From the Spotify Newsroom:
Introducing Spotify Kids, A New Standalone App for the Next Generation of Listeners
OCTOBER 30, 2019
Spotify is committed to bringing audio content such as music and stories to more people in more ways–including the next generation of listeners. That’s why we decided to launch a fun standalone app designed with safety in mind specifically for kids and families.
We sat down with Alex Norström, Spotify’s Chief Premium Business Officer, to learn a little more about the app.
1. Why create a Spotify Kids app now? What can users look forward to?
We know that families love listening together—whether it’s while driving in the car or cooking dinner together in the kitchen. But we also know that family members love to listen on their own too. That’s why we’re so excited to welcome the next generation of listeners—kids—into the Family Plan experience.
Kids consuming audio content, such as music and stories, isn’t a new phenomenon—in fact, they love it. But most audio experiences were built with adults in mind—meaning they’re not simple, easy, or fun for young kids to use.
Spotify Kids was born out of the desire to create a playground of sound just for kids—to build a place where younger kids can explore their favorite music and stories in a fun environment. The content is ad-free and hand-picked by a team of editors, and the experience is bursting with color. Our visuals help guide young minds through the app with simple navigation and scaled-back text. Before setting out to explore, each kid can also select a custom avatar and color theme to personalize their experience.
Spotify Kids is a composite of playlists, which makes it easy for kids to find music and stories from their favorite movies and TV shows or hit plays on a playlist to sing along to during their favorite activity—or their least favorite chore.
We’re thrilled to beta launch in Ireland and look forward to introducing Spotify Kids in all markets that have Premium Family in the coming months. As we evolve the app experience, we’ll roll out enhanced parental settings and controls for even more customization in an effort to give parents peace of mind.
2. How is the Spotify Kids app different from the original app? Any unique content?
Spotify Kids is a standalone app available exclusively for Premium Family subscribers and intended for kids ages 3+. The content within Kids is hand-picked by a team of editors, who have nearly 100 years of combined experience curating content for kids. They come from some of the most well-respected brands in this space, including Nickelodeon, Disney, Discovery Kids, and Universal Pictures, as well as Public Service in Sweden and BookBeat, which is a family- and kids-oriented audio streaming service.
Beyond the content, the entire Spotify Kids user experience looks and feels different from the Spotify app. And that’s intentional. It’s built for kids, with their specific cognitive skills in mind, and exudes a fun, familiar, playful, and bright atmosphere. This look and feel also varies by age group—for example, the artwork for younger kids is softer and character-based, while content for older kids is more realistic and detailed.
3. Why launch in beta? What are you hoping to learn?
Having a standalone app specifically for younger kids is a new space for Spotify, and we understand the sensitivities around content for children. We are being very deliberate in our launch approach. We’ve started with a beta launch in Ireland, knowing that this initial roll-out phase will yield many learnings from parents, caregivers and other experts as they begin to interact with the app.
As we evolve the Spotify Kids experience over time, we plan to enhance parental control features to allow for even more customization. We’ll also bring our audio expertise to the table with listening experiences that go beyond music—like more stories and audiobooks and eventually podcasts.
4. As you were building the app, did you tap any external resources? Say, consult with any parent organizations or conduct focus groups?
While launching this kids app is an exciting moment for Spotify, creating it was not a task we took lightly. We knew the importance of understanding parents’ needs and making sure they would have peace of mind about the content their kids are consuming.
Spotify has spent more than two years learning about this space, and we’ll continue to learn as people begin to interact with the app. We have gathered expert insight from a number of organizations, including the National Children’s Museum in Washington, D.C., and conducted our own studies with parents around the world and tapped into our Employee Resource Groups here at Spotify.
Spotify Kids is available starting today in Ireland. Ready to get started? Spotify Premium Family master account holders can simply download Kids from the App Store or Google Play, then sign in to their regular Spotify account. (If you’re new to Spotify, you’ll need to sign up for Premium Family before signing in to Spotify Kids.)
For those outside of Ireland, Kids will be rolling out to all markets that currently have Premium Family. Be sure to check back here for more or check out spotify.com/ie/kids.
From Variety:
Spotify Kids: Music Streamer Wants to Lure Family-Plan Subscribers With Purpose-Built App
Spotify is trying to sell more multi-account family-plan subscriptions — by setting up a special “playground of sound” just for kids.
