Better Piano is run by Cornell Music Academy, LLC in Denver, Colorado ("we", "us"). This page covers the Better Piano Studio at studio.betterpiano.com and our website, betterpiano.com: what we keep about you, why, and who else touches it.
The short version
- We keep your email address, your practice, and the few details the Studio needs to sign you in and keep your account safe.
- There are no passwords to steal. You sign in with a code we email you.
- We never see your payment details. Teachable handles the purchase.
- We don't sell your information, we don't show ads of our own, and we don't use advertising or tracking cookies (a video in a note plays in YouTube's own player, and only when you press play).
- We keep a simple record of how the Studio, and the tour of it on our website, get used, so we can fix what breaks and improve what helps. It deletes itself after about three months.
- Want your data gone? Email [email protected].
What we keep, and why
Your account.
- Your email address. It's how you sign in, and every record we keep for you is filed under it.
- Your kind of access (Lite, a free account, or the full Studio) and where it came from: a Better Piano System purchase, a free account, or an invitation from us. When we invite someone in directly (a beta tester, for example), we note who gave the access and when.
- When you first and last signed in, and the device you signed in from: its internet address and the name your browser gives itself. We also note the device that last saved your progress. This helps us spot someone else trying to get into your account.
- The display name you choose, your photo if you add one (or the built-in picture you pick), and whether you've joined the Practice Wall. When you add a photo, an automated check on our host's own systems (Cloudflare) looks it over before it's kept; a photo it turns down isn't kept. Your photo shows in your own menu, on the Wall to other members if you've joined, and nowhere else. Nobody ever sees your email.
Your practice.
Everything the Studio saves so your practice follows you from device to device: your daily sessions and what you checked off, your practice log and streak, saved sessions, quiz results and the questions you missed, your best scores, your course progress, your repertoire list, your Pathway answers, your lesson notes, and the look you picked for the Studio. Your lesson notes are private to you.
We keep a summary of each member's course and practice progress (which lessons were started and finished, where a video was stopped, quiz scores, practice days) alongside the totals across all members, to improve the lessons and to check in with members who have gone quiet. It is never shown to other members.
How the Studio gets used.
The Studio keeps a simple record of what happens while you use it: the pages you open, when practice starts and ends, the lessons you watch, the quizzes you finish, the buttons you press, and any error that shows up, along with the Studio version and your kind of device and browser. We use it to see which features help, where people get stuck, and what breaks. It never includes what you type, your notes, or the names of pieces you add yourself. It's filed under a random number tied to your account, not your email address. If you're not signed in, it's tied only to that one visit. It's our own record, kept with Cloudflare, not an outside analytics company, and it deletes itself after about three months.
The sheet music files the Studio hands out carry a copyright notice and a short code tied to the account they were handed to (that same random number, never your email address), and if an account or a connection downloads far more than any student would, the Studio slows it down and notes it in this record.
The tour of the Studio on betterpiano.com/studio keeps a count of its own: that a tour started and from which button, the stops it reached, whether you pressed something in it yourself, whether Full screen was used, which button ended it, and whether you went on to the shop, along with your kind of device (computer, tablet or phone). It's tied only to that one tour, never to you, your account or your browser. It uses no cookie, and it deletes itself with the rest of this record after about three months.
When you write to us.
A problem report or support message keeps what you wrote, the page you were on, your device and browser, and the Studio version, so we can find and fix what went wrong.
Live workshops.
When you save a spot in a workshop, we keep your email address with that workshop so we can send you the link and a reminder. If a workshop is full and you join the waitlist, we keep your email address with that workshop until a spot opens or the workshop ends. You can give up your spot from the page or from any of the emails. If you add a note to a workshop's agenda (a piece you'd like to play or a question), we keep it with your spot so Charles can read it before and during the session, and delete it with the session or your account.
If you save a spot without signing in, no account is made. You get the confirmation and the reminders, and that's it. Your address becomes a free account, and joins our email list, only when you sign in to the Studio with it. If you never do, we forget the signup after 90 days. Didn't ask for the email? Ignore it, or reply and we'll take you off the reminder list.
Workshops may be recorded, and replays are shared with Studio members. If you speak or play during a workshop, you may be in the replay.
Free downloads.
When you ask for a free download on one of our pages, like the 9 Pieces PDF, we keep your email address, which download you asked for, the video that sent you there (when you came through one of our links), the time, and the words the form showed you about the emails that follow. It's our own record, kept with Cloudflare, so no request gets lost if our email service has a hiccup. Then your address goes to Kit with labels for the download and where you came from, so you get the download and a few short emails about it. Every email has an unsubscribe link. The record stays while you're on our list, and goes when you ask us to delete your data.
How our free download pages get used.
