My thoughts on Beat Academy Beat Academy has been a great addition to my music production education. From the library of resources, to the remakes, to the live listening feedback sessions, and even the community feedback. I've learned a ton from Ill Factor, and really like the way he teaches, and explains what he's demonstrating. I also really appreciate his desire to raise up other producers. It has been a safe place to grow and show my work, and ask questions. I also appreciate that Beat Academy has also addressed issues like creative ruts, self esteem and rejection. It's all been really valuable information. Beat Academy is a solid resource that I reach for again and again on my production journey.

Ill Factor's Elevate program was Invaluable! Ill Factor's Elevate program was amazing! Not only did we get access to Ill Factor, but also other industry professionals that he has join. Being able to hear and see that caliber of experience, their mindsets, and approach was invaluable! I'm looking forward to the Elite program next year as well!

My experience with Beat Academy has… My experience with Beat Academy has been great! Beat Academy is a very hands on community who’s members support you by providing feedback. There are plenty of opportunities to collab along with professional syncing opportunities with some big names in the industry. We also participate in monthly calls where we can have a song played and receive live feedback from our teacher Ill Factor, a Grammy winner producer. He’s very knowledgeable about music production and shares liberally on how to improve. There are plenty of courses to take at your own pace on varies subjects too! I won a contest and free membership which was awesome! All around it’s a wonderful community to be apart of as a artist. I’m new to music production and have learned a great deal. Real opportunities. If your thinking about it, it’s DEFINITELY worth it.

Great course from start to finish Great instructor with a wealth of experience and helpful in breaking down the music making process, and getting through everything step by step. Also brought in other industry mentors. Amazing course.

Great Networking Platform First and foremost, I will speak very honest about my experience with this education site. All of my statements are in my own opinion and I will speak about the pros and cons of what I have experienced. I do not mean to praise or speak hurtful. I understand it takes a lot of hard work and effort to create such a platform. The platform is designed very well. Navigation of the website is very intuitive. There is a lot of content for educational viewing. The majority of the content is geared towards new production students. The content is delivered in a clean and highly professional manor. The material is delivered into easily digestible portions of knowledge. The topics discussed are relevant and current to the trends followed in the music industry. This platform is trying to provide 3 services. The first being music production education. The second being a place to network with other likeminded producers. The third being a location to give professional opportunities to songwriters. I’ve been producing music for about 13 years, primarily for pleasure. I have been hired by several artists to write material for their EP’s. I am by no means a great producer. My main concern with this site is that minimal content is added to the platform. I have been a member for 5 months and the “Library” content does not have any new additions. I do see “free” YouTube content regularly added posted. I do understand that the “Free” YouTube videos will provide advertising to promote the website, but this will be at the cost of students suffering. This is because the students cost of tuition is not being validated. So this is where I think, is this an educational site or a networking platform? I believe that this is a networking platform. If this was purely an educational platform there would be assignments, quizzes, daily tips, a learning path to follow, etc.… When I hire a private instructor I expect there is accountability on both parties. The teacher produces a lesson plans and provides assignments per lesson. The student is accountable for completing the work before moving on to the next lesson. To make a long story short… Watching instructional videos will not help if there is no homework for the student to build the skill set. Can you imagine taking a math class and never been given homework to verify you can do the work? Maybe in the courses, assignments are provided in each section and the students can upload it to the forum for peer review??? Then the student can have feedback on what they have learned in each lesson. Challenges are a great concept, which can help to motivate students. You may want to create challenges that are tailored to specific courses in the Beat Academy library. Like a Mixing Challenge, or a Topline writing challenge, Drum Programming challenge, Ivan provides the melody & the student creates the chord progression or bass line… This way you can focus the knowledge taught and redirect it into an assignment to validate the knowledge has been learned. There is so much knowledge to be learned to create a full compete song. These types of micro-challenges will probably help to increase the morale of your students and their skill sets. I believe Beat Academy shines as a networking platform. There are people with great personality’s as students, conversations are very tactful. Honest feedback is given on uploaded songs and WIP’s. The Live calls should occur twice per month, limited to 5-7 submissions (First Come First Serve). The process allows Ivan to listen to the entire song and provide criticism. If the song gets scrubbed through… then there is no need for professional criticism. It has already been delivered by ignoring sections of the song. This is very important to your students. I’ve been teaching guitar for more than 2 decades. If I were to leave the room during an adjudication or pick up my phone…. then the student already knows how I feel about the performance. It may be difficult to listen to a newcomer’s productions, but they are paying for your professional advice. Teachers are there for guidance & feedback; students do the real work. I hope this review helps. I think the Beat Academy is great website. I’m just confused about the websites vision. I would definitely recommend this site to new producers and to those who are looking to network with others.