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How do your children listen to music independently?

26 replies

NumptyNu · 07/01/2015 10:14

I'm from the era when you would 'tape' the Top40 on a Sunday evening, then listen to it all week on your little cassette recorder. Otherwise we'd be downstairs putting records on the record player and dancing about the place.

What's the equivalent for kids these days? What's a good way for children to listen to their music at home other than solitary headphones + device type listening?

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StupidFlanders · 07/01/2015 10:19

Mine listen to music on their iPad. They get iTunes cards occasionally and are young enough to only really hear music I play or on the radio or my phone to school and they use our iTunes account so all music is shared.

We have a pill, earphones or the car stereos to play through- not sure if this is what you meant?

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CMP69 · 07/01/2015 10:24

Mine is only 6, so in the car or on the stereo in the lounge/kitchen. However he has just bought a little cd player/radio for his bedroom, with some Christmas money, so this morning we have had Gangnam Style on repeat for about 45 mins Sad
I image in a few years that will be replaced with an ipod/iphone and dock instead [hates apple emoticon]

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Medoc · 07/01/2015 10:24

DD has a CD player in her bedroom, but it's elderly at temperamental at best.
We want to replace it, probably with a 'family' iPod and get her a docking station forbher room, but it's on hold as I would need a new computer first.
Would like a better solution but there don't seem to be any good quality small CD players around.

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CleanLinesSharpEdges · 07/01/2015 10:29

We play loads of music via Spotify, we've got a Sonos system that plays music around the whole house or we can isolate it to certain rooms.

DS watches music videos and live performances on his ipad. And if the TV is on, quite often it is in some music channel.

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MrTumblesBavarianFanbase · 07/01/2015 10:36

My 9 and 7 yos each have CD players in their rooms ( which I am aware some already consider anachronistic, but we live in a backwater and luckily not a single one of their friends has an i pad, so there is no expectation of that - they can plug USB sticks into the CD players) and also both have music on 2nd hand Nintendo for headphone listening.

The music is often on - 7 yo invites 3 yo in to dance :o 9 yo and her friends all into similar bands and usually have music on in dds room.

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evertonmint · 07/01/2015 10:43

My 6yo and 4yo have a CD player upstairs but only 4yo puts anything on. They often borrow my phone to play music (we have a Spotify playlist for them which we add to as they hear and like new songs) or ask for me to put some on downstairs (CD player or docking station), or ask for our local pop radio station which they love. Trying to resist on individual gadgets as long as possible, and they seem happy with this.

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 07/01/2015 10:50

DCs (10 and 8) have a CD player in their room, also an Ipod each and there's a docking station in their room. They use the Sonos in the kitchen, Itunes when on the computer and DS also listens directly off his Ipod wherever he happens to be which is irritatingly tinny. He has got a little bluetooth speaker but doesn't use it. He uses headphones if he wants to listen while someone else watches the telly. DD mainly uses CDs and Itunes on the computer. They listen to audio books more than music at the moment.

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 07/01/2015 10:52

We had a funny moment last year when they borrowed an audio book from the library and it turned out to be a cassette!

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morethanpotatoprints · 07/01/2015 10:57

My dd is 11 and listens to music for several hours a day, sometimes for work other times for pleasure.
She has a stereo system in bedroom, and downstairs we have one in each room as we have about 2000 cds.
She also listens on ipad or her ipod, it is usually music downloaded from cd or spotify or youtube.
Not sure if this helps much.

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Quangle · 07/01/2015 11:01

I miss the taping the top 40 era. It's where we learnt to love music and I am still awesome in a pub quiz because I can name so many tunes and bands from the 70s/80s. All down to dedicated top 40 listening and religious TOTP viewing every week! I'm sad that that's gone.

DD has a DAB alarm clock radio and she listens to Fun Kids on that so discovers new music that way and then she will search for it on youtube to see more (under supervision). We still also buy CDs to play in the car or at home and have dance around sessions.

