The Story Behind Lyra

Built by a teacher,
for teachers.

Dustin Wilson, Founder of Lyra Studio
20+ Years Teaching
100s Students Taught

Dustin Wilson

Founder & Builder

For over two decades, I've been on the teaching side of the music stand. Hundreds of students. Thousands of lessons. And every single administrative headache you can imagine.

I've celebrated first performances and watched students find their voice through music. I've navigated scheduling chaos, last-minute cancellations, and the eternal question: "What did we work on last week?"

Like most teachers, I cobbled together a system. Google Calendar for scheduling. Venmo for payments. A notebook for lesson notes. Email for parent updates. It kept the lights on, but it was never elegant.

And online lessons? I avoided them entirely. Every platform I tried made teaching feel like a chore — compressed audio that turned beautiful instruments into tin cans, video lag that killed any sense of musical timing, clunky interfaces that got in the way of actually teaching. It wasn't worth it.

So I stayed in-person only. But I always wondered: what if online lessons didn't have to be terrible?

"

The moment I knew I had to build Lyra was when a parent asked me what we covered three lessons ago, and I had no idea. I'd been teaching for 18 years and still couldn't answer a basic question about my own student.

The platform I wished existed.

When TakeLessons shut down in November 2024, displacing over 20,000 teachers, it confirmed what I'd always suspected: the music education industry deserves better than platforms that treat teachers as expendable and take 20-40% of every lesson.

Lyra Studio is my answer. It's everything I wanted during those two decades of teaching, built with the hard-won wisdom of actually doing the job.

AI that actually helps — automatic lesson summaries so you never forget what you covered. Not gimmicky AI, but genuinely useful intelligence that saves you hours every week.

Video that sounds like music — because your students deserve to hear the difference between a perfect fifth and a tritone, even over the internet.

Your money stays yours — a flat subscription instead of commissions. Because you earned that lesson fee, not us.

No commissions

Music-quality audio

Aria-powered insights

What guides us

The principles that shape every decision at Lyra Studio

01

Teachers First

Every feature starts with one question: does this make a teacher's life easier? If it doesn't, we don't build it.

02

Honest Technology

AI should assist, not replace. Our technology amplifies your expertise — it doesn't pretend to have it.

03

Fair Economics

No commissions, ever. You set your rates, you keep your earnings. We succeed when you succeed.

04

Crafted, Not Shipped

We'd rather do fewer things beautifully than many things adequately. Quality over quantity, always.

Let's build this together.

Lyra Studio is launching Spring 2026. Join the waitlist and help shape the future of music education.

Questions? Reach out at dustin@lyrastudio.io