Gone are the days when lessons had to be physical. Thanks to the present technology since students can now access virtual classes more than ever. Alain Merville launched YousicPlay in 2019.
The founder and CEO of Yousicplay.com is the ambitious, skilled black entrepreneur sending a new wave across the music e-learning tide. The website gives music students access to the best musicians in the world and top-notch courses.
Starting Piano Lessons At 14
Alain Merville is an immigrant from Haiti. He moved to the United States when he was only 7. None of Alain’s family members had a music background. However, he started taking piano lessons at the age of 14.
Excited and eager to learn, Alain successfully learned the musical instrument for a year. At 15, he started playing gigs in New York. After high school, he attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The talented entrepreneur continued to refine his musical skills.
While he was a student there, he worked as a musical director for artists in NY. Also, he arranged and produced music for them. As the passion kept growing, he began posting videos of himself playing the piano and explaining the various concepts on Youtube.
The Eureka Moment for Alain
Soon after Alain started posting his videos, a Gospel Piano e-Learning platform discovered his work and invited him to feature in one of their courses. The project’s release gave him notoriety in the gospel keyboard world which then propelled him to giving piano lessons via Skype.
In 2015, he started his first company Nate Bash Band, named after his son, Nathan. The live music entertainment company provided live music for weddings, corporate events, college parties, among others.
During the second year of running it, he created the first online piano instructional course. Though it cost him $1,500 to make, the course generated over $50k in a few months, with less than $7k in paid marketing. That was the eureka moment that sparked the idea of YousicPlay.
The Success of YousicPlay
Thanks to the earnings he was getting from Nate Bash Band and other sources, Alain funded the website. In 2019, he was able to record the first online course for the site. The following year in January, YousicPlay launched its first course. Alain dropped everything else and made it his primary source of income.
The team has now expanded to onboarding a COO, CTO, in-house video editors, graphic designers, admins, and marketing team. The company has also secured a seed round of funding and on-boarded Grammy-winning world-class instructors like Ne-Yo and is ready to use this momentum to scale and disrupt the entire e-learning industry.
Conclusion
With passion, will, and skill, you can make anything possible. Such is the epic tale of Alain Merville, the ambitious and skilled entrepreneur ready to help music students and leave a legacy in the music e-learning sector.
