Music Teacher Studio Profit Calculator

1. What you book in a typical teaching week

30-minute private lessons booked per week

30-minute private lessons price per lesson ($)

30-minute private lessons minutes

30-minute private lessons unpaid prep minutes

30-minute private lessons books and materials ($ each)

45 or 60-minute private lessons booked per week

45 or 60-minute private lessons price per lesson ($)

45 or 60-minute private lessons minutes

45 or 60-minute private lessons unpaid prep minutes

45 or 60-minute private lessons books and materials ($ each)

Group or theory classes booked per week

Group or theory classes price per class (all students) ($)

Group or theory classes minutes

Group or theory classes unpaid prep minutes

Group or theory classes books and materials ($ each)

2. Cancellations, term billing and your time

Late cancels and no-shows (% of booked lessons)

Of those, charged under your policy (%)

Of those, made up in another slot (%)

Weeks per year you actually teach

Weeks per year students pay for

Admin hours per teaching week (billing, messages, scheduling)

Hourly rate you want to earn ($)

3. Travel, studio, instruments and recitals

Private lessons taught at the student's home (%)

Round-trip travel minutes per in-home lesson

Mileage and parking per in-home lesson ($)

Studio rent, or your home-studio share of rent and utilities ($ per month)

Instruments, stands, tuning and software ($)

Years you will use them

Insurance, advertising and other fixed cost ($ per month)

Recital hall, programs and prizes ($ per year)

Recital or registration fees you collect ($ per year)

4. If you taught for a music school or rented a room

Share of tuition a music school pays you (%)

Lessons the school would send you, as % of your current ones

Admin hours a week if the school handles billing

Cancelled lessons the school still pays you for (%)

Room rental by the hour ($)

Enter your numbers or load the example, then click Work out the studio.

Result

Each kind of lesson

Lesson	Price	Advertised per hour	Kept per working hour	Working hours per booked lesson	Price for your target hourly

The week at different volumes: hourly rate three ways

Volume	Booked per week	Working hours per week	Teach privately	Music school	Rented room

The arithmetic, and what it leaves out

Of the lessons you book, a share cancel late or do not show. Cancelled lessons you charge for still pay and free the slot; the share you make up are taught again in another slot for one fee; the rest earn nothing. Only taught lessons use prep, books, travel and mileage.
Tuition is earned over the weeks students pay for. Your hours, books and mileage run over the weeks you actually teach. Rent, instruments, other fixed cost and recital cost run all year, less any recital or registration fees you collect.
Your effective hourly rate is what is left after all of that, divided by every working hour: lessons, unpaid prep, in-home travel and admin. Nothing is taken out for your own pay, so it is the figure to compare with the hourly rate you want.
A music school pays you its split of the tuition for the lessons you teach and a share of the cancelled ones, with no rent, travel or recital cost to you, less admin hours. A rented room replaces your rent with an hourly charge on the booked lesson hours you teach there; in-home lessons need no room.
Not modelled: income and self-employment tax, sales tax, card and invoicing fees, licensing and publisher fees, a school's own rules and the chance it sends fewer students than you assume, travel to a rented room, and growth or churn in your student list.

Common questions

How much should a private music teacher charge per lesson?

Add the lesson minutes, the unpaid prep, any travel and a share of the weekly admin, value those hours at the hourly rate you want, add your share of rent, instruments and recital costs and the books you buy, then divide by the share of booked lessons that actually pay. Type your own numbers and the calculator prints the price per lesson kind that earns exactly your target hourly.

Why is my real hourly rate so much lower than my lesson price?

A 60-minute lesson advertised at $60 is $60 an hour only if the hour is the whole job. Preparation, scheduling and billing, driving to in-home students, cancelled lessons that are never paid and teaching weeks you do not bill all use hours that earn nothing. The calculator shows the advertised hourly beside what you keep for each kind of lesson.

How much do cancellations cost a music teacher?

Each cancelled lesson that you neither charge for nor make up loses its fee. A make-up lesson keeps the fee but costs a second slot of your time. The calculator prices both: the lost tuition a year and the make-up time at your target hourly rate, so you can see what a stricter late-cancel policy is worth.

Is it better to teach privately, for a music school, or in a rented room?

Teaching privately keeps the whole tuition and carries rent, billing and empty slots. A school pays a split of the tuition but supplies the students, room and billing. A rented room replaces your own rent with an hourly charge on the lesson hours you book. The calculator prints the net and the hourly rate for each, the split at which the school pays the same as teaching privately, and the room rate at which renting stops being cheaper than your own rent.

How many students does a music teacher need to break even?

Divide the studio's fixed cost for the year (rent, instruments spread over their years, other costs and recital costs, less recital fees) by what one weekly lesson slot contributes over the year after books and mileage. The calculator gives that figure, and a second one that also pays your target hourly for the time each lesson takes.

What does this leave out?

Income and self-employment tax, sales tax, card and invoicing fees, licensing and music-publisher fees, insurance beyond the monthly figure you enter, a school's own policies and the chance it sends fewer students than you assume. It is a planning aid, not an estimate of record.

Is my data uploaded?

No. Everything runs in your browser tab and nothing is sent anywhere. There are no accounts. The share link keeps your numbers in the link itself, which you choose whether to send.