How does your child listen to music in their bedroom?

[Richtea67]

This feels like such an odd question to ask...but when it comes to technology I'm a bit of a dinosaur. I'm also not massively into music and tend to have the radio on in the background or TV. But my DD9 would really like to listen to music in her bedroom. She has a wide range of tastes...classical, rock and also soundtracks from her favourite films and tv shows. I'm not too keen on an Alexa, or anything that connects to the internet. Could she create playlists on an MP3 player and have this connected to a speaker. Or anything else that would work well? Many thanks.

Bluetooth speaker connected to an iPod or old iPhone with Spotify/Apple Music or similar

Yoto player.

You can create your own cards, but there's also a big selection to choose from.

Have a look!

We have a Yoto. She listens to stories and the radio on that.
We also have Spotify so play it via phones/speakers/Alexa etc. sometimes it's out loud sometimes she uses headphones

Alexa on an Amazon kids profile so she listen to audible books via my account (you can allow ones and prevent her listening to others) and Amazon music via the Alexa too.

At 9 I would avoid a yoto.

Both of mine have had radio/cd players from about that age (both teens now so we have a Spotify family plan). We both love music so have a pretty broad CD collection and they enjoy buying CDs with their pocket money - though the kPop CDs)collections are ridiculously priced!

Dd had a cd player but honestly these days she has access to our family Spotify and plays it through her echo dot.

Why are you against an alexa? You camnturn off all the listening functions if its that you are concerned about.

Bluetooth headphones connected to his phone/pc the other has a alexa.

Our youngest has a speaker, an old iphone with most apps uninstalled, and then our Spotify family account with age restrictions (to stop them accessing songs with explicit lyrics).

I think you are going to have to get over your aversion to anything connected to the Internet, as I would say these days the vast majority of music is accessed via Spotify or something similar.

If she has a wide range of musical tastes she is going to want access to all of the music.

I'm in a similar situation and my kids listen to Spotify on a old laptop downstairs. I'm not too keen on letting them take tech into their rooms, so I'm not sure how you get around listening to music in your room without access to to some kind of tech. I've been experimenting with an old android smartphone linked to a child account with everything disabled except Spotify.

we have a Apple music subscription and the dc have Apple speakers in their rooms. They love music and for us, them having easy access to music is important.

Mine used to have CD players and now have Alexa’s to access Spotify. With Alexa there was an initially flurry of asking it to self destruct or fart but then it is exclusively used for listening to music & audio books, telling the time or setting a timer. A lot of the time if you ask it things it says it doesn’t understand or can’t find it. So if you are concerned your child will use it to access things they shouldn’t then I wouldn’t worry about that. If you don’t like the idea of it listening in then that’s different. That doesn’t bother me but I know some people get concerned about it. It only listens actively when you say ‘Alexa’.

Have a look at a Mighty Vibe- the just plays music. My daughter has one because its portable and can also be connected to a Bluetooth speaker in her room.
https://www.mightyaudio.co.uk/products/mighty-vibe

Echo dot and Spotify is fine, yes it’s connected to the internet but very limited it what it can do

Alexa linked to my Apple Music subscription. Explicit filters are on

Spotify (we have a family account) via their laptops (on headphones) and via a Sonos Roam speaker when out loud.

Thanks all, lots of consider. We do have an old iPhone we could use, but having a quick look...subscriptions for Spotify kids and apple music looks quite pricey? Is there a monthly fee for echo/Alexa? What's the difference between the echo dot and Alexa? I'm actually quite intelligent, believe it or not....just a bit of a techno phobe. Need to educate myself really to prepare for having kids that are going to be into all sorts!

Go old school, pick up a cheap record player and spend time together rifling through old vinyl shops.

when dd was younger I came home and her and a friend were going through my old records, they’d put a Kim Wilde single on a 33 setting, it was hysterical, even more so the look on their faces when I switched it to 78.

DD10 has an Alexa connected to our family Amazon Music subscription. She also has an old school CD player as she is quite into her K Pop and has quite a few of the limited edition CDs.

Older DCs both have Alexas, but tend to listen to music via (free) Spotify on their phones.

I use Spotify on my phone as do my teenagers. I pay for a family account but the Spotify free version is fine - just a few ads now and then. That would be the cheapest way for her to get tonnes of music at her fingertips.
Unless you want to start buying physical music individually (like CDs), streaming is the easiest and cheapest way to go.
If your phone isn’t loud enough then you might need to get some speakers for the old iPhone. It doesn’t have to be an Alexa/Google Home etc if it freaks you out how they listen to conversations but I mean the sort that connect via Bluetooth

Ine has a fancy radio/bluetooth speaker avd the other uses AirPods.

get a second hand cd player. you can get lots of cds cheap from charity shops and it could be exieting for her to build her own collection

Digital radio with Bluetooth to connect to their Spotify on their phone

An echo dot is one type of Amazon Alexa. There are other echo options too. You probably just need the simplest.
Free Spotify can be quite annoying so I do pay for it.

And no monthly fee for an Amazon Alexa.