Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

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How will Duet help me run my music studio?
Musicians are a lot of things: creative, disciplined, passionate, focused, expressive. But “good with spreadsheets” and “familiar with small business legalities” are rarely on that same list. Sometimes being a music teacher can feel like doing two different jobs: inspiring the next generation of music makers and being an accountant. Not many people are that talented.

Duet takes on the management so you can focus on the music. We have built software systems to simplify and automate many of the management tasks that are required to schedule students, get paid, report activities and grow your business. Our teachers say that before Duet, they spent 20% of their time on administrative tasks running their studio. That is about 8 hours a week that you could be teaching more ($$$), listening to your favorite new albums, or playing your own music.
Do I have to be a private music teacher to use Duet?
Not at all! Duet works for any teacher who needs help organizing schedules, communicating with clients, and tracking costs and payments. Private music teachers often need more help in these areas than those associated with a school. But even if you teach through a university or other school setting, Duet has tools that can help you be more productive and spend more time teaching, and less time hassling with administrative tasks.
What if my music studio has more than one teacher?
Currently, Duet is only set up to have single teacher access. We cannot currently distinguish between different teachers with different rosters and different billing needs. But this is changing so stay tuned!
Does Duet have an app?
Yes! And in addition to our mobile app, the Duet web-based product works as well with mobile devices as it does with computers.
Can parents and students also access Duet?
Of course! When you log in as a teacher, you have access to a private studio management portal. But your studio parents and students can create their own Duet accounts, which give them access to their own portals. From there, parents and students can check your schedule, look at their current billing details, log practice time and check lesson notes, and even choose their own schedule from your available hours.
Can Duet be used anywhere around the world?
Yes. As long as you have your login and password, you can access your Duet account from anywhere in the world.

Although the product currently only exists in English, we do have subscribed teachers in 27 countries around the world. You can pay with any currency and accept payments in any currency. Music is the universal language and we want Duet to be too.

How It Works

Does Duet track billing and payments for me?
Yes, Duet will keep track of all payments and fees that you have entered, as well as expenses you enter. Duet will also automatically generate fees according to the calendar schedule and rate packages that you create and assign to your students.
Does Duet remind my students when their next lesson is?
Yes. Duet is designed with an automated reminder system. You set up when you want the reminder to be sent, and what the reminder message should say, and the software does the rest for you!
Does Duet allow my students to schedule themselves?
Yes. We have options that involve the teacher setting up specific time slots that students can register for, or you can set a range of time when you are available, and the students can pick their own start time.
Does Duet provide a free website for my studio?
Yes. Along with your subscription, you are provided with a website that exists as a subdomain of our website. And there are several mobile-responsive themes that you can choose from as well.
Does Duet allow mass emailing to my studio?
Yes. Duet provides you with tools for sending to all of your clients at one time, or only a selection of clients. We even have customizable templates you can use for things that are routine, such as reminding of upcoming performance deadlines, or an annual welcome back message at the beginning of the school year.
Does Duet keep track of all of my lesson notes?
Duet has a feature that allows you to enter customized lesson notes for every student, for every lesson, and you can send these notes to the students. After entering them, they remain in the database for future reference to allow you to look back at the progress being made by the student.
Does Duet have a way to track my students’ practice time?
Duet has a built in practice log where you or your students can enter practice time. This feature also shows a chart that graphs the student’s practice activity.
Does Duet provide financial reports?
Duet provides several reports that allow you to see a family’s billing and payment history, track your income and expenses, and even tell you who owes money, and how much they owe.
Does Duet keep track of time zones for my online students?
Each student in your studio can indicate a time zone that is different from yours so that the calendar and lesson reminders will reflect the correct time for them, but you will still have things displayed in your time zone for your understanding.
Does Duet provide a way to integrate online meeting software?
Yes, Duet is built to allow you to use Skype and Zoom seamlessly.
Does Duet provide a way to automatically charge my students, so they don’t forget to pay me?
Duet is built with an automated recurring invoice option. If you have an account with Stripe, you can set it up so that they are automatically charged through Stripe when the invoice is created. This way, you don’t have to worry about them forgetting to get around to it, or putting it off.

Duet also has options to send them a reminder if they don’t pay on time, or even automatically apply a late fee if they’re late beyond a certain threshold.
Does Duet allow me to collect payment online?
Duet allows you to use PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.Net as payment processors that will automatically record your payments in the database. There are numerous other ways to integrate links for payments using other services, and you can always manually record the payments when you are notified by the payment processor.

