ArtistWorks Reviews 

Applied to them re a severe health issue and it was dealt with promptly and without hassle. I had posted a slightly critical review as I had received no communication or resolution . It turned out the matter was resolved just that they hadn't sent me an email to inform me but any of us can make a mistake. Thank you ArtistWorks

Video exchanges do not get responses for many weeks, even months.
That is unacceptable given that this is supposed to be the big differentiator and the thing they hang their advertising flag on.
Nah, there are better sites with a lot more quality content. Jamplay and Truefire are better.

DO NOT .... say it with me - DO NOT TRY ARTISTWORKS. My son submitted a video for review and it took months to get feedback. After that experience, he never login again. I got charged without using the service for at least 9 months. I've subscribed to other services before and with a phone call or email, I was able to get my money back with not using the service. I lost $279.99 of my hard earn money as they charged my card without my permissions.

The teachers are good but on the other hand for anyone who would like to subscribe, you must be careful because after 3 months the subscription will be renewed automatically if you do not desactivate it and it is very disappointing because if you do not read the terms and conditions where it is mentioned that it will be renewed. It's unpleasant to go through this situation when you're a musician and during the pandemic it's very difficult for all of us and the $ 105.00 hurts my wallet. For this reason I award one star. Be vigilant. I only have social networks to make myself heard.
Greetings

The course was good, but I quickly lost interest, until I saw a $180 charge to my credit card months later. Then I saw "In order to keep you learning without interruption, all of our subscriptions are set to renew automatically." And they won't give me a refund even though I haven't used the service in months. I'm a big boy, I can decide whether or not to renew when that time comes without such a disingenuous practice. Obviously they hope get nail people for one more subscription cycle to milk us for all they can.

It's been three weeks and I still haven't received a response to my video submission. If they are selling plans with x amount of video reviews in x months, then this is false advertising if responses are not given to videos. I find this deceptive advertising. They say in response that the artist is busy. Maybe this should be advertised that responses can be weeks on end. I would not have joined had I known this. Getting a response so late (I haven't even gotten a response) isn't helpful. Also, nobody from artistworks responds to comments and questions are not answered by the instructor.

Although the instructor was good, there have been times I've received no response to my video submission at all.

I submitted a video 17 days before my membership lapsed. A response arrived less than four hours before the subscription ended. Since it was New Year's Eve, I was away from my computer. So I can't see this reply without renewing. Customer service has not replied to my two messages.

I've been unable to use my artistworks account due to medical reasons & completely forgot about the renewal policy. I can understand needing to have some sort of policy for this, but you're well off enough to just look at the actual user login status to see if someone hasn't been able to use the services paid for initially. This is what other companies, like Hulu or Sling, do when a customer asks for a refund to an autopay charge. It isn't too hard to look and see when someone has last logged in & seems like a good way to take care of customers you want to return when they are able.
To then charge us for an additional full year price without an email regarding the upcoming charge is ridiculous! The fact that I haven't even gotten a response from anyone at Artistworks regarding this is also horrible. I've gotten a boatload of emails stating the 50% HOLIDAY50, but I can't even seen to get my 50% back & instead have been charged $297 for a year that I can afford or use.

The best part about artistworks is the video exchange program where you can send in videos and have top world class musicians give you tips. That part is amazing.

The worst part about artistworks is the interface. Bugs, bugs, bugs that never get fixed.

If you can live with receiving email notifications on forum posts that you have a reply, then get directed to 'page not found', and you're able to over look the buffering videos, and broken search system and other weird quirks that happen while you're trying to use the site, then maybe you'll be ok.

Still worth it for the instructor feedback, just wish their development team was world class like their instructors are.

I am currently taking the Blues guitar course and the quality of the instructor (Keith Wyatt) is fantastic. He really explains the material clearly, I send him a video of what I'm working on and his response puts me on the right path to improve. I was notified they're updating the site. As far as billing, I was given a three month plan for Father's day and about a month in I realized I was going to renew and I purchased a 1 year plan. We'll see if get the rest of my three month plan. My sister in law is learning the bass, when I saw who the rock teacher was (Nathan East!) I got her a 3 month plan.

Here’s the thing: if you told me I had to take my banjo, walk out to a crossroads in the middle of nowhere and make a deal with the Evil One to get lessons with Noam Pikelny, I would totally do it. Personally, I don’t care if ArtistWorks’ website is clunky, I don’t care if their customer service is erratic, I’m not even that bothered about the money. The precision and detail of feedback in the video exchanges is superb, far better than anything I could get from the teachers available where I live. I have no idea what the other ArtistWorks classes are like, but this one is worth it.

Don't get wrong other's complaints about Artistworks. People who have trouble with automatic renewal, must be very upset so they can't give 5 star here. Regardless their service and renewal system, lesson and contents are great. I took several online courses and I found AW contents are good enough. Basic courses are good too if you are beginner even though you can learn somewhere else. Watching famous artist lesson is extraordinary learning experience. As long as you can handle cancellation, it is worth to take classes here.

I was really interested in subscribing for the drumset 6 month plan. It seemed to be an excellent offer for getting feedback from such renowed artist, but after reading all those negative reviews about the auto-renew system and the fact I didn't find on their page any guarantee of a prompt response from the teacher to video submissions I'm not comfortable trusting in AW terms of use.

Renew policy. Artistworks, it seems you've had multiple users with similar negative experiences due to the autorenewal aspect of your business practice. I am among those customers that received an unexpected renewal last week. Yes yes, your customer relations remind us we checked a box during signup when our minds were made up to tryout your service over others. It really is unfortunate because the service can be great for learning a new instrument and I would have considered that again in the future. That's unlikely to happen now and instead it has me writing a negative review.