The new Spotify Kids app brings together a hand-picked selection of age-appropriate music, singalongs, soundtracks, and stories for kids as young as 3 years old. The app is available in a beta test period initially only in Ireland starting Oct. 30, and will come to other countries where Spotify Premium Family is available in the next few months.
It’s designed to push more consumers to Spotify’s full-fledged Family plan, priced at $14.99 per month in the U.S., which offers up to six accounts. The individual $9.99-per-month Spotify Premium service lets customers listen to music and audio programming on just one device at a time.
The initial launch of Spotify Kids in Ireland will include 80 playlists with approximately 6,000 songs. A company said as the app rolls out more widely, the pool of content will grow over time.
Parents can set up accounts with two distinct buckets of content: “Audio for Younger Kids” with singalongs, lullabies and soundtracks or “Audio for Older Kids” with popular tracks and playlists (which exclude explicit content). Spotify isn’t specifying age ranges for the different sections, leaving it up to parents’ discretion. The app is simpler to use than the regular Spotify app and features the ability to select cutesy, animated avatars for each child’s profile.
The company didn’t provide examples of specific artists or content that will be in Spotify Kids, but a rep said the “Audio for Younger Kids” section will include content licensed from partners including Disney and Nickelodeon.
According to Spotify, it spent several months conducting research with children’s content experts to develop Spotify Kids. The content included in Spotify Kids is vetted by a dedicated team at the company, which includes staffers who hail from Nickelodeon, Disney, Discovery Kids, and Universal Pictures. Another plus: There aren’t any ads in Spotify’s subscription services anyway, so it doesn’t have to deal with various restrictions on serving advertising to minors.
“Spotify Kids is a personalized world bursting with sound, shape and color, where our young listeners can begin a lifelong love of music and stories,“ said Spotify chief premium business officer Alex Norström.
The rollout of Spotify Kids comes after the company recently added several other new features to Premium Family designed specifically for families, including parental controls to filter explicit content, a “Family Mix” playlist with personalized songs for the whole family, and a family hub where primary account holders can manage all settings in one place.
The Spotify Kids app will be available for Spotify Premium Family subscribers at no additional charge for iOS or Android devices once the app launches in-market.
Playlists in Spotify Kids will span various content categories including: movies and TV shows; current hits; activities (like play time, party time, bedtime and homework); genres; seasonal; Spotify originals; and stories. There also will be select playlists for specific artists or groups.
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From Digiday:
Spotify taps Viacom for content marketing globally
For the next year, Spotify has contracted Viacom’s advanced marketing solutions arm to create custom content, programming and influencer content development for Spotify globally.
The deal covers 15 different markets across North America, Europe and the Middle East, Latin America, Asia Pacific and India. Both Viacom and Spotify declined to disclose financial details of the deal, but emphasized its global scale.
While Viacom isn’t doing the media buys — Spotify will still be placing ads with the help of its agency of record, UM, and its own in-house agency — it will use Viacom’s reach on linear, digital and social platforms to make sure that custom content secures what June Sauvaget, Spotify’s global head of consumer and product marketing, described as “added value and premium inventory.”
While the pairing like that between Spotify and Viacom isn’t a common occurrence today, Sauvaget sees it becoming more of a norm going forward. “Having the upfront discussions means you’re able to secure premium inventory, higher-impact inventory at a lower cost, and that’s always beneficial to a brand,” she said.
Spotify chose to work with Viacom, she said, primarily because of its global reach and because of the variety of different channels and resources it has to reach what she described as micro-audiences. Examples might be the Gen Z audience for Awesomeness TV or the urban demographic for BET, she said. In the U.S., Viacom reaches 80% of consumers ages 18 to 34.
Sauvaget said that Spotify is a platform that doesn’t want to focus solely on paid media to drive its brand proposition; it wants to be able to reach and speak to new audiences who can be users, and because its content is so rooted in culture, especially through music, it needs partners who get those cultural references.
“The way our consumers pick up content is influenced by local nuances in culture,” she said. “We need partners who reference the very nuanced nature of our marketing efforts and are both localized and fluid.”
Last year, Advanced Marketing Solutions, Viacom’s advertising arm, brought in $343 million in revenues, and it has built up its expertise in digital tremendously. It has an influencer marketing firm, Whosay, a Gen Z-friendly digital studio called Awesomeness TV and streaming service, Pluto.
“Depending on the challenge we have, or the audience we’re trying to capture, we can fit into their different solution and have that work hard for us,” Sauvaget said.
