Music system for 9 yr old

[FlorenceFirenze]

dd would love to listen to music in her room. At her age I had a portable stereo with radio and cassette player .

What should I look at? portable CD Player? iPod mini? ( i might have an old one lying around)

How about Spottify?
We have apple TV and iTunes at home too, not sure if we can do something wireless with that

[DubiousCredentials]

We bought this for both dc when they were around that age. Dd has it in pink though . It’s very good for cds and radio and there is a aux cable input as well. No headphone socket though. Both dc prefer listening to cds in their rooms rather than with headphones on. We bought ds a cheap MP3 player the following year as well but I’d say if she says she wants to listen to music in her room, a CD player is the best to start with. She’ll prob want to dance and sing out loud.

[NannyR]

The girls I look after (9+10) have old iPhones with spotify (and Amazon prime music, but I don't think they use that as much)and Bluetooth speakers. They also have a radio.

[katcatkat]

My dd has this www.argos.co.uk/product/5725373?cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59158|cid:200217410|agid:12488202530|tid:aud-180466976485:pla-271804805504|crid:66128550290|nw:g|rnd:4559496758974420815|dvc:t|adp:1o5|mt:|loc:9044999&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuZXQBRDKARIsAMwpUeSkSCRtGATNUC9CizVns3RkPbOAi4rhXJg0B6Qm5H6npzKF6j4_A5kaAggoEALw_wcB
The advantage is that while she can play cds on it she can also use it to connect a phone/tablet/mp3 player to as a speaker.

[FlorenceFirenze]

I have an old iPhone 4 lying around. can i set that up securely so she can use spotify and use w bluetooth soundbox?

[WaxOnFeckOff]

You could get her a bluetooth speaker and use the old iphone. However you could also just get an Echo (if in budget) and she can ask for any song she wants :)

[reluctantbrit]

DD uses an old iphone as an ipod and DH has a Spotify subscription which means I haven't bought any music in ages. You can also get radio stations. We also upload her audiobooks on it and she can either hear it in her room with our Sonos system or with headphones anywhere. Bluetooth speaker will work as well.

She also has an Alexa, Amazon Echo. You can also use it with Spotify. She sets up playlists and listen to them via Alexa.

[DubiousCredentials]

I think the question re the iPhone would be are you happy for her to have internet access on the phone in her bedroom? Or are Spotify tracks available offline? Personally I felt my two are too young for that. Plus they’d be on YouTube which is more “screen time” than “listening to music”.

Echo sounds like a good idea though.

[Zoesweet]

Ipod mini would be enough or any other mp3 playing device but you would surely need a bluetooth speaker for those devices. Lots of bluetooth speakers in the market today but I know the JBL brand of speakers are worth the money.

[FlorenceFirenze]

"are you happy for her to have internet access on the phone in her bedroom"
Definitely not. I wondered if it could work through an app and then disable Internet brewing functionality but I'm not a techie.

[FlorenceFirenze]

echo... mhm am a bit of a luddite and worried about the alleged (real?) listening in capability...

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Ach we are as boring as shite so if she listens in, I am sure she will be snoring in no time!

[DubiousCredentials]

The iphone4 is pretty old and I’m not sure if it has the same settings as the newer ones. On mine (6s) I can block safari, so I suppose you could load on Spotify (which presumably has parental controls of some sort?) and delete any other apps. Not being allowed YouTube would cause trouble here though! Dig out the phone and have a play.

[Notrightnowww]

Jumping on the thread - I also want same age dd to have something to listen to music with in her room.

I had wondered about the echo dot, but have questions! We have Spotify, so presume that will work? And presumably she can't just ask Alexa to buy a load of stuff on my Amazon account?! Or change parental controls on Amazon tv? Download stuff onto her kindle? We have a few Amazon things that all run through my account, so wondering how much access she would get to that via Alexa?

[FlorenceFirenze]

" We have Spotify, so presume that will work? "
Are you using Spotify on a phone or tablet? And doe you know how to make it child safe?

[Notrightnowww]

Florence We use Spotify with sonos speakers - does it make a difference? I've read echo dot is compatible with sonos, but I don't know the detail. I'm also worried about things being child-safe - hence asking the question.

[Chilver]

We have just bought an MP4 player off Amazon (£30) along with Bedside Lamp and speaker for our nearly 6yo to listen to music in her room. I'll download music (age appropriate!) and upload her CD's to the MP4 and then she can listen to it with headphones or via the speaker. We have amazon music too.

[FlorenceFirenze]

I just read that Spotify has zero parental controls. The app allows explicit content even when parental controls are set on an iPhone. You cannot block explicit content. Not for us then.

[FlorenceFirenze]

Maybe we''l go for Apple Music, or a basic iPad with speakers

[LinaBo]

DD (8) got an iPod nano for her birthday and I got her a Bluetooth speaker for Christmas. Then she can use Amazon music and other internet music services from my iPad under my watch or her offline music on her own.

I bought this one because it was reasonably priced and had good reviews but I have to say I was really impressed when it arrived. I took it out of the box to charge it and test it, it pairs nicely and easily with both the iPod and the iPad, sound is great (for the price) and it looks quite well built. Now let's see long it lasts on the hands of a 8yo

[FlorenceFirenze]

lina, could I ask which iPod nano you have? Is it the touch 7th generation one? They don't seem to make any nanos any longer.

[LinaBo]

Florence, it's a blue nano, I bought it for her in June but it seems they don't sell it anymore - I chose that one because I didn't want internet access.

[LinaBo]

Just looked it up, it was discontinued in July.

[NoMoreAngstPls]

I've been pondering the same for my 11yo. She has an ancient cd 'boombox', but spends most of her time listening to Spotify on her phone or stealing my DAB radio!

I wanted to buy something that would do it all, and as usual I have escalated to a super expensive product:

Roberts Blutune100 DAB/DAB+/FM/CD/Bluetooth Sound System - Black this very expensive one

Am I mad?