Music Factory translates all the schedules you will see on the site into your local time. This is why it is important to check your time zone when you register as a Music Factory user. The times that you see in a teacher’s calendar are their availability in your time zone. You do not need to convert those times further.

If you travel and want to view your schedule in a different time zone, go to “My Settings” and you can adjust the time zone in your account.

Music Factory accepts major credit cards and Paypal for payment. Payment for lessons occurs at the time of booking. Many teachers offer discounts for booking multiple lessons and other promotions for loyal and new students. Music Factory also offers a subscription option for students who want to ensure they hold onto their regular booking time. Subscriptions are further described below. In all cases, payments are made to the teachers after the lesson has occurred. 

We have a money-back guarantee for the first lesson. If you are unhappy with your first lesson with any teacher, for any reason, let us know within two days of attending the lesson, and we will set you up with a replacement teacher, or, if you prefer, fully refund the lesson fee.

Yes, though most students on Music Factory take many more than one! You can book lessons one at a time, or in bundles of 5, 10, 20, or by ‘subscription.’It’s your option as the student.

Some teachers offer trial lessons and others do not. If the teacher does offer a trial lesson, there will be a button on his/her profile that says “Book Trial.” To book a trial lesson, choose the duration that is listed as costing $0.00, choose a time and date that works for you, and confirm. Only one trial lesson per teacher, please, and remember that if you book a trial lesson, a real, live, experienced professional will be waiting for you on the platform at the scheduled time. Please respect the teacher’s time, and only book a trial lesson if you are serious about attending it. If you accidentally book a trial and would like to cancel, you can do so from your Lesson Schedule.

When you book a lesson on Music Factory, you will see options to book one lesson, multiple lessons (5, 10, 20), or to “subscribe.” Choose subscribe if you would like to ensure you keep your regular weekly lesson time on your teacher’s schedule and to simplify your billing. When you first subscribe, you’ll pay for the first month’s set of lessons. While the subscription is ongoing, three months of lessons will be visible in your schedule (most of which are not yet paid), and those will be marked as “subscribed.” Those times will then be blocked from the teacher’s schedule to other students. Three days before the end of the month, you’ll be charged for any lessons that are set up for the next month, less any already paid lessons and credits that you have in your account. You will receive an email notification a week prior to this charge occurring that will itemize the upcoming month’s lessons and amount due so that you can make scheduling changes as needed. Subscribed lessons, like other lessons on Music Factory, may be rescheduled with at least 24 hours notice to the teacher. Manage individual lessons in your subscriptions from your lessons page. Check the upcoming payment amount or cancel the subscription by going to your lessons page, then “View Subscriptions” or to Orders >> “View Subscriptions.” Subscriptions are a new feature on Music Factory in August 2018. Please note: Paypal payments are not an option for subscriptions. Please let us know if you have questions, comments, or concerns about this new feature. Payment to the teachers is made as usual, or on the Friday following the completed lesson.

Lesson fees are set by teachers, and range from $10 per 30 minute lesson on up. Teachers’ fees are displayed on their teaching page. Discounts may be available. The discounts available will be listed on the teacher’s profile and checkout page. 

Yes. Music Factory offers Zoom video conferencing, built into our platform for ease and security. When you’ll get a unique join link by email or by logging into Music Factory for each lesson. You can test ahead of time by registering as a student or teacher (totally free, and takes about 30 seconds) and going to your video test room, which can be found under the circle icon on the top right (highlighted in the screengrab to the right). Students who strongly prefer other video conference systems: let your teacher know your preference, and go for it. Read more about how to video chat.

Yes

Teachers choose the durations that they want to offer. Most teachers offer 30, 45, and 60 minute lessons. Some also offer 15 and 90 min options. You can see the durations offered under “Lesson Duration (minutes)” on the teacher booking page. You can also use the filter to choose teachers who offer particular durations.

Lessons must be canceled or rescheduled with at least 24 hours notice to the teacher prior to the lesson time. More notice is always appreciated, and repeatedly waiting until 24.5 hours prior to the lesson start time to reschedule is not appreciated by your lesson counterpart, though technically permissable. To reschedule a lesson, go to the Lessons column in the Dashboard and click View All. Your upcoming lessons will be displayed in chronological order, and can be rescheduled by clicking on the lesson. If you need to cancel a lesson, notify your teacher by messaging them directly also with at least 24 hours notice, and more if possible. Including in a brief explanation of the circumstances is appreciated by your teacher as well.

Lessons on Music Factory can be recorded for later review. Recording must be initiated each time, by the teacher.  In other words, for a lesson to be recorded, the teacher needs to click “Record” on the Zoom videoconference interface. If you want your lessons to be recorded discuss this with your teacher. When recording is activated, you will see “Recording” on the screen with a blinking red circle.

Multiple segments of the lesson can be recorded by starting and stopping, or a whole lesson can be recorded by just clicking once in the beginning of the lesson.  The recording process automatically stops when the meeting ends, and the video file is automatically attached to the lesson after 2-3 hours. You can find the video file(s) by going to the individual lesson, under the “Recordings”  tab. You will receive an email with the subject line “Lesson Updated” once the recording has been attached to your lesson and is ready to watch.

Recordings should attach to your lesson automatically. If you expect a recording but do not see one on your lesson, click “Attach Recordings.” Due to a bug which we will address soon, if you press this button before the recording has completed processing, the recordings will not attach successfully. If this happens, contact us and we can recover the recording. (We can only recover recordings that were initiated in the lesson, so make sure your teacher does click the record button and you see the red button pop up in your video stream if you would like a recording of the lesson.)

For the best experience viewing your lesson recordings, we recommend using Mozilla Firefox on computers and Google Chrome on mobile devices and tablets.

We care about user privacy. Teachers and students can disable the recording feature entirely by going to Account (in the Profile submenu) on the green menu on the left-hand side. Once there, choose “Do not allow my lessons to be recorded for later review” on the “Site” tab. With that checkbox marked, the teacher won’t have access to the “Record” button on the Zoom interface.

Yes, you can create a gift certificate for music lessons any amount on Music Factory here.