expose their students to musical events that have others’ students in them (many teachers who don’t join associations unfortunately realize that they might lose students once in a while when their students are exposed to students of higher-level teachers, so they sacrifice long-term gains to themselves and their students for short-term bread and butter income). But I still like to strongly encourage teachers to certify.

My next article will discuss a second way that certain business-savvy “farmers” strive to turn independent music teachers into cows.

(c) 2012 Cerebroom
(Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

17 thoughts on “How Music Teacher Directories Hurt Private Music Teachers

    1. Thanks Sarah! My hope is that this information will spread to both new and veteran teachers so that new teachers can avoid directories and veteran teachers can withdraw their listings. One thing I could have explicitly stated in the article but is sort of implied (but I’ll go ahead and say it here): the more teachers who succumb to these directories, the harder other teachers must work to promote their studios. I think of this as “marketing inflation” – if one company or product spends a lot more to promote themselves than the others, then the others must match the spending just to return things back to where they were before the increase in advertising expenditure. Nobody in this situation wins except those who are selling the advertising.

  1. Excellent posting, Chad. I haven’t had my website since Unix lynx days, but I’ve had it about ten years now, and I’ve used Google Places for two or three years, with excellent results. I had a feeling about those “music teacher directories”, which you have confirmed in this essay. Good work!

  2. Wow. I always appreciate your well-thought-out articles, Chad. I, too, had a bad feeling about those directories – I would scroll for teachers I knew and hardly found any of them on the directories. I didn’t realize that teachers pay a fee for this service – they don’t say that in the emails that try to entice you to join.
    I’m in Canada, where we also have a national and provincial directories of registered teachers – it’s a shame it doesn’t come up until several pages down the search pages. We’ve discussed this at the local level but the cost is prohibitive.
    Have a good day 🙂

    1. Yes, many of them charge the teacher fees. Others are “free” but make money through advertising (which means you are their actual product that makes them money), and others are “free” but do your billing for you at a substantial cost to either teacher or student or both.

      It would be a worthwhile cause to encourage all of the legitimate teacher listings (whether government ones like Canada’s or non-profit ones like MTNA) to promote their directories better. They should contact Google and make sure their directories always appear at the top of search results. The problem is that the legitimacy of the teacher directory seems to be inversely proportional to the owners’ drive to promote them.

  3. WEL, Chad, I have to disagree, in the context of australian teacher directories. There are a very few who charge a fee, and these tend to have much fewer listings. The free directories work well, and cover in most cases not just music, but all activities. I often get students booking in who say they were led to my website from a directory.
    As for certification, that’s fine, but teacher associations here tend to suggest a fee rate much higher that that which applies in the real world of teaching music for a living out of major centres of population…a difference of $20 per hour in the case of our studio.
    So, running a teaching studio is being in the business of giving people what they want, not just what you or I think they need.

    1. Dianne,

      First, there is almost no such thing as a “free” directory online. The one that comes the closest would be Craigslist, which only makes money by charging fees for certain jobs and real estate in very few of the most competitive markets. This is an extremely unusual philanthropic and non-profit-maximizing approach for any business model, and some even think Buckmaster is nuts for it. Some businesses are free for a while, then once they have X number of users, they sell out, which means the business was never really “free” to begin with (they’re selling their traffic, which is provided by you and me). “Free” businesses that advertise on their sites aren’t really free either. In one way or another, every “free” business you speak of is probably earning money off of you and me. We are their products.

      Second and more importantly, the fact that you often get students from these directories is evidence that supports neither your nor my position. If all directories on Earth were suddenly eliminated today, would people who go searching for music teachers tomorrow find nobody and then give up their search? We both know this is absolutely not true. Every last one of them would find their way to a teacher, and many of them would find their way to you as I see you have a website that is properly indexed by Google. But instead of finding a teacher this way: Google – directory – teacher, they would find a teacher this way: Google – teacher. No matter how you spin it, this is a good thing. There is no down side to this. It is more direct and it’s about as free as “free” can possibly be on the Internet.

      As for teacher associations, are you saying you don’t join them because you don’t like what they suggest? Or are you saying you already joined but you don’t get referrals because their directory lists you as charging so much less than other members? In the former case, I’ve seen this in organizations before, and I’d be shocked if yours was any different: despite what the organization’s website might say, teachers in these organizations couldn’t give a hoot about how you run your business. In the latter case, I’m pretty sure you’ll get more referrals because of charging less than other teachers. In fact, I’ve been frustrated my whole teaching career by how many people call me up and say, “Where are you located? How much do you charge? Ok, thank you,” as if I were a lawn mowing service where their lawn either gets cut or it doesn’t. Your price will work to your advantage.

