How to Use Teachable or Kajabi to Sell Music Courses

Selling a music course is not about being famous. It is about being one step ahead of your student and packaging what you know into something they can follow on their own schedule.

A piano teacher with an email list of 200 students recorded a 10-lesson beginner course on Teachable, priced it at $97, sent one email, and sold 15 copies in the first week. That is $1,455 from content she already taught in private lessons, packaged once. The course kept selling for months without additional effort.

This guide covers Teachable and Kajabi: how they differ, what setting up a music course looks like on each, and how to decide which one is right for where you are right now.

What You Will Learn

• The core difference between Teachable and Kajabi
• A feature and pricing comparison table
• Step-by-step course setup on each platform
• Music-specific considerations for online courses
• How to price and market your first course

Why Sell a Music Course Instead of (or Alongside) Private Lessons

Private lessons trade time for money. A course does not. You record it once and it sells indefinitely. A course at $97 that sells 100 times per year earns $9,700 with no additional teaching time.

The other case for courses: reach. You can only teach so many private students. A course lets you serve the student who lives three time zones away, cannot afford weekly lessons, or wants to work at their own pace.

Courses and private lessons are not mutually exclusive. Many teachers use a low-cost course as an entry point and convert course students to private lesson clients. This funnel approach builds both income streams simultaneously.

Teachable vs. Kajabi: The Core Difference

Both platforms let you create and sell online courses. The difference is in scope:

Teachable is a course creation and sales platform. It handles video hosting, student management, course pages, basic email, and payment processing. Simple to use. Lower price. Good for teachers who want to sell courses without building a full business infrastructure.

Kajabi is an all-in-one business platform. It handles courses, memberships, coaching programs, email marketing, landing pages, sales funnels, automation, and analytics. It replaces 5-7 separate tools. Significantly more expensive, but if you plan to build a full online education business, it saves money and complexity long-term.

Feature and Pricing Comparison

Pricing as of mid-2026. Check each platform directly for current rates.

The transaction fee on Teachable's lower-tier plans matters. If you sell $5,000 in courses per month on the Basic plan, you pay $250 in transaction fees. Upgrading to the Pro plan at $119 eliminates fees and pays for itself at roughly $2,400 in monthly course revenue.

Setting Up a Music Course on Teachable

Step 1: Create your school Sign up at teachable.com. Your school is your branded course hub. Add your name, logo, and brand colors.

Step 2: Create your course In the dashboard, click "New Course." Give it a title, thumbnail image, and description. Add curriculum sections and lessons.

Step 3: Upload your video lessons Teachable hosts video directly. Upload MP4 files. Aim for 5-15 minutes per lesson. Shorter videos improve completion rates. A 10-lesson course at 10 minutes per lesson totals under 2 hours of recorded content.

Step 4: Add supporting materials Attach PDFs, chord charts, practice exercises, backing tracks, or sheet music downloads to each lesson. Supporting materials increase perceived value and completion rates.

Step 5: Set pricing One-time purchase, subscription, or payment plan. For a first course, start with a one-time purchase at $47-$197 depending on length and depth.

Step 6: Create your sales page Teachable has a basic page builder. Include: a compelling headline, a list of what students will learn, a sample lesson or preview, student testimonials (once you have them), your bio, and a clear call to action.

Step 7: Publish and connect payment Connect Stripe or PayPal. Publish the course. Share the link.

Setting Up a Music Course on Kajabi

Kajabi's setup has more steps because it is building more infrastructure simultaneously.

Step 1: Create a product In Kajabi, click "Products" and select "Course." Add a title, thumbnail, and description.

Step 2: Build your curriculum Add modules (sections) and lessons. Upload video content. Add text, files, and quizzes to individual lessons.

Step 3: Build a pipeline (sales funnel) Kajabi's Pipeline feature creates a sequence: landing page, opt-in form, thank you page, checkout page, and post-purchase email sequence. This automates the marketing flow from first visit to sale.

Step 4: Set up email automation Create an automated welcome sequence for new students. Lesson reminder emails. Completion congratulations. This is where Kajabi's value over Teachable becomes clearest.

Step 5: Create your landing page Kajabi has a full landing page builder with templates. More customizable than Teachable's basic sales page.

Step 6: Set pricing and connect payment Kajabi integrates with Stripe. Set your price, publish, and share.

