Yousician Secures $28 Million to Expand Music Education Access

Chris Thür, the founder of a music education company, acknowledges he didn’t initially appear to be the typical candidate to lead such a venture.

Thür, formerly a laser researcher, remembers a meeting with a potential investor. The investor questioned whether he and co-founder Mikko Kaipainen, an electrical engineer, possessed the qualifications of music educators or musicians. They consistently had to confirm they did not.

The Genesis of Yousician

“We simply desired to learn an instrument and felt a significant opportunity was being missed,” Thür explained. “It quickly became apparent we weren’t alone in this feeling.”

Despite failing to secure investment from that particular source, Thür and Kaipainen launched Yousician. The platform now boasts 20 million monthly users across its two applications: the music education app, Yousician, and the guitar tuning app, GuitarTuna.

The Helsinki-based startup has announced a successful Series B funding round, raising $28 million.

From Ovelin to a Leading Music Platform

Thür, who serves as Yousician’s CEO, described the journey as “a considerable evolution.” The company, initially known as Ovelin, was established a decade ago. Its initial focus was solely on children, but it later achieved greater success by adopting a broader, age-neutral approach.

How Yousician Works

The Yousician app offers an interactive and gamified learning experience for guitar, piano, ukulele, bass, and singing. However, the gamification is carefully balanced.

Users progress through a structured curriculum, practicing for approximately 15 to 20 minutes daily. The app analyzes their performance, awarding a rating of one to three stars based on accuracy.

A single lesson is available daily at no cost. Access to additional lessons and the complete song library, or learning multiple instruments, requires a Premium or Premium+ subscription, starting at $19.99 per month.

Complementing Traditional Music Education

Thür emphasized that Yousician provides a flexible and affordable alternative to traditional in-person lessons. He also noted that it isn’t intended to replace music teachers.

Many educators actually recommend Yousician to their students as a supplementary tool for practice and continued learning between scheduled lessons.

User Success Stories

Thür highlighted the story of Karen Gadd, who, within a year of using Yousician, progressed from having no musical experience to performing on stage with a band. He added that the app offers benefits even for those who don’t aspire to perform publicly.

“Our goal is to make musical proficiency as widespread as literacy,” Thür stated. “Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joys of playing music. While traditional instruction is effective for some, it isn’t accessible to all.”

Impact of the Pandemic

The past year presented both challenges and opportunities. With the widespread shift to remote learning, many music lessons were disrupted.

Yousician responded by offering free Premium subscriptions to over 100,000 teachers and students, aiming to mitigate the impact of these lost learning opportunities.

Growth and Revenue

Simultaneously, the pandemic spurred increased interest in learning instruments as part of a broader trend of self-improvement. This resulted in a substantial organic increase in Yousician’s user base.

Monthly users grew from 14.5 million to 20 million, and subscriptions increased by 80%, generating $50 million in revenue last year.

Funding Details and Future Plans

Yousician has now raised a total of $35 million in funding. True Ventures led the latest round, with participation from Amazon’s Alexa Fund, MPL Ventures, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, LAUNCH Fund founder Jason Calacanis, Unity Technologies founder David Helgason, Trivago co-founder Rolf Schrömgens, Cooler Future founder Moaffak Ahmed, and Blue Bottle Coffee Company executive chairman Bryan Meehan.

“Yousician has been a leading platform for music instruction for nearly a decade, and people – now more than ever – are turning to the pursuit of creativity and music with renewed vigor,” said True Ventures co-founder Jon Callaghan. “We’re proud to support a company that brings the joy of playing an instrument into more homes.”

Thür stated that the new funding will be used to expand the team, enhance brand marketing efforts, localize the product for new markets, and forge stronger relationships with musical artists.