Muzigal is the new digital destination for music lovers

Bizman’s initiative connects nearly 400 music teachers with over 10,000 learners from five countries

The online learning mode brought hope for those seeking to acquire a new skill during the pandemic. Muzigal, an online music learning platform, has opened an avenue for aspirants to renew their interest in music.

Founded by Hyderabad-based businessman Lakshminarayana Yeluri, Muzigal connects nearly 400 music teachers and trainers with more than 10,000 active learners from five countries in all age groups. Launched last year, it is now the fastest-growing online music platform, growing at 20 per cent month-on-month in revenue and new learners.

A 20-year entrepreneurial journey notwithstanding, Yeluri’s passion for music outweighs his business acumen. “Even before I was an entrepreneur, I was a music lover,” says Yeluri who learnt the mandolin from U. Srinivas’ uncle U. Gurumurthy at the age of 10 but failed to find a tutor later as the family moved places owing to his father’s transferable job.

Even when he started playing the guitar at the age of 28 while living in Visakhapatnam, he hadn’t found the right teacher. “After moving to Hyderabad, my search for tutors for my children was still not successful. I understood the bottlenecks from the parents’ point of view. As an entrepreneur, I figured out a solution. The pandemic gave us the right opportunity to put it in motion,” he says.

Being a digital enabler with a first-hand experience in using technology to scale businesses, Yeluri created a comprehensive learning platform that would enable music students to learn non-stop. His goal was also to empower music teachers and tap the potential music space in India wherein thousands and lakhs of Indians who have learnt classical music but haven’t had the opportunity to showcase or monetise their skill. “Only the top 1% or 2% musicians are able to make it a full-fledged career. The rest of them are unable to use any of these digital facilities. That’s when I thought why not create a platformwhich music teachers in some remote home of India could also use? Muzigal is an overnight success of 20 years of planning and hard work.”

Music courses are offered in Carnatic, Hindustani and western classical — both vocal and instrumental — and ₹400 to ₹500 is charged per class of 45-minute duration. A free trial class can be booked on appointment and eligible students can choose to have Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced levels of training. The teachers on Muzigal earn more than ₹50,000 a month, and the amount is only going to go up, informs Yeluri.

Teachers at Muzigal are selected after three to four levels of skill assessment. First, their teaching experience and certification, second, proficiency at teaching, then their ability to adapt to technology and finally a mock session that is conducted by an in-house panel. “Once they get through all these levels, they are eligible to teach on our platforms. Teachers can choose to teach part-time or full time, depending on their commitments. Students can pick a class as per their convenience as tutors are teaching at different time slots, different levels and different languages,” he adds.

Interestingly, apart from the NRIs, Muzigal has native Americans enrolling to learn western instruments from Indian tutors. “That’s probably because we offer classes at a more competitive price than their local counterparts,” says Yeluri. Evidently, Muzigal has a truly global reach.

Currently, the platform facilitates the certification process through these standardised boards, where the teachers teach the curriculum that prepares learners for examination. In a step forward, Yeluri informs, Muzigal will design its own standardised curriculum and create an assessment certification programme. A structured learning experience through a standardised offline academy in every neighbourhood in India to enable music learning is Yeluri’s long term goal.

Yeluri, who hails from Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam, found it befitting to acknowledge and pay tribute to the Tamilian community by naming his platform Muzigal. “Muzigal is ‘Global academic for music Learning (GAL). I added ‘Z’ because it represents the Tamilians’ contribution to Indian music. They are the front runners and torch-bearers of classical music,” he says.

Apart from building a career opportunity, Yeluri wants to promote music education as an essential life skill for well-rounded development. “I have been a music evangelist all my life and want to promote music evangelism at a global level,” he signs off.

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