Spotify for Kids is Being Rolled Out
Spotify are rolling out a ‘Spotify for kids’ app for kids to access more age-appropriate music and audio content. It’s currently available to users in Ireland and to those on a spotify premium family subscription. They plan to roll it out globally over time.
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What’s the point of Spotify for Kids?
If you have children, you know how much you have to work to stop them from looking at the wrong content on the internet.
Spotify for Kids is a specialized app from Spotify that’s made to suit the kids. Everything in this app is aimed to be kid-friendly, from the design to the choice of music and overall available features that are presented to the kid in a fun and safe way.
You could think of it as Youtube Kids, with similar features and goal in sight. Though, as we know, from some issues with Youtube Kids in the past, you can’t be 100% sure that these types of kids services will be able to filter out all of the inappropriate content, though they are usually a very good step in the right direction!
What kind of content will be available on this app?
First and foremost you will find lots of kid-friendly music on this app. Everything is filtered so that your kids can browse music safely and without the fear of hearing explicit lyrics content that is not appropriate for their age.
Spotify editors also made many different playlists allowing your kids to pick from them and learn about fun, new music.
Apart from the music, you can find lots of audiobooks that are age-appropriate. Through them, your kids can learn how to love books and enter a new world of reading much easier.
Since this is a feature that is available only through a Family subscription, you can also share the playlists that you made with your children on your standard Spotify app.
Singalong tracks are also available, so your kids can have more fun and play with the singalong tracks together with their friends.
Kids will also get to choose their avatars and the overall design of the app is much more playful and colorful in the contrast to the standard sleek and elegant Spotify design.
There are no ads in this, so your kid won’t be bombarded with ads while listening to music.
Different options for kids of different ages
One of the great features of this app is that you can get different options for kids of different ages. When you are setting up the profile for your kid, the app will offer you to choose their age group.
You can choose from two groups – older (7-12-year-olds) or younger (0-6-year-olds).
The main difference between these two options is the content that your child will get to see and play with. Option for the younger audience is really more toddler orientated and it will offer them a variety of baby songs.
On the other hand, the option for older children will play more of the popular music, presenting real-life artists to them in a safe and appropriate way.
This way, you can change the preferences for your children as they grow, allowing them to explore and learn about new music, broadening their views and music taste.
How to set up the app
The Spotify for Kids app is available only through a Premium Family subscription, which is 14.99$ per month.
This subscription will allow for the 6 different Spotify accounts, allowing for both Spotify for Kids and standard Spotify to be used.
To set up the app, you have to do the following:
- Download the Spotify for Kids app from Apple Store or Google Play
- Open the app and login with your account credentials
- Set up the PIN code that will allow you to access the app settings, stoping your child from messing with the app at the same time
- Set up the account for your kid
- Choose from a selection of funky avatars with your children
- Choose an age group that is appropriate for your kid
- Let your kid enjoy the music!
If you want to manage their account, you have what is called the Grown-Up Settings.
These can be accessed only with a PIN code that you put in the first time you installed the app on your device. Don’t worry, you can recover the lost PIN code if you’ve forgotten it.
Through Grown-up Settings, you can fully control and change the app as you would with your normal app. You can also share a playlist from your account to the kid’s app with your PIN.
Is there a chance of inappropriate content
Even though the technology is pretty much made for the filtering of the content, you should still stay alert about what your kids are listening to.
Youtube Kids can be a perfect example for that as, even though the filters are blocking out most of the inappropriate content, you will still find something slip under the radar here and there.
Though by that experience, you shouldn’t really rely on technology to sort everything out, but it is a step in the right direction.
Summary
Spotify for Kids is the future of listening to music for kids. This type of app deals with tons of different parents’ issues with letting the kids roam freely on the internet.
As the world is getting more and more connected in every way, such filters are just going to be more and more needed, as kids these days simply live on their phones and tablets and don’t really care much about anything else.
Coming from the market leader, Spotify Kids is going to set up industry standards for the family-friendly audio content in the world.
It’s a nice and easy way to control what your kid is being exposed to, but since it’s brand new, you can only expect it to grow and get better as time passes by.