Each page keeps daily counts: how many times it was opened, how many different visitors it had, and how many people signed up, by the video that sent them there. To count visitors without a cookie, our server scrambles your internet address and the name your browser gives itself together with a secret that changes every day and is never stored, so the same device counts once a day. The scrambled code is thrown away at the end of the day, and only the totals are kept. We can't tell who you are from them, and nothing is stored on your device. When you click one of our go.betterpiano.com links, we count the click for that link, and nothing about you.
On your own device.
The Studio saves your practice in your browser's own storage, so it loads fast and keeps working when your connection drops, and it remembers that you're signed in. A sign-in cookie lets betterpiano.com know you're signed in to the Studio, so you don't sign in twice. That's all the cookies do: none of them are for ads or tracking.
How long we keep it
- Your account and your saved practice stay until you ask us to delete them. When we delete an account, we keep a small note of the address and the date for 90 days, so that a device still signed in to it is signed out instead of saving your old practice back. Then the note deletes itself.
- Sign-in codes expire after 10 minutes. The counters that stop anyone from flooding an address with codes clear within two days. A check that an email isn't a member is forgotten after an hour. A deleted lesson note leaves a small marker for 180 days so your other devices know to delete it too.
- Every day we copy the account and saved-progress records (with your Practice Wall entry, your workshop sign-ups, your free download requests, and the problem reports and support messages you send) to private, locked storage, in case something ever goes wrong. Each day's copy is kept for 30 days, then deleted. So after we delete your data, it can still sit in a backup for up to 30 days before it ages out.
- The record of how the Studio gets used deletes itself after about three months.
The services we use
A few companies help us run Better Piano. Each gets only what its job needs.
- Teachable runs our store, including checkout and payment. When you sign in, the Studio asks Teachable whether your email bought the Better Piano System. We never see your card details.
- Kit holds our email list. If you bought the course or joined the list, Kit already has your address. When you sign in, the Studio checks Kit for your purchase and notes that you've started using the Studio. When you make a free account or join a workshop, your address goes to Kit with a few labels that help us send the right emails (free account, your Pathway level and goals, your next unit, workshops). If you get the weekly repertoire email, Kit also receives what that email shows: a few pieces from your list, with their composers, genres and when you last played them. Every email from Kit has an unsubscribe link.
- Resend delivers the Studio's own emails: sign-in codes, workshop confirmations and reminders, support messages, and a short note when you've been away from the Studio for a couple of weeks, naming the lesson you were on. It keeps a delivery log.
- Cloudflare hosts the Studio and the website, protects them from attacks, streams the lesson videos, and keeps the Studio's usage record. Like any host, it logs requests (your internet address, your browser, the page).
- The human check. When you ask for a sign-in code, link a second purchase email, or send a support message or save a workshop spot without signing in, or ask for a free download, Cloudflare Turnstile checks that you're a person and not a bot. For almost everyone it's invisible. It looks at your browser and connection, never at what you typed.
- The AI placement. If you tell us about your musical experience in the Pathway quiz, we send those words, with your quiz answers, to an AI service once to place you; the reply is kept with your Pathway, the words are not used for anything else, and you can run the quiz again without them.
- Google Fonts. betterpiano.com loads its fonts from Google, which sees your internet address when it does.
- YouTube plays the videos in our notes. Until you press play, a note shows only a still picture we keep ourselves, and nothing is sent to YouTube. When you press play, the video loads from YouTube's privacy-enhanced address (youtube-nocookie.com). From then on YouTube receives what any video player does, like your internet address and your browser, and it may play its own ads and store its own cookies, under Google's privacy policy.
What we never do
- Sell or rent your information.
- Show ads of our own, or let advertisers track you on our pages. (A note's video plays in YouTube's own player, only when you press play: see YouTube above.)
- Keep passwords (there aren't any) or payment details.
- Show your email to other members.
Kids
The Studio is made for all ages. If your child is under 13, please set up the account with your own email and use it together. You're the account holder, and anything about the account comes from you.
Your choices
- See your data. Most of it is right there in the Studio. For a copy of everything we keep about you, email us.
- Delete it. Email [email protected] from the address on the account. We'll delete your account, your saved practice and your notes, your workshop signups and your messages to us, remove you from our email list, cut the tie between you and the record of how you used the Studio, and let you know when it's done.
- Stop emails. Use the unsubscribe link in any list email, the link at the bottom of a note about being away, or reply to a workshop reminder to come off that list.
- Clear a device. Signing out of the Studio leaves your practice on that device for when you come back. The Membership and sync panel has a second choice that removes it from the device.
Changes
When this page changes, we'll update the date at the top. For anything big, we'll email members first.
Contact
[email protected]
Cornell Music Academy, LLC, 1500 N Grant St, Ste N, Denver, CO 80203
