Scottish music school accepts cryptocurrency as payment for lessons

An Edinburgh music school will begin to accept tuition payments in the form of cryptocurrency.

A Scottish music school will begin accepting cryptocurrency as tuition payment following demand from students, it was announced this week. The Morningside School of Music in Edinburgh said it was responding to suggestions from adult pupils in the school, many of whom now work in the city’s burgeoning fintech sector.

Morningside’s director, Linda Boyd, said the school had previously used cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) to make business purchases and could see the utility in accepting it as a form of payment. 

She said, “We sometimes use things like Bitcoin to pay for goods for the school, so we know how fast and easy it is and want our music students to be able to do the same.”

Boyd said the school’s decision to accept cryptocurrency was an example of a small business following the recent example set by large businesses, adding that it simply represented a viable alternative payment method.

“Some larger companies across the world are already doing this, so it’s just a matter of time before smaller businesses like ours start doing the same. It’s just about giving our customers another way of paying and making life easier for them.”

Boyd referenced the capital city’s growing fintech industry, noting that many requests for the school to accept cryptocurrency came from people working in that area.

“Edinburgh’s got a big fintech industry and many of our pupils work or study in that sector, so for them this is a perfectly natural way to pay,” Boyd said.

The financial technology industry has been on an upward trajectory in Edinburgh since 2019. FinTech Scotland, which operates in conjunction with Edinburgh University, was recently awarded a £22.5 million ($30.9 million) grant to establish a Global Open Finance Centre of Excellence in the city, in recognition of its status as a prominent national fintech cluster.

Boyd said cryptocurrency payments for a range of goods and services would become commonplace in the near future.

“Cryptocurrency is here to stay and will eventually become a routine way for people to pay for services of all descriptions,” she said.