Savvy Musician Academy Review 2024 – Can Leah McHenry’s Courses Help Your Music Career?

In this hands on review, we’re going to be looking at Leah McHenry’s Savvy Musician Academy.

The Savvy Musician Academy is a platform by Leah McHenry that provides premium music business education for musicians wanting to go pro. They do this via their various courses, such as The Online Musician 3.0, Spotify For Musicians, Superfan System Elite and more.

This is a hands-on review, so we’ll be considering the specific content offered and its promise, the price point, the format of the course, how it’s delivered, and more.

And we’re also going to be looking at the site/business and its components.

Of course, we’ll weigh in with our verdict at the end.

So, let’s have a look inside Savvy Musician Academy. To start things off, let’s examine what Savvy Musician Academy is and what’s available on their website.

What Is Savvy Musician Academy & What Do They Offer? Overview

There’s a good chance you’ve heard of Savvy Musician Academy or Leah McHenry already. They regularly run social media ads promoting their products (Facebook especially) and are actively targeting musicians looking for training and coaching to take their careers beyond.

They also offer a lot of good training on becoming a more successful and savvy musician.

Leah McHenry is the “face” of the business, and typically appears in their ads (photos, videos, or otherwise).

The website started simply enough and was originally a small site home to a few “minimally viable” training programs. Of course, over time, the site has grown, and it now offers considerably more than when it started out, with relatively comprehensive programs for musicians looking to build their careers online.

As with most sites of its kind, you can find both a fast-growing blog and podcast, covering various topics of interest to musicians, such as mistakes musicians make online, three things you need to get more fans, top 10 social media tools, and the like.

The podcast features a mix of solo episodes via Leah McHenry, and interviews with musicians and music business experts.

The site is also chock full of success stories, mostly from musicians who’ve been part of McHenry’s training programs.

Of course, the focus of the site is the products (courses, coaching and training programs, memberships, etc.), which we'll be diving into momentarily.

We’ll also be looking at who Leah McHenry is and what she’s been able to accomplish in more detail a little later, as she is the main instructor.

First, here’s a summary of what you’ll find on the site.

Blog

Savvy Musician Academy offers plenty of free, blog posts full of personal stories, bullet points, action steps, and more.

Some are more detailed than others, but you can read most in a matter of minutes.

Topics covered include (but are not limited to):

• Facebook and social media
• Tools for musicians
• Building a fan base (in different geographic regions)
• Student case studies/testimonials
• File sharing

Podcast

Savvy Musician Academy is home to the free Savvy Musician Show with Leah McHenry, focused on music marketing, social media, advertising, launches, crowdfunding, and more.

Some of the recent episodes cover music marketing without paid advertising, social media, interviews (with the likes of Steve Harnett, Amy Roy, Anna Brzozowska, and others), and so on.

The podcast is available most places you would expect to find it, including iTunes.

Success Stories

Savvy Musician Academy has case studies and testimonials from musicians of all kinds. Readers are encouraged to find testimonials from musicians just like them, to get a better sense of what’s possible, regardless of what situation they might currently be in.

They’ve organized testimonials by musicians who’ve been in the industry for a long time, those who don’t have much money to invest in themselves, artists who want to learn but don’t have time to dedicate to it right now, and so on.

A surface level glance into their testimonials show that various musicians have been able to achieve results both small and large, depending on what they were looking to accomplish, as well as what stage of their career they were in.

If you’re curious, you can certainly explore the success stories for yourself.

Products

The products are the centerpiece of Savvy Musician Academy, and primarily focus on the same things covered on the blog and podcast – streaming, music marketing, social media, niche marketing, and the like.

Of course, by design, the courses are more comprehensive than the blog posts and podcasts and offer a detailed look into how to succeed as a musician online.

This is what we’re going to be looking at now, so let’s get into it.

Offers Available At Savvy Musician Academy

Savvy Musician Academy is home to several courses/programs/memberships, and we’ll be getting into each in a moment.

Here’s an overview of the main offers available:

• The Online Musician 3.0
• Spotify For Musicians
• Superfan System Elite
• Savvy Musician Inner Circle

These offers are updated periodically. Some are always available, while others occasionally close and open to allow new buyers and/or members in.

Aim Of The Courses

In this section, we’re going to be looking at what each course or membership claims to help the user accomplish.

We won’t be sharing our opinion on any of the courses here (that comes later). We’ll just be looking at their promise for now.

Let’s start with The Online Musician 3.0.

The Online Musician 3.0

The Online Musician 3.0 is basically exactly as it sounds. Its focus is on helping you build an online music career, and it assists you in accomplishing this in eight weeks or less.

Even though this is premium training, they also offer some exclusive free training around this subject as well which you'll likely find useful.

As an independent artist, you might assume you’d need to get signed to a label, spend a bunch of money on advertising, or grind it out on tour to build a successful online music career.

But this simply isn’t the case anymore, and this course claims to help musicians make a full-time living with their online presence, exactly as Leah McHenry has done (more on that later).

This course also helps you:

• Get clarity on your goals and how long it will take you to accomplish them.
• Build your brand to attract your ideal fan base.
• Get a handle on the tech side of things with simple tutorials.
• Achieve all the above with support from staff, coaches, and community.

