Public sector & education
Data backup for music schools, from enrolment to recital
Mindtime backs up the laptops, NAS and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account where your school keeps enrolments, arrangements and recordings. Copies are immutable, include an air-gapped copy and are stored in Mindtime's own data centres in the Netherlands and Germany.
In Dutch, German or English.
- NL · DEStored only in our own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany
- ImmutableObject Lock storage plus an air-gapped copy; every backup job is checked
- ISO 27001 · NEN 7510Audited security, with a data processing agreement in every contract
- NL · DE · ENSupport from people, no offshore call centres or chatbots
In short
Music schools need off-site backups because their enrolment records, photo consent forms and years of teaching material often sit on one office laptop or NAS. The Belastingdienst expects foundations to keep digital records for seven years and make backup copies. Mindtime stores immutable, air-gapped copies in its own Dutch and German data centres.
What's at stake
The data music schools can't afford to lose
Enrolments, timetables and waiting lists
Your enrolment records hold pupils' names, dates of birth, parents' contact details and who has lessons with which teacher. Lose them at the start of a term and you can't send invoices, fill timetables or tell a family their child has a place.
Arrangements, scores and recordings
Teachers build up arrangements for ensembles, adapted parts for beginners and practice recordings over many years, usually in MuseScore or Sibelius files on their own laptop. That material rarely exists anywhere else.
Photo consent and recital media
Photos and videos of recitals end up on your website and social media. For pupils under 16 you need parents' consent and must be able to show it, so the signed forms or registration answers matter as much as the images.
Rules and obligations
What the rules ask of music schools
Summarised from the sources listed at the bottom of this page. This is general information, not legal advice.
Foundations must keep records seven years and make backups
The Belastingdienst's guidance for foundations and associations sets a retention duty of at least seven years for all administrative records. Digital data must stay accessible and readable for that whole period, and the organisation is required to make backup copies of it. [1]
VAT exemption depends on the pupil's age
Education in music, dance, drama, visual arts and circus skills for people under 21 is exempt from VAT. The pupil's age at the start of the course is what counts, which is why the dates of birth in your enrolment records feed straight into your VAT treatment. [2]
Parental consent for images of children under 16
The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens says that for pupils under 16 you need their parents' consent before publishing photos or video. You must be able to prove valid consent, and withdrawing it has to be as easy as giving it. [3]
Not a Cyberbeveiligingswet sector
Arts education is not one of the sectors listed in the Cyberbeveiligingswet, the Dutch implementation of NIS2, so music schools fall outside it whatever their size. Securing pupils' personal data remains a GDPR duty. [4]
When it goes wrong
Ransomware on the front-desk laptop in enrolment week
Illustrative example: a centre for the arts with a small office and a group of part-time teachers opens a fake invoice on the front-desk laptop in the week enrolments close. The enrolment spreadsheet, the folder of signed photo consent forms and the NAS share the laptop syncs to are all encrypted. Because the NAS was also backed up to Mindtime's immutable storage, the attacker could not touch that copy. The office restores the files from before the infection, checks them against the course platform and asks the data protection contact whether the AP must be notified.
How Mindtime protects it
Backup for music schools, workload by workload
- Laptop and endpoint backupArrangements, lesson plans and recordings live on teachers' and office laptops more than anywhere else.
- NAS backupLarge audio and video files and photo archives are typically stored on a Synology or QNAP in the building.
- Microsoft 365 backupOffice mail with parents, enrolment spreadsheets and shared teacher folders often run in Microsoft 365.
- Google Workspace backupSchools working in Gmail and Drive need a copy outside Google if an account is taken over or files are deleted.
The software you use, and what we protect around it
| Lerendoeje.nu (course administration, appsoftware) | A web-based platform for course enrolment, payments and scheduling used by music schools and arts centres. Check its export and retention terms; Mindtime protects the mail, files and laptops around it. |
|---|---|
| MuseScore and Sibelius (notation software) | Score files are usually saved on the teacher's laptop. Mindtime's endpoint backup keeps an off-site copy of those folders on Windows and macOS. |
| Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace | Office mail, shared timetables and teaching folders are backed up to Mindtime's data centres in the Netherlands and Germany. Both have a 7-day free trial. |
| NAS for recordings and photos (Synology or QNAP) | Recital videos, audio recordings and photo archives take up a lot of space and often live on a NAS in the building. Mindtime copies the NAS off-site, immutable and with every job checked. |
Before you switch
What music schools ask us first
We're a small foundation running on subsidy and lesson fees.
Then losing your administration is expensive in a different way: the tax authority expects seven years of readable records either way. Try Mindtime's 7-day free trial for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, or book a free 15-minute demo to see what you would need to protect.
Our course platform already stores the enrolments online.
It holds the data it was designed for, under the supplier's terms. The consent forms, lesson material, recordings and mail with parents are usually yours to protect. Mindtime backs those up to its own Tier III data centres in the Netherlands and Germany, and a data processing agreement comes with every contract.
Setting up backups for all those laptops sounds like a lot of work.
Once the devices are added, there is little to do. Mindtime checks every backup job and watches them around the clock, so a laptop that stops backing up gets noticed. When you need help, you speak to people in Dutch, German or English, never to a chatbot.
FAQ
Questions about backup for music schools
Is a music school foundation required to make backups?
For its financial administration, yes. The Belastingdienst tells foundations and associations to keep administrative records for at least seven years, to keep digital data accessible and readable throughout, and to make backup copies. A forgotten password or a broken USB stick means you no longer meet that duty, so the copy should be off-site and checked.
Why does a pupil's date of birth matter for our tax return?
Arts education for people under 21 is exempt from VAT, and the pupil's age when the course starts decides whether the exemption applies. If enrolment records are lost, it becomes hard to show why some lessons carried no VAT. A backup of the administration keeps that evidence available for as long as the tax authority can ask for it.
How should we store photo consent from parents?
Keep the consent with the pupil's registration, in a place that is backed up. The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens expects you to be able to show valid consent for images of children under 16, and to make withdrawing it easy. If those records disappear in an incident, you can no longer prove you were allowed to publish.
Does NIS2 apply to music schools?
No. The Cyberbeveiligingswet covers sectors such as energy, transport, health and digital infrastructure, and arts education is not among them. What does apply is the GDPR: you must secure pupils' personal data, keep a register of data breaches and report serious ones to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens within 72 hours.
Can independent music teachers use Mindtime as well?
Yes. A self-employed teacher can back up a Windows or macOS laptop and a Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace account in the same way a school does. The copies are encrypted in transit with AES-256 and stored only in Mindtime's own data centres in the Netherlands and Germany.
See it with your own data
Book a 15-minute demo
We show you a backup and a restore, and answer your questions in Dutch, German or English. No offshore call centres, no chatbots.