eMus | Devpost

Inspiration

"As the number of musicians using online lessons grows ever greater, both teachers and students have to be reminded that a limited perspective, if not carefully curated, can lead to an epidemic of misinformed judgments in music education. eMus can help both teachers and students to uncover these 'blind spots'. As musicians we can learn from the world of sports. They appreciate that more than one pair of eyes and, in our case, ears, is much more effective when evaluating video material."

eMus was founded in the fall of 2019 to offer a trustworthy second opinion for music performance. Since the onset of Covid-19, eMus has gained a lot of traction, by reshaping its model, according to emerging needs and changes inside the music-education distance-learning space.

What it does

eMus is an online musical feedback service for anyone who practices and performs music. A client can get access to three types of panelist through our platform: an Online Practice Supervisor, a Builder, and a Finisher. An Online Practice Supervisor, who is screened and approved through an application process, offers reassurance, motivation, and confidence to someone's practice routine. A Builder, who is screened and approved through an application process, works with musicians in their community and respects that music education is a collaborative effort. A Finisher, subcontracted by eMus, helps serious musicians who are preparing for an upcoming audition, competition, and examination.

How we built it

eMus is hosted on the Wix platform with some custom Javascript.

Challenges we ran into

There are major challenges when it comes to changing people's habits. Originally as a pay-only-to-get-feedback platform, we faced major obstacles of converting people, who seek casual feedback on a regularly basis through social media, to become paying customers for eMus.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The latest development of the Online Practice Supervisor and Builder panels has attracted a lot of enthusiastic response, due to more flexibility and less rigidity they offer to both clients and the panelists. Also, Covid-19 helped to disrupt people's habits and make them more aware of the kind of services that eMus provides. A piano contest with 50 contestants is now committed to moving online, while using eMus Builder's portal for their evaluation platform in May 2020.

What we learned

Online live-streaming lessons are on the rise. However, many musicians are frustrated with unpredictable bandwidth, accelerated fatigue, complicated setup, unsatisfactory sound quality, and complex scheduling. Therefore, a panelist still prefers to give constructive feedback on pre-recorded than live-broadcast clips. We believe that the music education paradigm will gradually transform from the old regular weekly lessons, to a new combination of frequent supervised practice with a teacher's assistant, regular contact with a builder or primary teacher, and occasional assessment with a finisher (e.g. masterclass).

What's next for eMus

We continue to provide more options for our clients and panelists. As we grow our community of panelists, we plan to roll out online training sessions for the Online Practice Supervisors, which are much more prominent in Asian countries such as China and Taiwan, than in North America.

Searches and filters in the user interface will also be useful, once we reach a critical mass. More personalizations in questionnaires as part of the client's submissions is in plan. Booking and payment processing are also aspects that we hope to bring to our Online Practice Supervisors and Builders. In addition, we hope that Online Practice Supervisors in the future can enjoy an in-house video conference platform while monitoring their clients' practices.