As others have mention the user interface could really use improvements to make the website easier to navigate.

Video lessons were fine. (banjo with Noem)

Artistworks please reconsider your auto subscription. An unexpected charge can be really detrimental to your customers during times of financial hardship.

They renewed my subscription after I canceled it.

I am enrolled on the Tony Trishka Banjo course and as far as the content and his teaching I have no complaints but my experience was married by the fact that I also had my subscription auto renewed even though I had turned it off and already had an additional annual subscription sat waiting on my account which I had purchased on a special offer. I contacted Artistworks who responded quickly and promised me a refund so initially I wasn't too worried. I did have to wait 3 weeks for it to be returned which wasn't great and when it did arrive back there was a shortfall of £14.52 due to PayPal fees and currency conversion so I contacted Richard as he suggested in his response below and sure enough he sent me extra money to cover the difference. Thank you Richard for resolving the issue and restoring my confidence in Artistworks. Now I can get back to concentrating on trying to learn the banjo....which i would definitely recommend to anyone who fancies having a go!!!

I've been a member of Artistworks for about 5 years, maybe more, and the lessons I receive from Paul Gilbert are superb. There's an enormous amount of high quality content - I think Paul has done something like 9000 personal video responses since starting his online school - and it's definitely improved my playing.

IME the customer service is generally pretty good and responsive these days. Earlier on that was not the case but the last few times I’ve needed to contact them they were helpful and quick to resolve issues.

The website however is truly horrid, it’s the sort of thing we used to see on the Internet 15 or even 20 years ago, it really is that bad. It's awful to use and I find myself logging on less and less as time goes by due to the sluggish performance and poor layout. When my sub runs out this year I won't renew it, which is a shame as I made a lot of good friends there, but the website just drags the whole experience down and you can do so much better online nowadays.

And on the auto-renew point that others mention, I too have experienced auto-renew getting turned on when I have turned it off. It's a dodgy practice because here in the EU, they should notify us if they are going to automatically take another payment and they do not do this, so be aware.

Also, if you buy renewals using the frequent offers Artistworks have, they don't get automatically added to the end of the current sub, they start right away, so you end up getting double charged and the sub still ending at the same time! If you raise a helpdesk ticket Artistworks will align the new sub correctly, but because the site is so intuitive you are not likely to notice this unless you are aware. I don't think this is a deliberate ruse from Artistworks, it's just they seem so technically incompetent they have not coded the billing part of the website correctly.

So yes, the content is strong - certainly from my experience of Paul’s school - but the website is just broken and missing features that are de rigeur in our connected information era. Many of us feel this way and do report problems and make suggestions for improvement, but I guess Artistworks don't want to invest in overhauling the site.

I recommend anyone who has the time and money to try artistworks out, especially if you are a beginner for your instrument. The curriculum they provide is about as good as it gets I imagine, and I've honestly learned more through this website than I have with private lessons. The artists (Noam Pikelny in my case) do really care about helping you improve through the video exchanges. The only reason I took one star away is because the website itself you are given access to when you start your lessons is clunky, kinda difficult to navigate, and slightly buggy.

I've been enrolled in Artistworks for about five years now, taking Dobro and lapsteel lessons from Andy Hall. It is totally top notch on all counts. Andy's video lessons go through everything you need to know from being a complete beginner to being a pretty advanced player. They are easy to understand and give you a good progression through skill levels. What really shines, though, are the video exchanges. I've done about 30 of them and watched countless numbers of them from other students. Andy always zeroes in on exactly what you need to do to improve and gives you specific advice on what to do next. He doesn't just give you a perfunctory spiel, but instead really tries to get to the bottom of what you in particular need in order to move to the next level. I'd recommend Andy's artistworks school without hesitation, both for Dobro and for lapsteel.

As an adult beginner, I am quite disappointed in the Christie Peery course on Artistworks. Basically, Artistworks gives you access to videos from Christie Peery's piano course for children. The videos and exercises were clearly designed specifically for children, with supervision by their parents. Before starting actual instruction, there are about a dozen videos going over various aspects and rules (she's very into rules) for the course -- practice sheets with stars, workbooks, etc. Except for one brief video addressed to adult learners, all the videos are tailored to children and their parents. It was frustrating to spend time watching all these videos, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything important. I was excited to FINALLY begin actual instruction. But, I was once again disappointed when the first "Muscular" video referenced materials (which I subsequently found on the Artistworks site) to begin learning musical notes and finger positions. They are worksheets at kindergarten level, directing students to find Baby C, Doggie D, and Bumble Bee on the keyboard and to draw the characters in on a worksheet. Likewise, the first "Practical" lesson directs students to use a piano instruction book (Celebrate Piano!), whose description on Amazon makes clear that it is for young students. A significant portion of the videos is also addressed to parents, directing them how to practice with their young children. I think it is great that Christie Peery has developed an effective method for young piano learners and their parents. My objection is to this method being passed off as a $35 a month online course geared toward adults on Artistworks. When I first researched the course, I saw that Christie Peery also had her own website with a video program geared toward kids, but I wrongly assumed that the offering on Artistworks would be different and would be suitable for adult learners because it was being offered to adults. Artistworks should make very clear that the Christie Peery course is a program designed for young children. This is not how I, or most adults, learn best -- I need more context and more analytics, and the pace is just too slow. I have now found FREE videos geared toward adults on Steeplechasemusic, which are much more useful and also have an inexpensive accompanying textbook. I will be trying to get my money back from Artistworks ($105 for three months, which was the minimum package). However, based on the experience of people in the reviews above, I don't have high hopes. So, instead, I will warn others not to purchase the course unless what they really want is a course geared toward young children.