I want to get my 8 year old something to listen to music on that is not a phone or an iPad/kindle. I wish iPods still were made cause that is what I want but they aren’t made anymore and I don’t want to buy an old one through a third party seller. I always had a Walkman or discman but it feels like kids now have to get a phone to have music. Is there something that exists that is dependable and works for a kid?
Post by expectantsteelerfan on Jul 10, 2024 8:53:48 GMT -5
It seems you want something portable with headphones, but if listening in their room/a specific area of the house would work, you could just do a smart speaker as long as you have some sort of music service it can connect to (you don't need another device). Like my Google speakers connect to Audacy to play local radio stations, but if I want a specific song, we have it set to play it from YouTube music because we subscribe to that, although my dh wants to switch it to Spotify I believe. I *think* many songs are able to be played for free from these services, but not all.
It seems you want something portable with headphones, but if listening in their room/a specific area of the house would work, you could just do a smart speaker as long as you have some sort of music service it can connect to (you don't need another device). Like my Google speakers connect to Audacy to play local radio stations, but if I want a specific song, we have it set to play it from YouTube music because we subscribe to that, although my dh wants to switch it to Spotify I believe. I *think* many songs are able to be played for free from these services, but not all.
Yea we have an Alexa she uses at home but was thinking more on the road. We have Spotify and Amazon music accounts so ideally something that could do that vs buying songs.
Does it connect to Bluetooth headphone? She has earbuds she uses now with her kindle fire but wanted something without internet.
Yup! Ditto Yoto Minis, my kids LOVE theirs. You can get accessories to make them easy to carry on the go.
We have a 13 year old and a 6 year old. The 6 year old loves that she can easily use it for any song/book ever---she just asks me to find the soundtrack to put on the card.
The 13 year old uses it for audiobooks to fall asleep at night--she likes that it holds her spot and loops the same book over and over again.
Post by mainelyfoolish on Jul 10, 2024 11:39:13 GMT -5
We used an old phone and parental software to lock down every function but music apps. My kids called it the music phone. It was wifi only, no cell service, so it wouldn't work on the road unless you could hot-spot off a functional phone.
My daughters have music players that their dad got them from Amazon. It looks like an ipod touch and plays Spotify and other streaming services when they have wifi.
I know you said no iPad so feel free to disregard me, lol. But DS has his Amazon music playlist on his iPad and I just make Amazon Music (and Audible, for audiobooks) one of the "always allowed" apps, so that he can use those once time has run out on games and such. But I get if you don't want to use a tablet at all!
Each of my kids have CD players. They mostly listen to audiobooks CDs from the library on it, but there are options to buy CD music or rent from the library.
DS (13) has a phone but mostly listens to podcasts on it. DD listens to Taylor Swift on her iPad, but the library does have some CDs.
I know it SOO antiquated to have a CD player, but it works pretty well lol.
Post by AdaraMarie on Jul 10, 2024 13:16:58 GMT -5
My kids both have cd players but I did notice when I got dd2's (like 10 years ago) that it was very hard to find what I wanted. Dd2 has a radio on hrr alarm clock she uses a lot. They listen to spotify or Pandora on the app on our tv. We also have a stero in our living room they can use. When dd1 was severely limited on phone time due to a well deserved grounding, her dad bought her a portable radio of some kind. Since I wfh they have a lot of time where they are in control of the downstairs/living room.
I was looking for the same thing, and ended up with the Yoto mini for kids who were 6 and 9 at the time. To be honest, it wasn't exactly what I needed. I found it too much effort to rip music and audio books to the Yoto cards, and since we mostly have streaming music services now I don't have a lot of mp3s on my computer that they'd want to listen to anyway. Also, it had no bluetooth so they had to use wired headphones. Then my kids lost the Yoto player so it became a moot point. I recently stripped down an old iPhone and put parental controls on it, so the only thing they can use is Spotify. A "music phone/ipod" as a PP put it. That seems to work well because they love making their own playlists, but I dislike how addicted they get to looking at the phone even just with the one app. The mighty music player that someone else posted looks PERFECT, in every way except for the price tag
My daughters have music players that their dad got them from Amazon. It looks like an ipod touch and plays Spotify and other streaming services when they have wifi.