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HowardTJMoon · 07/01/2015 11:37

Mine use Spotify and YouTube music mostly. They also nick some of my CDs occasionally.

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Medoc · 07/01/2015 11:54

How do you police YouTube though? My DC are way too young to be reading the comments on there, and for lots of the videos tbh

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CMP69 · 07/01/2015 12:15
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NumptyNu · 07/01/2015 12:36

What is Sonos exactly?

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morethanpotatoprints · 07/01/2015 13:28

Medoc, I have disabled the comments and dd is 11.
She also doesn't listen to recent music so we are ok in terms of videos.
Although I'm sure Maria Callas, Cecilia Bartoli and Montserrat Caballe have worn some revealing costumes at some time. Grin
We usually youtube together, but You are so right it does need to be monitored. Even the most innocent of songs can have something unsuitable attached.

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 07/01/2015 14:35

Sonos is a music streaming system, so it plays all the music from your computer or Spotify, internet radio etc.

I try and limit Youtube use, we don't have the app on our gadgets and I have locked it into safety mode in the browsers so comments are disabled and content is restricted. My two have never got into watching music videos, we never have the music channels on on TV, but I do still keep an eye on what they're looking at. I feel really nostalgic for the days of TOTPS, taping and music videos now.

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Enb76 · 07/01/2015 14:42

Mine is 6 and has an iPod for audiobooks and music and it's through speaker not headphones. She mostly listens to my varied and eclectic tastes. She also picks stuff up from the radio. The other day she was rocking out to Blondie and 15 mins later it was Katy Perry.

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Medoc · 07/01/2015 20:45

morethan- I didn't realise one could disable the comments! Very useful to know, thank you.
DD1 only listens to classical too, so videos probably okay, but she's only 8 still.

CMP- that looks promising- does it play CDs well? The one she has currently sometimes will not 'read' CDs, and it's very annoying for her.

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morethanpotatoprints · 07/01/2015 20:49

medoc

I have remembered there was one that I had to hide so quickly.
It was Kiri singing lascio Piango (I think)
Anyway, it was disgusting and will try and find it if I can, could be another song.
In the vid a boy is infatuated with his teacher and he sniffs the chair and everything. Yuk, just awful, so even at 11 I don't leave her with stuff on her own.

Also forgot the OP said independently.

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morethanpotatoprints · 07/01/2015 21:02

I have found it and it is Lesley Garrett, Shock

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MrsMot · 07/01/2015 21:05

Older ones have Spotify, younger ones find stuff on youTube, 14yo dd got a turntable for Xmas so is rediscovering vinyl (bloody marvellous!!!)

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SavoyCabbage · 07/01/2015 21:06

iTunes Radio

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CMP69 · 07/01/2015 22:33

Medoc we have only had it since Saturday but it plays really shitty pop kids tunes on repeat very well so far Sad

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BertieBotts · 07/01/2015 22:37

Ooh how do you disable comments on youtube? My 6yo likes to listen to (godawful) minecraft songs on there. He doesn't read comments, because reading is too much effort to waste on boring comments, but he did look over my shoulder at Facebook the other day and said solemnly "Mummy that is a bad word." I had the "I fucking love science" page open Blush

Also the other day there was a video innocently titled "Merry Christmas" on the front page and he asked if he could watch it. I was about to say yes and then noticed it was posted by bloody Dapper Laughs Angry I need to get the family friendly settings done properly on it.

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 07/01/2015 23:23

It's still not foolproof, my DCs were watching some amateur videos people had made of themselves playing Simpsons Tapped Out with an inappropriate commentary a while ago. It wasn't too bad, just words I wouldn't want them repeating at school. It gave us a good opportunity to chat about the things we might encounter on Youtube at least.

There's a safe setting, which you can lock on by logging in with a google account. Scroll right down to the bottom of the page in desktop view and it's there. I also have google locked in the same way.

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