Music Lessons ROI: Is the Investment Actually Worth It?

By ABC Academy of Music teaching team · Updated August 2026

Parents ask us this in a dozen different ways: “Is this actually worth the money?” It is a fair question. Music lessons cost real money and real time, every week, for years. Our article on what music lessons cost covers prices. This article covers something different: value. What do parents and researchers actually find when they try to measure whether the investment pays off? See our full Music Education Research hub for every study behind our program.

What Parents Say the Value Is

A large US survey, run by the NAMM Foundation in 2015, asked 800 parents and 1,000 teachers directly about the value of music education. Most parents did not treat it as a nice extra. 64% of parents rated music and arts education “extremely important” or “very important” for their kids. 81% of parents believed children should get the chance to learn an instrument as early as elementary school. 73% of parents said cutting music programs actually hurts students.

A survey like this cannot prove music lessons pay off. It can only show what parents believe, after living through the experience themselves. But that belief is strong, consistent, and not a small minority view. Most parents who have already paid for lessons do not regret it.

A Rare Attempt to Put a Real Dollar Number on It

Almost no research tries to measure a financial return on music lessons directly. One small US study did. Researchers at two state universities surveyed 126 music students. They asked two things. How much did each family spend on private lessons before college? How much college scholarship money did the student later receive for music?

The result was a real, measurable number. Each $1 a family spent on private lessons before college linked to about $0.11 in music-merit scholarship money, in the student’s first year alone. That link held up even after the researchers controlled for parent income and parent education. It also held up after controlling for whether a parent was a musician. It was not just wealthier, more musical families getting bigger scholarships.

What one small study found: about $0.11 in first-year scholarship money for every $1 spent on private lessons before college, in a US pilot study of 126 music students — a modest return the researchers themselves called too premature to call “worth it” on financial grounds alone.

This number deserves an honest caveat, and the researchers gave one themselves. The study was small, just 126 students at two universities. It relied on students remembering and self-reporting their own family’s spending. It only measured a short-term financial return, not a lifetime one. It says nothing about students who never pursued a music scholarship at all. The researchers were blunt. It may be premature to call an 11-cent return “worth it” on financial grounds alone.

The Value Research Often Misses: Confidence and Follow-Through

Most of what parents actually get out of music lessons is not a scholarship check. It is something harder to put a number on. A 2022 study from China tried anyway, surveying 319 students in music education programs. Researchers measured whether music education linked to two specific traits. One was self-efficacy: a student’s belief that they can follow through on a hard task. The other was self-esteem.

Both traits showed a real, statistically significant link to music education. Self-efficacy and self-esteem then linked, in turn, to better overall wellbeing and stronger academic performance. In plain terms, the students in this study were not just learning music. They were also building confidence and follow-through. That confidence carried over into how they did in school, and how they felt overall.

This is one study, from one country, using self-reported survey data. It cannot prove music lessons alone build these traits. But it lines up with something the scholarship researchers above also noticed. When they asked music students directly about costs and benefits, many brought up this kind of value on their own. Some described lessons as something that “pays off in the long run,” separate from any dollar figure.

What This Adds Up To

There is no single number that proves music lessons are “worth it.” What exists instead is a consistent pattern across different kinds of evidence. Most parents who have paid for lessons rate the value highly, in a large US survey. One rare attempt to measure a direct financial return found a real, if modest, scholarship payoff. Separate research links music education to confidence and follow-through, traits that carry into school and daily life. None of this is a guarantee for any one child. But taken together, it is a more honest answer than either “yes, obviously” or “no, it’s just a cost.” For related outcomes, see our pieces on music lessons and life skills and music lessons and discipline.

Music Lessons at ABC Academy of Music

We think parents deserve real numbers, not just a sales pitch, when weighing this decision. The research above points to genuine value in music lessons, in confidence, follow-through, and in some cases real financial return, alongside a real cost. ABC Academy of Music offers piano, guitar, voice, drums, and our Music Together® program across our Toronto-area locations. Visit our rates and payment page for current pricing, browse our class schedule, or contact us to talk through whether lessons make sense for your family.