Pricing

Can I upgrade my subscription plan?
Yes. If you want to add more students than are allowed in your current plan, you can upgrade your subscription on the My Account page. You will be automatically billed the prorated difference between the old plan and the new plan, and then you will be billed at the new plan rate the next month.
Can I downgrade my subscription plan?
Yes. If you reduce the number of students in your studio, you can change your plan on the My Account page. You will receive a prorated credit for the time you’ve paid for on the more expensive plan.
Are plans upgraded or downgraded automatically if I change the number of students in my studio?
No. You will not be able to add more students than your plan allows, unless you manually change your subscription plan on the My Account page.
Does it matter how many teachers I have on my plan?
Currently, Duet is built only to accommodate one teacher per studio. But stay tuned because this is changing!
Do you have a referral reward?
Yes! We love it when teachers refer Duet to other teachers. To show our appreciation, a teacher will receive a $30 cash reward for referring other teachers who sign up at the Lite or Basic levels, and a $50 cash reward for referring other teachers who sign up at the Premium or Platinum levels.

The referring teacher will receive the reward after the new teacher has been a paying Duet customer for 3 months. To enroll in our rewards program, click here.
Which currencies do you accept?
We currently have customers in 27 countries, and we accept all currencies.
What payment methods do you accept for my Duet subscription?
Credit card. Monthly and yearly subscriptions

Our Community

I am not a Duet subscriber. Can I still join the referral program?
Yes! We would love to have as many people as possible referring Duet to others, even if you do not use our product. To register as a Duet referrer, click here. You can use our marketing assets and collect commissions, just like our subscribed teachers.
If I refer a new customer through the rewards program, when will I get my payout?
When a new teacher subscribes to Duet through your personalized link, you will earn a commission on that new customer’s monthly subscription fee. Your commission will begin the day the new customer begins paying for the Duet service. (This could be either at the end of their 30-day free trial or earlier if they enter their payment information before the trial period ends.) You will see how much you earn each month in your rewards program dashboard. Remember to enter your preferred payment method so we know where to send your money!   If the teacher you referred to Duet decides to end their subscription before your 12-month commission period ends, your commissions will also end at that time. So encourage the teachers you refer to use Duet for a full year at least so you can earn your full commission!
Will I still receive payments from the old MTH affiliate program?
The move to a new referral program means that those affiliates who were registered under the old Music Teacher’s Helper affiliate program will no longer receive payouts. We deeply appreciate all those who promoted MTH under this program for so long, but payments in perpetuity was no longer sustainable for us as a company. We encourage all MTH affiliates to join the new Duet Referral Program by registering here (if you are not a current Duet subscriber) or in your account settings (if you are a current Duet subscriber) and continue earning money by directing new customers to Duet.
Is the MTH affiliate program changing?
Yes, We are discontinuing the existing affiliate program, but we are offering a new and better version! This does mean that payments being made through the old MTH program will now be discontinued. All previous affiliates need to re-register in our new system to continue receiving affiliate payouts. To register, login to your Duet account, click on your name in the top right corner, and click on “Referral Program”. Or, if you are not a current Duet subscriber, click here to register.
How do I encourage new teachers to join Duet?
Join our referral program! All referrers will receive a personalized referral link that you can use to drive new customers to sign up for Duet. You can use this link any way you want: you can share it on social media, you can put it in emails, text it to friends, etc. We also provide graphic assets that you can use if you have a website, newsletter or space for banner ads on web properties you mange. Your link does not expire, so use it as often as you would like. To join the referral program, simply login to your Duet account, click on your name in the top right corner, and click on “Referral Program”.
Can new affiliates join the referral program?
We hope that all those who participated in the MTH Affiliate program will join our new Duet Referral program. And yes! New referrers are also welcome to join the Duet program. Any Duet subscriber can make money promoting Duet to their network by joining our affiliate program. For details on how this works, login into your Duet account, click on your name in the top right corner, and click on “Referral Program”. If you are not currently subscribed to Duet, you can also join our referral program by clicking here.
How does the Duet referral program work?
With our referral program, any Duet teacher can receive a customized referral link to share with friends and fellow teachers. When a new teacher clicks on that customized link (through a social media link, email, banner ad etc.) and subscribes to Duet themselves, the referring teacher gets credit for that new customer and earns a commission on that new customer. Referring teachers will earn a 20% commission on the new teacher’s monthly payment for 12 months after the new teacher becomes a paying customer. For example, if Jessica shares the link with Mark and Mark joins Duet as a paying customer at $22/month, Jessica will earn $4.40/month for 12 months. This adds up to a $52.80 payout to Jessica for a single referral. In addition, Jessica can offer a 10% discount code to encourage her fellow teachers to subscribe. As a referrer, you get access to your own dashboard where you can see how many people have used your link to subscribe, how much commission you are making on each subscribers, and specify where you would like your payouts to be deposited.
I know an awesome teacher you should interview for your podcast! How can I nominate him/her?
We’d love to hear about your nomination! Write to support@sandbox.duetpartner.com with your suggestion.
Are the Duet resources available only to subscribers?
Yes, access to our exclusive content and discounts is one of the benefits of being a Duet teacher.
Are all of the resources available to all subscription levels?
Yes! All four of our subscription levels can access all of our exclusive content and discounts.