Udemy has massive built-in traffic but discounts courses to $10-$20 and takes up to 63% of revenue. Virgoul lets teachers set their own prices and keep far more, alongside live lessons and community.
Udemy is the world's largest online learning marketplace with over 60 million students and 210,000 courses. For music teachers building a first course, Udemy's built-in traffic is genuinely valuable — the platform's search engine and email promotions can generate sales without any marketing effort from the teacher. The cost of this traffic is significant: Udemy takes between 3 and 63 percent of each sale depending on whether the student arrived through the teacher's own marketing link or through Udemy's platform promotions.
The deeper problem is Udemy's pricing model. The platform runs almost continuous sales events where courses are discounted to $9.99 to $19.99 regardless of the teacher's listed price. This creates a race to the bottom where premium music courses sell at commodity prices. A teacher who builds a 40-hour guitar course and lists it at $197 will find that most of their Udemy sales happen during promotions at $12.99, with Udemy taking 63 percent of that reduced amount — leaving the teacher approximately $4.80 per sale.
Virgoul's course hosting works on fundamentally different economics. Teachers set their own prices without platform interference, and there are no mandatory discount events. A course priced at $97 on Virgoul sells at $97. Combined with the ability to bundle courses with live lessons — something Udemy cannot offer — Virgoul enables teachers to create higher-value offers that convert at better prices.
The trade-off is traffic. Udemy brings students to you. Virgoul requires teachers to develop their own audience or rely on Virgoul's growing community for discovery. For teachers with an existing social following or email list, Virgoul's economics are dramatically better. For teachers starting from zero with no audience, Udemy may generate first sales faster.
Virgoul lets music teachers sell courses at their own price — no mandatory discounts, no 63% platform cuts. Combine courses with live lessons for offers Udemy cannot match. Start at virgoul.com.
Join VirgoulUdemy's terms require courses to be priced at or above the Udemy price on other platforms, and they have a price matching policy. Check the current Udemy terms before dual-listing. Many teachers use Udemy for brand awareness and Virgoul for their premium course sales.
Virgoul's course discovery is growing and is music-specific — students searching for music courses on Virgoul are a targeted audience. Udemy's traffic is larger but less targeted. For teachers with an existing audience, Virgoul traffic supplements strong direct sales.
If you have no existing audience, Udemy provides faster first sales. If you have even a small social following or email list (500+ subscribers), Virgoul's economics make it the better choice from the start.