“Advertisers can come to Viacom and buy TV, or do an influencer campaign or buy space at our events or buy digital,” Steve Ellis, evp of ad strategy for Viacom, said. “To be an effective marketer today you have to do all of it; you can’t just buy TV or Facebook. You need to be everywhere.”
Ellis said Viacom’s advantage for Spotify lies in its creative, distribution and reach, and an added benefit for Spotify is that the creative isn’t limited to Viacom’s properties alone. It can live and be distributed anywhere — but it’ll no doubt benefit from “premium” placement on Viacom’s channels.
“There’s a certain amount of commitment and a certain amount of output,” Ellis said. “You can distribute something with CPM value and deliver back a clear efficiency and price. That’s really how the economics of the deal are defined.”
Ellis said this deal is symbolic of how the client and agency system is changing. “We’re structuring businesses to address those needs longer-term and with a more holistic view.” The upcoming merger between CBS and Viacom, he said, will only “add even more value.”
Spotify didn’t enter into this partnership with Viacom blindly; it tested out what a potential partnership might look like with a few initial campaigns.
Last year, Viacom worked with Spotify on the RuPaul for Spotify’s Holiday ‘Wrapped’ campaign, and it drove the most traffic to Spotify than any other partner Spotify worked with on its annual campaign.
In June, Spotify enlisted Viacom’s help with the Sophie Turner for Spotify brand campaign “A Playlist for Every Mood or Moment,” and the Instagram story drove seven times the lift in site visits to Spotify in a single day.
Similarly, in the spring, Viacom brought in the stars of Hulu series “Pen15” to promote a Spotify Premium Hulu offer that drove traffic via an Instagram post that had twice more video views than Spotify’s average social posts.
Spotify is currently working with Viacom once more on its end-of-year “Wrapped” campaign, this time beyond just the domestic U.S. market.
Sauvaget said that Viacom isn’t the only publisher Spotify is interested in working with on future custom content, and said the Viacom partnership may be extended beyond a year if they continue to see success.
“My penultimate goal is to grow user acquisition,” she said. “All users are not created equally. When I think of a partner, I want to partner with someone who can bring high-value customers to us. It’s our determination that Viacom can lend us the reach into a consumer base that will be of high value to us. ”
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From Mobile Marketer:
Spotify partners with Viacom for content marketing push
Brief:
- Spotify hired Viacom's advertising unit, Advanced Marketing Solutions, for content marketing campaigns aimed at boosting the audio streaming platform's audience and paid subscriptions. The agreement covers 15 markets in North America, Europe and the Middle East, Latin America, Asia Pacific and India, Digiday reported.
- Spotify will continue to place ads though its in-house agency and agency of record, UM, while using Viacom's linear, digital and social platforms to create the customized content. Viacom's brands include MTV, VH1, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Colors, Paramount and Nickelodeon, among others, per its website.
- The partnership with Viacom follows more limited pilot campaigns that helped Spotify to drive web traffic.
Insight:
By working with Viacom on content marketing campaigns, Spotify aims to reach younger audiences who are mostly likely to sign up for its audio streaming platform. Viacom's brands like MTV, BET and VH1 align well with Spotify's music content and goal of reaching Generation Z worldwide. In the U.S., Viacom reaches 80% of consumers ages 18 to 24, per data cited by Digiday, making its channels key to targeting likely subscribers.
Spotify has seen past successes in its collaborations with Viacom's Advanced Marketing Solutions unit, making a stronger partnership in the months ahead more feasible for both companies. Viacom last year supported Spotify with its RuPaul for Spotify's Holiday "Wrapped" campaign that drove record traffic. In the spring, Viacom created a campaign for bundled subscriptions to Spotify Premium and Hulu that featured the stars of Hulu series "Pen15." The companies in June collaborated on a campaign starring "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner called "A Playlist for Every Mood or Moment" that included an Instagram Story, and boosted site visits to Spotify by seven times, Digiday reported.
Spotify needs to stand out in the streaming media market amid growing competition from services like Apple Music, which comes preinstalled on the tech giant's products; Amazon Prime Music, which has several tiers of paid and unpaid services; and YouTube Music that Google is bundling with the latest version of the Android mobile operating system. Pandora also has a significant audience in the U.S., while iHeartRadio is available in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The increasingly crowded market points to why Spotify must develop creative ways to attract valuable subscribers, who likely won't pay for multiple audio services.