And here’s a rundown of the modules offered:

• The Success Mindset
• Discover Your Micro-Niche: The Key To Differentiation
• Building Culture Around Your Music
• Get Your Branding Right!
• Build An Amazing World-Class Website (Or Makeover!)
• Your Social Media Marketing Plan – That Doesn’t Suck!
• Building Multiple Streams Of Income You Can Live Off Of!
• Bonus: Create Your Album & Easy Project Management
• Bonus: Launching Your Music Online The Smart Way
• Bonus: An Entire Module Filled With Tips & Golden Gems To Help You Succeed!
• Bonus: Private Student Mastermind

This is the most “complete” course Savvy Musician Academy offers and should be considered their flagship course.

We look at this course in more detail in this review.

Spotify For Musicians

Spotify For Musicians focuses on helping you drive income from the most popular music streaming platform, Spotify. Although there are many music streaming platforms out there, Spotify is top of mind for most musicians.

This course comes with 16 step-by-step video lessons, spreadsheets, resources, systems to help you track your progress, and a private Facebook Group for support and advice.

From claiming your Spotify profile to submitting your songs to editorial playlists, this course offers numerous resources that help you become better acquainted with using and earning from Spotify.

Superfan System Elite

The Superfan System Elite focuses on attracting, building, and converting fans.

Most musicians tend to think of this as a hands-on process, requiring many hours each day to manage. This system teaches you how to automate the entire process.

Modules include:

• Mindset & Business Plan
• Artist Identity Infrastructure
• Your High-Converting Website!
• Your High-Converting Shop!
• Funnel #1 – List Building!
• Funnel #2 – The eCom Blitz!
• Funnel #3 – Your Launch Funnel!
• Bonus lessons on copywriting, holiday promotion training, hot seats, and more

The Superfan System Elite is closed for the summer and cannot be purchased as of this writing.

Savvy Musician Inner Circle

The Savvy Musician Inner Circle is a membership giving you access to:

• Four live videos each month with Q&A
• News and updates
• Marketing and social media tips
• Marketing and social media tools
• Student spotlights
• Mindset and motivation
• Feedback and answers
• Community

Price Of The Course

As you’ve already seen, Savvy Musician Academy has several offerings, and each offer has a different cost attached to it. So, let’s look at each program in isolation.

Here’s the breakdown:

The Online Musician 3.0

The Online Musician 3.0 costs $1,997.

Savvy Musician Academy offers payment plans, so when purchasing this course, you can choose from three payment options:

• One payment of $1,997
• Four monthly payments of $517
• 13 monthly payments of $167

Spotify For Musicians

Spotify For Musicians costs $98.50.

Superfan System Elite

You can get access to Superfan System Elite for 12 monthly payments of $197 ($2,364 total).

Savvy Musician Inner Circle

The Savvy Musician Inner Circle private membership coaching group costs $27 per month.

Who Teaches The Course?

Leah McHerny is the clear “face of the business” and instructor for Savvy Musician Academy’s training programs. If you’ve seen social media ads for Savvy Musician Academy, there’s a good chance you’ve seen her face already.

McHenry started in music much as most musicians do, excited about the possibilities of a thriving career.

But in her own words, she went about it “backwards”. Starting a family early meant that she couldn’t tour, and as we all know, touring represents a major income source for most musicians. Despite that, she was determined to figure out a way to make it all work.

She stumbled through a figurative field of landmines as every musician does, as they look to build relationships with gatekeepers, seek representation, and find a way to expose their music to a larger audience.

McHenry specifically felt there was no way anyone would want to do business with a stay at home mom “passed her prime”.

So, she started studying digital marketing and business, putting one foot in front of the other. Having put in countless hours into her education, she was rewarded with a six-figure music career built entirely online.

As a mother of five, McHenry homeschools her children. She is a strong believer in niche marketing and teaches other musicians how to use this approach to grow their careers.

Chiefly, McHenry has been able to:

• Grow her Facebook page to over 120,000 followers
• Develop a fan base of tens of thousands around the world
• Release three studio albums
• Raise over $27,000 in a single crowdfunding campaign
• Earn a full-time living as a musician

Have you heard of Leah McHenry? Is she a household name? Maybe not. But this is the reality of the new music industry. There are virtual unknowns making six-figures, and the same opportunity is available to anyone with access to the internet.

What Savvy Musician Academy Represents

“Savvy Musician Academy” is a catchy name. And it instantly suggests images of a capable musician who’s calculated about their career goings on.

But the basis on which it’s built is that there has never been a better time to be an independent musician. Today, you can make a go of it without being signed to a label.

So, overall, the site is geared towards DIY, independent musicians.

The Verdict – Savvy Musician Academy Review

The Savvy Musician Academy offers a range of courses for musicians. The Online Musician is a more expensive option, but offers a full music business plan. Other courses such as Spotify For Musicians offer more niche training for musicians wanting to learn something specific.

Overall Leah and her team offer a good potential training course option for musicians. As they price themselves higher than the industry average, they won’t be for everyone. But if you have money to invest in your music business education, this might be an option for you.

So that wraps up out Savvy Musician Academy review. Have you taken one of the courses offered by them? If so I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.