How do your kids listen to music?

[HoliHormonalTigerlilly]

DS loves pop music & is always nicking my phone to listen to his mix on Spotify.

He's too young for his own phone. What can I get him to listen to his music on? Similar to a cd player but online? But not a laptop or a phone....?

Sorry if this is a stupid question. I'm not very techy

Mine has an Alexa linked to our Spotify account.

Ah ok thanks!

Is an Echo Dot the same thing?

Echo Dot (4th generation) | Smart speaker with clock and Alexa | Twilight Blue www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085M6F3SJ/ref=cmswrcpapigltidlTC0SMKJWF0KED9XXRGSW

Mine have Echo dots. Just make sure you have child settings on like disabling voice purchasing, explicit filters etc.

Some people have privacy concerns with them though.

Yes DH has this worry. He thinks it will be listening to our conversations.

I mean, surely your phone's doing that already?!

@HoliHormonalTigerlilly

I mean, surely your phone's doing that already?!

I definitely think my phone listens to me more than Alexa. (And my children!)

Mine (aged 5 and 6) have a yoto player. You can maje your on playlist abd add it to a card that they put in the player to listen to.

@HoliHormonalTigerlilly

Yes DH has this worry. He thinks it will be listening to our conversations.

Well yeah that's kind of the point, that is does listen though, mine ignores me a lot! Are you talking about anything that would even matter, also no one is listening, the device is listening for key words, but this idea that there is a person sitting listening is a little ridiculous

You can also buy pre made cards, stories, factual etc.

@HoliHormonalTigerlilly

I mean, surely your phone's doing that already?!

I watched something recently that proved your phone didn't listen to you, but did connect with searches you had made on shared devices etc

@ImFree2doasiwant

Mine (aged 5 and 6) have a yoto player. You can maje your on playlist abd add it to a card that they put in the player to listen to.

Sounds interesting thanks!

Mine has an old, locked down phone with no SIM card and a Bluetooth speaker. We have it to her during lockdown as although we felt she was a bit young she was suffering being stuck in her room for hours on end.

@Instawhat

Mine has an old, locked down phone with no SIM card and a Bluetooth speaker. We have it to her during lockdown as although we felt she was a bit young she was suffering being stuck in her room for hours on end.

So she can access spotify on there? (Forgive my ignorance!)

Ds aged 9 has the Spotify app on his iPad and listens through that. He also has an old iPhone 5 with no SIM card that doesn’t have many apps - he’s downloaded the Spotify app to that and listens on there too.

We have sonos/the cheaper ikea ones in the house. Kids have speakers in their rooms. Means we just have 1 Spotify linked plus an external drive we loaded all our old CDs to. You can link lots of other services to it too so you can still buy albums in digital format to play (especially important outside of mainstream music as artists get fuck all for streaming via spotify). Plus you can play radio and podcasts. The one and only annoying thing is that you can't use BBC sounds. You can play BBC radio but not the catch up services.

Following with interest as my ds10 loves music and I never know what's best for him. Bring back hi fi systems and Walkmans!!

We do have an Alexa which is linked to dh Amazon music account but also plays radio stations. If we were to get one of those dot things for ds to have in his room would that do the same thing?

@Bagelsandbrie

Ds aged 9 has the Spotify app on his iPad and listens through that. He also has an old iPhone 5 with no SIM card that doesn’t have many apps - he’s downloaded the Spotify app to that and listens on there too.

This sounds like a good option!

I went through this for dd2 - I went for Alexa in the end despite reservations about the listening. (And agree phone far worse)

Oh should have said, my older ones now have their own phones with the sonos app but we just had the app on the family tablet so they could stick their playlists together on that before they had phones.

Didn't know a phone would still connect to the internet if no contract? Or is that not the case?

@HoliHormonalTigerlilly

Didn't know a phone would still connect to the internet if no contract? Or is that not the case?

WiFi!

Oh my goodness I just googled after typing my reply and BBC sounds had finally sorted itself with sonos! I'm delighted.

we gave DS an old locked down phone with no SIM card at age 4. It just functioned as an MP3 player with a good visual interface. We loaded it up with CDs though, which is prob a bit old school these days, but we specifically didn't want it connected to WiFi.

I'd have thought an old phone, with Familylink or similar to control his permissions, would do the job for making Spotify work.

I went through this too - it does seem to be weirdly complicated now as opposed to when many of us were young and the choice was radio / Walkman / hifi with CDs or cassettes.

We have Alexa in the kitchen that the DC use. They are tweens. We haven’t put anything in their rooms specifically but they do have phones and laptops and listen to music through Spotify and YouTube on those.