Spotify said listeners of its ad-supported service grew by 29% to 141 million people in Q3 from a year earlier, while paid subscriptions climbed 31% to 113 million, it announced in October. To differentiate its platform from rivals and offer a wider range of content for subscribers, Spotify expanded its library of exclusive podcast content. Podcast listenership on the platform grew 39% in Q3 from the prior quarter, as adoption reached almost 14% of total monthly average users, the company said. The global podcast market is forecast to make up 4.5% of all audio ad spend by 2022, hitting $1.6 billion, according to researcher WARC.
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From Mashable:
Spotify launches 'walled garden' app Spotify Kids to millions more users
A few months after launching in some smaller markets, Spotify is launching the beta of its Spotify Kids app in Australia and the UK.
Spotify Kids is a "walled garden", "designed with safety in mind": an ad-free, and apparently algorithm-free environment separate to the main Spotify app. Every piece of content in the app — whether it's chart pop, stories, or lullabies — is individually checked to ensure it's actually age-appropriate, and everything's sorted into human-curated playlists.
The app itself is free, but signup is available only to users who pay for a Premium Family subscription, so it's not ad-supported. And the company says kids' data is fully encrypted — the only personal details entered at signup are their first name (or a nickname) and, if they want, their birthday so they get special messages and a playlist on the day.
If Spotify is Lego, this is Duplo: fewer pieces, rounded edges, less complexity. Spotify Kids looks different to the main app, with a scrolling main interface made up of a stream of large, colourful tiles kids can tap to explore playlists centred around artists, moods, activities (from gaming to homework), movies, and TV.
Parents select at setup whether each individual profile is for an older or younger kid, with different content buckets for each. Kids themselves can "heart" songs to add them to an offline Favourites list, just as in the main app, and they can also pick from a selection of colour themes and cute animated monster avatars.
Older kids get the chart pop artists and playlists — Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Justin Bieber are generally kid-approved, though not every track's lyrics would make it past the editors — as well as collections from Disney and Nickelodeon, and other content partners. Kids 3 and up get their own audio-content sandpit to play in, with lullabies, stories, and kids' songs about important topics like dinosaurs and space.
It's starkly different — almost as though by design! — to the creepy, unfiltered, and disturbing free-for-all that kids' YouTube experiences have mutated into. (YouTube Kids itself was launched as a sort of walled garden, with every piece of content available in the app whitelisted.)
The app has been available in this beta version to users in Ireland since Oct. 2019, and rolled out in Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand the following month. While some reviews praise the ease of navigation for its young users, the reality is that with only about 8,000 items in the library, compared to the 30 million-plus in the main app, kids who are used to having access to whatever they want on Spotify (and their parents) do find it frustrating. It's a standalone app, so parents can't move existing family playlists over to Spotify Kids, nor can they whitelist content that isn't editor-approved so their kids can listen to non-kid things they already know and like. (Hey, if you want to explain what Ariana's "Side to Side" is actually about to your seven-year-old, go for your life.)
Spotify says more content will be added as the five-month-old app continues its rollout, as will more customisation and filtering options for parents.
One bit of feedback: maybe adults would also like a curated playlist of songs about dinosaurs, Spotify. Just a thought.
UPDATE: Feb. 11, 2020, 12:18 p.m. PST: This story has been updated to note that there are approximately 8,000 items in the Spotify Kids library, as opposed to 6,000.
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From EFTM:
Spotify Kids launching in Australia with curated playlists featuring The Wiggles and more
Finding new music to keep the kids entertained is getting easier with Spotify announcing their child focused service – Spotify Kids, is launching in Australia.
The Spotify Kids app, which is aimed at kids ages 3 and older, will be available in Australia in Beta for Spotify Premium Family subscribers from February 12th.
The service features curated playlists in two categories: Audio for Younger Kids or Audio for Older Kids. The app contains 130 carefully curated playlists featuring music from Disney, Nickelodeon and of course Australian artists such as The Wiggles, 5 Seconds of Summer, Guy Sebastian, SIA, Jessica Mauboy (and more) in their own playlists – you’ll even find local favourites like Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree and Waltzing Matilda in there.
Because Spotify Kids is linked to your Spotify Premium Family, there are no ads, and it also gets Baby Shark, Let it Go and all those other ear worms out of your playlists on the main Spotify app.
Spotify says they’ll be starting with music, but are looking to the future where you may find stories, sounds and podcasts included in the Spotify Kids app as well.
As a parent I have a curated playlist on my phone that contains all my sons favourite tunes, but Spotify is adding something a little extra here with ‘disoverability’ for new music. The playlists supplied are curated by Spotify editors, so in theory nothing unsuitable makes it to your kids ears.
