tutor

music teacher

studio manager

music therapist

teacher

Stormer Music

I had the unfortunate experience of working for this company, and I would not recommend it to anyone. The upper management is completely unethical, and the company culture is toxic. 
Here are the major issues I encountered:

**1. Consistent Late Payments:**
The company has a disturbing habit of paying employees late. You can’t rely on your pay coming on time, and when you follow up, management provides vague excuses without offering any real solutions. This creates an immense amount of stress, and it’s unacceptable to treat employees this way, especially when bills and living expenses depend on you being pad for the work you do.

**2. Staff Exploitation:**
Upper management takes advantage of employees by overloading them with unrealistic expectations and workloads without adequate compensation. There is no work-life balance, and you are expected to work beyond reasonable hours without any recognition or reward. It feels like the company sees its staff as disposable, only interested in squeezing out as much as possible without considering employee well-being.

**3. Lack of Communication and Transparency:**
Communication from upper management is non-existent. Decisions are made behind closed doors with little regard for how they affect the staff. There’s a culture of secrecy, and when issues arise, management prefers to avoid accountability, rather than addressing problems head-on.

**4. Toxic Environment:**
The work culture is hostile, and many employees are constantly looking over their shoulders, worried about job security. Upper management fosters fear and micromanagement rather than support or encouragement. There’s no room for growth or advancement, and staff morale is at an all-time low.

**5. No Regard for Employee Welfare:**
There’s a clear lack of empathy for employees. Management does not listen to concerns, and when you do manage to raise an issue, it’s often dismissed or ignored. The company’s main priority seems to be their bottom line, with zero regard for the health or happiness of their workers.

Overall, this company operates in a deeply unethical manner, taking advantage of its staff for personal gain. 

If you value your time, mental health, and fair compensation, I strongly advise you to look elsewhere. Do not waste your time here

While the studio-level work is rewarding, thanks to the dedication of teachers, students, and parents, there are alarming concerns with the management and operational practices of this company.

No training is provided, with staff being left to figure out systems on their own. The only focus from upper management was on getting the sale and securing payments, there was no focus on customer service and the management showed no care for the standard of the product provided.

There were ongoing issues with delayed and incorrect payments for teachers and staff, including superannuation. These delays not only affected morale but also created significant challenges in maintaining a positive work environment. Concerns raised with head office were met with dismissive, unhelpful or no responses, further exacerbating the situation.

Contracts offered to teachers contained clauses that appeared to disadvantage their rights, raising major concerns. Prospective employees should seek independent advice before signing.

Communication from head office was consistently slow and ineffective, there were many cases of booking issues by Head office leaving staff without direction and leading to dissatisfaction among clients. These issues, combined with questionable operational practices, made it difficult to maintain trust in the company’s leadership. When raising such concerns you are shut off from communicating and management treats you with contempt.

They are only interested in creating the illusion of success through expansion and high level sponsorships rather than building an honest business culture, which is totally at odds with what the teachers and staff are creating at the studio level.

Employees and customers deserve better accountability and professionalism from management.

The management should focus on paying its staff and operating costs correctly and on time,  and treating it's staff respectfully, before expanding into new businesses and high value sponsorships that they do not have the means to fund.

A typical day as the lead teacher / studio manager involved opening the studio, checking emails, completing tasks for the studio, managing teachers and lessons and conducting one's own lessons. It was never a dull moment at the studio because there was always something to do.

I learned how to manage teachers and organise lessons. I also learned how to manage my time to ensure all tasks were completed and all lessons were conducted satisfactorily each day.

Management was the weakest aspect of the job. They were friendly and pleasant to work alongside but were often overwhelmed and disorganised. There was no formal training in the form of modules or courses - it was very much a learn-as-you-go situation. There was a distinct lack of vision for the company, as if management were constantly going through a trial-and-error process to discover what worked for them. 

The workplace culture was good. All the teachers were friendly and we all got along with each other. They would always do what needed to be done for the studio and inform me of any complications that arose with their students.

The hardest part of the job was completing all of the tasks for the studio each day while juggling lessons. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was teaching the students and getting to know the teachers. 

I’m really disappointed to be writing this review. Stormer Music doesn’t take care of its staff, no matter how much money you bring in for them.

I had to chase up wages every pay cycle—late payments were consistent.

Superannuation was late, if paid at all.

