Notey

Notey is an AI/ML-powered music education platform built around a mobile game in which a real instrument serves as the controller. The app listens to a player's guitar in real time, responds to each note with immediate visual and audio feedback, and guides learners along a structured path toward complete songs. Its content library is organized into themed worlds — such as Boogie Land (blues), Dueling Guitars (bluegrass), Twinkle World, Pirates Anthem and Sonata Sanctuary — each containing between roughly 10 and 29 levels, with hundreds of songs sequenced to build technique. The company states the material is curated and sequenced by Grammy-winning musicians and that the product is aimed at beginners, with the site describing ages 6–13 and 6–17.

Alongside the consumer app, Notey operates a schools offering under the name Notey's World. Sight-reading exercises are rendered as platformer levels and assessments as boss fights, with in-game currency, cosmetics and level unlocks used as rewards; the system adapts difficulty to a student's level and generates supplemental levels from performance data. Notey works directly with schools to convert their own curricula into game worlds for any instrument they teach, while teachers retain visibility into student progress.

The company describes four patent-pending technologies and a proprietary machine-learning audio engine that performs real-time analysis of gameplay and practice, with generative AI for dynamic, personalized level generation identified as a forthcoming roadmap item. Notey also describes support for playing real instruments or using the voice.

Founding story

Notey, Inc. was co-founded by Mak Grgic and Adithya Bellathur, who are based in Cayce, South Carolina. The company describes its founding team as Grammy-nominated musicians, music educators and AI experts pursuing wider access to effective music education.

Business model

Notey sells a consumer subscription to its mobile music-learning game, offered with a seven-day free trial, and separately works with schools and districts, converting their existing curricula into custom game worlds for the instruments they teach and giving teachers insight into student performance and progress.

Subscription revenue from consumers following a seven-day free trial, plus school and district agreements for curriculum integration and teacher analytics.

Traction

The company's site cites 50,000 music lovers and a 4.7 App Store rating, while its schools page cites more than 50 educators. Its January 2025 update reported 11,000+ consumer users, 36+ schools, 88% month-over-month user growth and 44% month-over-month revenue growth, with an average of 15,000 levels played per month.

Latest developments

In a January 2025 post, the company reported 11,000+ consumer users, 36+ schools using the platform, 44% month-over-month revenue growth, 88% month-over-month user growth, a 63% recent free-trial-to-subscription conversion rate against a 41% average, and an average of 15,000 levels played per month with peaks near 50,000. It cited December 2024 growth of 258% in installs, 68% in revenue and 43% in app store impressions, and January 2025 growth of 18% in installs, 237% in revenue and 127% in subscriptions. Generative-AI-driven dynamic level generation was described as the next feature on the roadmap.