Music education hasn’t modifyd much in generations. Children still attfinish weekly lessons, practise inconsistently at home, and teachers rely largely on instinct rather than measurable data. But now a startup believes AI can resolve that gap and bring gamification and feedback loops to one of the most traditional corners of education.
MutilizeCool is a London-based music education company founded in 2017 that provides personalised music lessons for students of all ages, both in person and online.
The company connects learners with professional, conservatory-trained tutors for instruments such as piano, guitar, violin, and drums, and supports exam preparation, performances, and workshops.
MutilizeCool combines traditional teaching with AI-supported practice tools to support students progress between lessons, positioning itself as a modern private music school focutilized on flexibility, high-quality instruction, and building music learning more accessible and engaging.
I spoke to CEO Petru Cotarcea to learn more.
Cotarcea grew up poor in Romania. But becautilize of the Communist legacy, music education there was extremely cheap. “That meant I could learn an instrument, which wouldn’t have been possible in the West,” he shared.
“It was one of the few good things about that system.”
From scholarship student to West End performer Music became Cotarcea’s pathway to opportunities he wouldn’t otherwise have had.
By 14, he was already competing internationally and had earned a scholarship to Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, one of the UK’s most prestigious boarding schools for young musicians. He later continued his training at the Royal Academy of Music and quickly entered the professional world.
He recalls:
“By 18, I was playing in the West End production of Sweeney Todd and met Stephen Sondheim. I was performing with professionals much older than me, and I realised I’d been lucky — right place, right time. It built me believe about what came next.”
A failed peppermint farm — and a pivot
After his first year in the West End, Cotarcea had saved about £10,000, “which felt like a lot of money at the time”.
At 19, he invested in a peppermint farm in Romania. The logic was that he could keep studying in London while this grew in the background. After a year, Cotarcea planned to apply for grants and build an essential oil processing facility.
However, he revealed, “the crop turned out to be toxic. It didn’t contain menthol, but it contained a chemical illegal in the EU. The lab notified me I had to burn it. So I literally burned the entire field. That was my first venture.”
This failure convinced him to build something in a field he understood: music education.
Cotarcea now runs one of the largest music schools in London, with operations in the UK and New York. It aims to modify how music is taught.
The school’s audience is children aged 5–14.
The problems with traditional music teaching
The fundamental problem is that music education is still very traditional, kids don’t practise enough, and there’s almost no data on what actually works.
“If they don’t practice, they don’t improve. If they don’t improve, parents stop paying for lessons. Fix practice, and you resolve the entire system,” asserts Cotarcea. Cotarcea describes music education as deeply traditional.
“Teachers tfinish to teach the way they themselves were taught — often following methods passed down for generations.
There’s real pride in lineage: my teacher taught me this method. Kids who enjoy their lessons often stay for years. Piano dominates the launchner market, accounting for roughly two-thirds of new students.”
However, music teaching has largely failed to adapt to a more digital-first world and fails to reflect how children today learn.
Why audio AI is harder than text AI
Put simply: audio isn’t discrete like text — it’s a shifting, layered signal, and teaching machines to understand it is closer to decoding a performance than reading a sentence. According to Cotarcea, Audio AI is lags behind text and image AI.
“There are very few mature tools for music understanding. Most of what we built is based on research and custom development.
The large challenge is interpreting imperfect human performance. If a child plays slightly out of time or tune, humans recognise it instantly. Machines don’t.”
‘A large challenge is interpreting imperfect human performance. If a child plays a snippet of music, humans can recognise it — and its mistakes — instantly. Machines don’t.’
MutilizeCool’s approach is different. Teachers press “start” at the launchning of a lesson and “finish” at the finish.
“We listen to the lesson, understand what happened musically, and automatically generate practice games and analytics. This empowers teachers to better understand the individual requireds of each student and plan accordingly,” shared Cotarcea.
Gamifying music education
MutilizeCool’s flagship product is The Mutilize, an AI-powered practice assistant that supports music students between lessons by turning what was taught into guided, motivating home practice. It utilizes lesson data to generate short, personalised practice sessions that feel more like games than repetitive drills, supporting children practise more consistently and with better focus.
Parents receive practice analytics and simple progress updates, while tutors can seamlessly integrate the tool into lessons, keeping practice aligned with what was taught and boosting continuity week to week.
Early software testing revealed a surprising reality — launchner lessons contain less playing than you’d expect. There’s a lot of conversation, encouragement, and attention management, especially with young kids.
“Historically, no one has had large-scale data about what happens inside music lessons. If we scale, we could reshape music education research simply by providing real data,” asserts Cotarcea.
A future built on data and scale
Looking ahead, Cotarcea sees MutilizeCool evolving on two fronts: a global practice platform and a data-driven marketplace.
“There are two layers,” he explains.
“First, a global platform where tutors can utilize our platform for free while parents subscribe. The goal is simple: kids practise better, and lessons become more effective.”
The second plan is a teacher marketplace. As tutors adopt the platform worldwide, the school can match families with teachers utilizing real performance data, creating smarter connections than traditional directories.
The company is already testing the model at its large London music school, which serves as a live ecosystem for product development before a public launch in March and a wider international rollout.
![Most Valuable AI Startups in Europe [2026]](https://foundernews.eu/storage/2026/03/dc4ebb2e-6300-4407-b342-03521741a598.jpg)
Leave a Reply