The job description doesn’t match the actual role. They throw you in the deep end with no training and expect you to grow the studio, run it, and manage sales, manage staff, all at the same time.

I felt unsupported by head office when I raised concerns about the work environment, staff behaviour, and safety.

The job description did not align with reality, as I was burdened with increasing responsibilities and roles without the promised support.

Despite bringing in new students and generating income for the company, it still wasn’t enough to ensure timely or proper payment.

Upper management does not care. They do not see it as an issue when workers are paid late or left unsupported.

Be careful of their toxic culture.

I often had to navigate unclear policies and deal with dissatisfied clients. These challenges made my time at Stormer Music incredibly difficult. Based on my experience, I do not recommend working here. Save yourself the stress! 


I have been teaching at Blaxland studio for a few years now and am very happy with the experience. There are problems from time to time of course but generally the admins have been really good and supporting the team. Even when the adminsare new and need to work hard to improve their skill, the head office always seems to pick someone that really cares about the team and students so I always feel like things will work out fine.  I earn pretty good money and the other schools sometimes offer me extra cover days if one of their teachers is away or if they need a hand with events and stuff as well so that's handy especially around Christmas. I also share my room with only one teacher so thats cool too. Sometimes its a bit slow to get a new student when one stops but I think thats probably because of the community size.

I worked for Stormer Music for over a year and the people in the studio with me were fantastic. I learnt so much about tutoring and the music industry from every single member of the team. This is probably the only nice thing I can say about Stormer Music.

The Higher Ups are completely out of touch and are willing to do anything to save a couple dollars including completely screw over the people running each of their locations. The simple fact that they weren't willing to supply a piano for each of the practice rooms says enough, as they also own a music store and could've easily sorted something out for the betterment of the teachers.

If it weren't for the kids who had already gotten attached to me I would've left much sooner. The business needs a serious remodelling as where they are now would make it extremely difficult to keep both teachers and students at every single one of their facilities.

Work days are fast paced, but teaching is really rewarding and it's a nurturing environment that encourages personal and professional growth. The way that schedules are arranged has helped my engagement with time management and workplace communication capabilities. The management works hard to facilitate the smooth functioning of the company, and as a teacher, I find it really stress-relieving to have someone else in charge of admin. The workplace culture is lively and supportive, and while it can be challenging to work with students from a wide variety of backgrounds and needs, being allowed to guide someone through their developing musical journey brings me great joy.

I worked with Stormer Music as a contractor and, honestly, it wasn’t a great experience. 

I had a lot of trouble getting paid for the lessons I taught, and after talking to other teachers, it turns out I wasn’t the only one. Quite a few of us had the same issue.

The students were awesome and the actual teaching side was enjoyable, but the way the business handles payments and admin was really frustrating. Communication was disgusting, and getting answers or support took way too long - it it occurred at all.

If you're thinking about working with them, I’d strongly suggest getting everything in writing—especially payment terms—and maybe chat with a few other teachers first to see how their experience has been.

Just sharing this to hopefully help others avoid the same situation.

This has been by far the best job I've ever had - the team are comprised of creative, innovative, passionate people. The owners are wonderful and have helped me grow so much during the duration of my employment. I have felt more valued here than anywhere else previously and I never want to work anywhere else. I've worked towards specialisation in my area of interest outside my original role and been given the opportunity not only to advance my position, but to actively shape my role. Its hard work, but incredibly, incredibly rewarding and the team all work together to support one another. The owners are compassionate, hard working and genuine and this reflects really strongly in the workplace culture. I feel privileged to be here and wish more people had the opportunity to work for employers like Stormer Music. :) 

I had an extremely poor experience working for Stormer Music. After I left my job as a teacher, Stormer refused to pay me hundreds of dollars in income and super, even though I’d fulfilled my two-month notice period, having been told earlier I would only incur a release fee as a yearly contractor if I suddenly left the business and caused damages. Stormer was slow and unhelpful during negotiations. Before this pay dispute, I was mostly satisfied with my almost two-year tenure, although the business was clearly very badly managed throughout and I often had trouble maintaining a teaching schedule despite teaching piano, drums and trumpet.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Tutor 6 salaries reported	$40.42 per hour
Music teacher 13 salaries reported	$44.35 per hour
Studio manager 1 salary reported	$30.00 per hour
Music therapist 7 salaries reported	$60.00 per hour
Teacher 2 salaries reported	$40.75 per hour

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