Music-Specific Considerations

Online music courses have requirements that other course types do not. These matter:

Audio quality is the product. Students are evaluating whether you sound like someone worth learning from. Record audio separately from video and sync it, or use a USB condenser mic during recording. Built-in laptop audio will undermine your credibility regardless of content quality.

Multiple camera angles for technique. A single face shot is not enough for instrument instruction. Use a second camera for hands, fingerboard, or bow position. This is the single biggest upgrade most music courses need.

Separate live feedback from recorded content. Your pre-recorded lessons handle explanation and demonstration. Live sessions (Zoom calls, group Q&As, 1:1 checks) handle individual feedback and correction. Do not try to do both in pre-recorded video.

Provide downloadable materials. Chord charts, scale fingering charts, backing tracks, sheet music PDFs, practice logs. These materials are what students return to between lessons and what makes your course feel complete rather than just a series of videos.

Consider backing tracks as a deliverable. A course that includes 10 backing tracks at different tempos for the repertoire it covers has a clear advantage over one that does not. Backing tracks can be created with a DAW in minutes and add significant perceived value.

Pricing Your Music Course

Price based on the outcome you deliver, not the hours of video in the course. A beginner student who achieves "play 10 songs in 10 weeks" would spend $400-$1,200 on private lessons for that same outcome. A course priced at $97-$197 for that outcome is a deal.

Common pricing tiers for music courses in 2026:

• Short course (3-5 lessons, single skill focus): $19-$47
• Standard course (10-15 lessons, topic deep dive): $47-$147
• Complete program (20+ lessons, full curriculum): $147-$497
• Membership (ongoing access, new content monthly): $19-$99/month
• Premium with 1:1 add-on: $297-$997 (course + live coaching calls)

The most effective first course is a standard course priced at $47-$97. Low enough to reduce buyer resistance, high enough to attract serious students. If it sells, raise the price.

Marketing Your Course

Email list: Your most effective channel. If you have 200 students or subscribers and convert 10%, you sell 20 courses at $97 = $1,940 from one email. Build your list before you build your course.

YouTube mini-lessons: Create 5-10 short tutorials on YouTube that teach one concept from your course. End each video with a call to action pointing to the full course. YouTube search traffic converts into course buyers over time.

Social media: Post one or two free teaching clips per week on Instagram or TikTok. Show your teaching style. Link to the course in your bio.

Student testimonials: Ask your first 5-10 students to record a short video or write a sentence about their results. Display these on your sales page. Social proof matters more than any marketing copy you write.

Webinar or free workshop: Run a free 60-minute live session on a specific topic. Teach genuinely useful content. At the end, offer the full course to attendees. This converts at a higher rate than any passive channel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need a big audience to sell a music course? A: No. You need a relevant audience. A teacher with 200 email subscribers who are actively learning their instrument will outsell a teacher with 10,000 social followers who are only casually interested in music. Focus on building an engaged list over a large following.

Q: Should I start with Teachable or Kajabi? A: Start with Teachable if you want to sell your first course without learning a complex platform. Switch to Kajabi when you are ready to build a full education business with email marketing, funnels, and multiple products. Most teachers start with Teachable and upgrade when their course revenue justifies it.

Q: How long should a music course be? A: Long enough to deliver the promised outcome. A beginner guitar course that gets students playing 5 songs needs however many lessons that takes. Do not pad content to seem more comprehensive. Students drop off in longer courses. Focused, outcomes-driven courses get better completion rates and stronger testimonials.

Q: Can I sell the same course on Teachable and Udemy? A: You can, but Udemy's pricing model (frequent heavy discounts) can undercut your direct sales. If you want to use Udemy for discovery, consider offering a separate, abbreviated version there and selling your full course directly.

Q: How do I handle refund requests? A: Teachable and Kajabi both support refund processing. A 14-30 day refund policy is standard in the course industry. Refunds are typically low for music courses where students can see immediate results. A generous refund policy can actually increase sales because it removes buyer hesitation.

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Record your first video lesson this week. Even if you only upload one lesson, you have started. A finished 10-lesson course beats a perfect 20-lesson course that never gets recorded.

For a broader look at passive income options as a music teacher, see How to Package Your Music Knowledge into a Digital Product.