      As for your last sentence, I’m no different from anyone else on this planet in the idea that I want what I want. Everyone wants something, but not everyone has clear and articulate reasons for what they want (some people just feel a certain way no matter what any contrary evidence might suggest). Believe me, I’m all for giving people what they want, but I would argue that directories don’t do this: 1) So many of these directories pretend to be local websites (nobody wants to be deceived), and 2) These businesses pretend to help ME when in fact they are actually competing with me (again, analogy to the bigger sign on the street that I cannot possibly compete with). There is something really wrong with any business model that is built on deception.

  4. I’m so sick of the search engine game! Ugh! I just want people to know that I’m nearby…and teach trumpet. I’ll definitely look into the google places suggestion and becoming certified. I know you wrote it a few months ago, but thanks for the article!

    1. I hear you Andrea! And it is never too late to comment on an article. Also be sure to get into your local music teachers association(s), and make sure the association(s) have websites that allow finding of teachers. If they don’t, make the suggestion. Our best weapon against these directories is to simply empower the directories that already exist to be all they can be! I recently made the suggestion to the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers Association – instead of having one giant static list of teachers (which they had, and was quite overwhelming to try to use unless you’re really good with CTRL-F), have a searchable table that has sortable columns just like the “find a teacher” page that I set up on http://www.nnmta.org (this website was my last gift to the music teachers association of my home city before moving to Pittsburgh). The PPTA followed my suggestion and is continuing to follow my suggestions for improving it further.

  5. Excellent post. I nearly fell into the takelessons.com trap when I had some attrition in my studio. When I saw that THEY collect the fees and then pay me, I bailed. I was also put off by the “accept this student in 48 hours” policy. I’m a highly trained and specialized Suzuki cello teacher, and I do not want all comers in my studio! So glad I came across your blog before I signed on!

  6. I taught piano for years in Seattle, was a member of MTNA and paid my fees. Didn’t have any problems getting in and on the list with my double degrees earned at UW. HOWEVER. I never ever received one single referral or inquiry from them. Why? The ladies in charge of the listing took all the phone call referrals for THEMSELVES. These ladies were well below my pianistic/teaching skills, but it didn’t matter. All of my students came from my own efforts at marketing myself, and hence from Critical Mass once I reached it and current students were referring me.
    I have since moved to Phoenix and am reluctant to pay for MTNA again with the same lack of results.
    I am scrambling to rise above the mass of $20 per hour mariachi band buffoons.

    1. Oh, that’s terrible. So sorry to hear that. This is of course easily avoided if board members make a simple decision to require that the member listing be provided on the website without having to go through any sort of human “gatekeeper.” Teachers should of course have the ability to opt out of the listing, but by default, all members should be searchable by website visitors.

      As for joining MTNA, even though getting referrals is certainly a factor, by no means is it anywhere near the top of the list. For me, it’s more about the national conference, the journal, the MTNA competition, certification (see my article on why I certified) and (at least here in Pittsburgh) the high quality of musicianship compared with other music teachers associations. And, of course, referrals do come from other teachers who know us only because of meeting us through various MTA events.

      1. Yes, I liked that MTNA gave us a kind of stamp of approval, and I liked that I was able to enter my students into the annual auditions, etc. But as far as getting anything else out of it, not really. I’m sure it’s better now that everything is online, as it wasn’t back in the 90’s. It was still printed directories.
        It’s strange down here in Phoenix. Very few actual piano stores, Seattle was peppered with piano stores all over and I worked with them successfully.
        BTW, I don’t see any new articles from you since August 2016. What happened?

        1. Music teachers associations are also dependent upon what we put into them. For example, this summer I’m going to be starting (experimenting via our MTA) a program that has students meet in random groups at various participating music teachers’ studios. It’s the kind of event that I would have dreamed of participating in as a student.

          As for my lack of blogging, it is because my creative energies have been poured into designing an app that I imagined would be beta testing by now (but not, thanks to the seemingly limitless obstacles and bugs provided by Apple iTunes Connect). I do have quite a few draft articles, and one I’m even working on right now, but the design for the app has been a significant job.

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