Comparison
My Music Staff alternatives for Australian music teachers
. Competitor pricing and capabilities last checked .
My Music Staff is the tool most Australian music teachers migrate from. It is mature and well supported, but it is priced in US dollars, has no GST aware invoicing, no BECS direct debit and no native Xero sync. For an Australian studio those four gaps are the whole decision.
Side by side
| Capability | TeachMusic | Typically elsewhere | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billed in Australian dollars | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | A USD subscription moves with the exchange rate and adds a 2 to 3% foreign transaction fee your bank keeps. |
| GST aware invoicing | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | If you are not registered for GST your invoices must not say "tax invoice". If you are, they must show your ABN and GST lines. |
| Term pack billing | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: Partly | Ten lessons billed upfront against a school term is how most Australian studios actually charge. |
| BECS direct debit | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Card fees on a $600 term invoice are real money. Direct debit from a bank account is the Australian norm. |
| Native Xero sync | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Xero is roughly 60% of Australian cloud accounting. Zapier is not the same thing as a supported integration. |
| Group and one to one lessons as equals | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Most studios run both. Tools built for one treat the other as an afterthought. |
| Make up credits as a tracked balance | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: Partly | An untracked make up is an argument waiting to happen, and it is the single most common billing dispute. |
| Public directory listing included | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: No | Studio software helps you run the students you have. A directory is how new ones find you. |
| Full data export, any time, free | TeachMusic: Yes | Typically elsewhere: Yes | Both let you leave with your records. Check this before you commit to any platform. |
If you teach music in Australia and you use studio software, there is a good chance it is My Music Staff. It has been running since 2011, it is the default recommendation in most teacher Facebook groups, and it does the core job well.
This page is about whether it still fits, specifically for an Australian studio. We build a competing product, so read the section on where it beats us before you decide anything.
What My Music Staff does well
Worth saying plainly, because a comparison that opens with complaints is not a comparison.
It is mature. A decade and a half of studios have found the edge cases, which means the scheduling, the student records and the lesson notes are unglamorous and reliable. Support is well regarded and staffed properly. The interface is dated in places but it is learnable in an afternoon, and thousands of teachers run their whole business on it without thinking about it. That is a real achievement and it is the bar.
Where it stops fitting an Australian studio
Four gaps, and they are all the same gap: it was built for the United States.
It bills you in US dollars. The subscription is US$16.95 for the first teacher plus US$4.95 for each additional one. On an Australian card that lands at roughly A$25 and A$7 once you include the exchange rate and the 2 to 3% foreign transaction fee your bank charges on a USD transaction. The number is not outrageous. The problem is that it moves: your software bill changes when the dollar does, and you cannot budget against it.
It has no GST aware invoicing. In Australia this is not a preference, it is two different documents. If you are registered for GST your invoices must show your ABN and a GST line. If you are not registered, your invoices must not say "tax invoice" at all. Software that does not know which of those you are will happily produce the wrong one.
There is no BECS direct debit. Card payments only. On a $600 term invoice the processing fee is real money, and from 1 October 2026 the Reserve Bank prohibits surcharging on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa, so you cannot pass it on. Direct debit from a bank account is how Australian families expect to pay a recurring bill.
There is no native Xero sync. Xero is roughly 60% of Australian cloud accounting. Every US built tool in this category treats it as a Zapier problem, which is not the same thing as an integration your accountant can rely on.
Underneath all four is the term. Australian studios bill by school term, ten lessons upfront, aligned to a calendar that differs by state. Monthly subscription software makes you approximate that by hand.
The alternatives, honestly
Teachworks is the closest like for like and has the same US assumptions. Its most requested feature for years has been a native mobile app, which it has publicly marked as not planned.
Opus1 and Jackrabbit are built for multi location schools. If you run one, they do rostering and franchise level reporting properly and you should look at them seriously. If you are a solo teacher they are considerably more tool than you need.
Duet, Fons, TutorBird and TeacherZone all sit in the same space with different trade offs, all US priced.
OneBookPlus is the one genuinely Australian option, out of Melbourne, priced in AUD with term pack billing. It is a general small business tool with a music vertical rather than a music product, and it has no directory. If our Australian argument appeals to you but you would rather use something with more history than us, it is the honest recommendation.
Nova Music and Practis are newer entrants worth knowing about. Nova has a free tier and a native iOS app, which is more than most of this list can say.
What we do differently
We are the only one of these that is both Australian and paired with a public directory. The software runs your studio; the directory is how new students find you. Everyone else leaves finding students entirely to you.
Practically that means GST aware invoices, BECS direct debit, native Xero, term packs aligned to your state's school calendar, group and one to one lessons treated as equals, and make up credits tracked as a real balance rather than something you remember.
Pricing is A$25 a month for the first teacher, A$7 for each additional, capped at A$116. The cap is the part the incumbent does not have: past fourteen teachers, every additional one is free. We are never more expensive at any number of teachers, identical where most studios sit, and progressively cheaper as you grow. No commission on lesson income, ever, and no per student or per lesson fee.
Where My Music Staff still beats us
We would rather you read this here than find it out in week three.
They have fifteen years of track record and we do not. If you want software that has already been stress tested by thousands of studios through every strange edge case a music school can produce, that is a genuine reason to stay, and no feature table changes it.
Their support is bigger than ours. Ours is one person who answers quickly. Theirs is a team. At 2am on a Sunday that difference matters.
Some of their feature set is broader. Their lending library is more mature than ours and parts of their reporting are still ahead of us.
And if none of the Australian points apply to you, if you are cash only, under the GST threshold, and do not use Xero, then most of what we are offering is irrelevant to your studio and switching is probably not worth your afternoon. That is a real answer and we would rather give it than sell you something.
If you do want to move
We import My Music Staff CSV exports, which covers students, families and lesson history. Migration is free and we will do it with you rather than hand you a document. There is a 30 day trial with no card, and a 90 day money back guarantee with no conditions, which exists because a school only really finds out whether software works in week ten, when the term bills.
Your data stays yours either way. Full export, any time, free, whether you stay or leave.
Where we are not the right answer
- My Music Staff has been running since 2011 and has a far longer track record than we do. If you want a tool that thousands of studios have already stress tested for a decade, that is a real argument and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
- Their support is well regarded and staffed to a scale we cannot match today. Ours is one person.
- Their feature set is broader in places we have not built yet, including a mature lending library and some reporting we are still adding.
- If your studio is entirely cash, has no GST obligation and does not use Xero, most of our Australian advantages simply do not apply to you and the honest answer is that switching may not be worth your time.