The Symphony of Learning: How SONY Music is Tuning Up Duolingo's Music Course

The art of learning is changing – one note at a time. And Duolingo is there. In a move that kicked off 2019 on an ambitious note, the king of language learning struck a deal with SONY Music to inject more than 60 pop anthems into its language-learning music library. The claim is that this will make learning more immersive. Beats and bytes become tools of engaging education. What will this combination mean for the world of learning? Why did SONY decide to move into education by partnering with Duolingo? And what can we expect from this relationship?

Harmonizing Education with Pop Culture

The Rhythm of Learning

Last year, Duolingo, the company known for its addictive and accessible approach to teaching languages (from French to High Valyrian) attempted to do the same for music. With a curriculum that aims to teach students the basics of ‘rhythm, note lengths, music reading and ear training’, Duolingo seeks to gamify music education as it did language education.

A Chord with SONY Music

With a new deal with SONY Music, the company has also added a playlist of hit songs, including ‘Take Me to Church’ by Hozier and ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams. ‘We want to make [the learning process] fun, and deepen retention and comprehension,’ said George Audi, Duolingo’s head of business development. This is not a cynical bid to draw in students with the lure of pop music. On the contrary, the deal is further evidence that Duolingo takes seriously its mission to make language learning feel more real and more fun.

The High Notes of Engagement

A Digital Maestro

And unlike Duolingo’s linguistic course, the music course on Duolingo makes the screen into a little digital piano, so learners don’t just learn music theory – they get to play the music as they learn it. And, of course, Duolingo uses hit tunes as they pop up. That’s the stepping stone between the abstraction of music theory and the tangible experience of recognising and loving a familiar sound. Research shows that this makes learning more absorbing and fun, but it also boosts motivation and the tendency to keep practising.

Sounding the Learning Curve

The Duolingo-SONY deal isn’t just a gimmick. It’s a calculated move to improve Duolingo’s pedagogy, using the emotional power of music to further enhance learning effectiveness. For students taking a course that includes a track from SONY’s back catalogue, the music course will be no longer just another fun course – it will also be a more immersive and intuitive experience.

Charting the Future of Educational Technology

The Synergy of Streaks and Beats

After all, Duolingo has always focused on the streak to push a daily habit. As we wait for the next neologism in the age of Duoshakes, Duoowens and Duosals, SONY’s inclusion of chartbusters is likely to generate additional daily hits to the app, fostering the kind of sticky learning habits that research says are essential to sufficiently solidify new linguistic abilities. It might also signal the beginning of what we will dub Edu-leisure partnerships between educational platforms and entertainment franchises.

Beyond the Notes

While the Duolingo offering was music-related, a partnership with SONY Music could pave the way to a variety of pop culture forms to enhance educational offerings, and make learning more relevant and authentic. We might also see learners at the confluence of history lessons and cinema, literature classes and gaming, science modules and virtual reality.

A Crescendo of Opportunities

A New Verse in Education

What makes this collaboration different is its promise to do the same for learning. As digital platforms continue to find new ways to engage and instruct, the Duolingo and SONY Music partnership shows us the value in using cultural elements to rejuvenate the learning experience, particularly in subjects that are often viewed as difficult or arid, which could be given added life through the most universal of languages: music.

The Soloist’s Journey

For learners, embarking upon Duolingo’s music course is a lot like sending yourself off on an electro-soul solo artist’s journey, where each bit of music played and song learnt is one step nearer to reaching international synaesthetic stardom. Learning the language of music has never been this exciting, personalised or well-soundtracked, making every Duolingo lesson not just educational, but enjoyable.

SONY: A Maestro in the Making

A Symphony of Industries

SONY’s venture into education, for example, signalling its interest in providing opportunities for learning through technology and entertainment, thanks in no small part to this partnership with Duolingo – as a company that has produced everything from Walkmans to VCRs, as well as the PlayStation, SONY appears now to have opened its proverbial mind to the role of music not as an end in itself, but as a means to engagement and education.

Beyond making music for textbooks, SONY’s entrance into the field of educational content could open up new possibilities for content design and how we learn. Fusing the saccharine sweet world of pop with the cold, technical world of education could offer us a fresh perspective on learning, incorporating the fun of music into educational materials. Making information more enjoyable is not only good for SONY (they’ll also be offering video content for schools) but it will be good for students, providing an opportunity for education to reach the masses more effectively than ever before. Through the introduction of smart, enjoyable education, SONY will continue its tradition of innovation by making learning not just an activity for everyone, but hopefully, an enjoyable one, too.

With education being increasingly agile in an era of digital disruption, the SONY-Duolingo partnership serves as an example of how the future of learning will be more about delight, play, and the fusion of the arts and sciences. As our cultural norms of ‘edu-tainment’ converge, this future may very well be ushered in through partnerships such as the one between SONY and Duolingo.