Spotify’s Chief Premium Business Officer Alex Norström:
Spotify is committed to giving billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by music and stories and we’re proud that this commitment now includes the next generation of audio listeners. We are excited to be expanding the Spotify Premium Family experience with a dedicated app just for our youngest fans. Spotify Kids is a personalized world bursting with sound, shape and color, where our young listeners can begin a lifelong love of music and stories.
The Spotify Kids app will be available in iTunes and Google Play to download from Feb 12th.
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From Campaign:
Spotify introduces long-awaited Kids app with parental controls
Ad-free app is available to current Spotify Premium Family subscribers and launches in UK today.
Spotify has revealed details of its long-awaited Spotify Kids app that is designed particularly for children aged between three and 13.
The advertising-free app is available to current Spotify Premium Family subscribers and launches in beta form in the UK today to coincide with Childnet International’s Safer Internet Day (11 February). It will eventually roll out to all markets where people can buy a family subscription.
Spotify said it is trying to launch carefully into a kids’ content market, explaining why the app is being launched in beta first. The company will expand Spotify Kids over time as it incorporates best practices and learnings, as well as receive feedback from parents and caregivers.
Parents had been complaining for several years that, despite offering "family plans", Spotify did not give adults the tools to protect their children from explicit content. The Swedish audio giant acknowledged the value of this feature in 2018, despite a petition calling for parental controls having started as far back as 2012. Spotify was founded in 2008.
The move also enables Spotify to separate the behavioural data it can collect from adult users and child users who may be using their parents’ account.
Spotify Kids features singalongs, soundtracks and audiobook-style stories that can be discovered in a similar fashion to the main Spotify app. However, all of the content is handpicked by a team of editors instead of using algorithms to create automated search lists. There are also parental controls in place, such as allowing parents to select content that is more appropriate for younger or older children.
The initial roll-out includes about 6,000 tracks and 130 playlists in the UK, with artists selected especially for their popularity with children in this market, including Little Mix, Rastamouse, George Ezra, Take That and Busted.
Spotify’s chief premium business officer, Alex Norstrom, said: "Spotify is committed to giving billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by music and stories, and we’re proud that this commitment now includes the next generation of audio listeners.
"Spotify Kids is a personalised world bursting with sound, shape and colour, where our young listeners can begin a lifelong love of music and stories."
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From TechCrunch:
Family-friendly Spotify Kids app launches in the U.S., Canada and France
Last fall, Spotify debuted a standalone Kids application, aimed at bringing kid-friendly music and stories to Spotify Premium Family subscribers, initially in Ireland. Today, that app is being made available broadly in the U.S. Canada and France, the company announced on Tuesday. The Kids app is still considered a “beta” as it arrives in these new markets, Spotify says. However, it’s been expanded with more songs, stories and other content since the original beta tests began.
The app is largely designed to boost sign-ups for Spotify’s top-tier subscription, the $14.99 (USD) per month Premium Family plan. This plan offers up to 6 people in the same household access to Spotify’s on-demand, ad-free music streaming service, each with their own personalized account. It also includes other exclusive features like Family Mixes, as well as parental controls, and now, the Spotify Kids application.
Spotify has long since realized its one-size-fits-all strategy didn’t work for families. It needed to build a unique experience separate from its flagship app in order to best cater to children — and to abide by the regulations around data collection and consent with regard to apps aimed at kids.
Spotify designed the Kids app from the ground up with the needs of both parents and kids in mind. For parents, it offers peace of mind that children won’t accidentally encounter inappropriate lyrics, for example, or songs with more adult themes. To ensure this remains the case, Spotify editors hand-curate the content on the Kids app by following a set of guidelines about what’s inappropriate for children. It doesn’t utilize algorithms to make selections about what’s included, the way the spinoff app YouTube Kids does.
Instead of being a fully on-demand product, Spotify Kids offers playlists for little ones focused around categories like Movies, TV, Stories, or various activities, like “Learn” or “Party,” among others. As kids grow older, they may also want to follow their favorite artists in the app.
The app can also be customized by age range. For younger kids, there’s character-based artwork and content aimed at the preschool set like singalongs or lullabies. Older kids will see a more detailed experience and have access to more popular tracks that are also age-appropriate.
The programmed playlists in Spotify Kids are curated by editors hailing from some of the most well-known brands in kids’ entertainment — including Nickelodeon, Disney, Discovery Kids, Universal Pictures, and others. They know what kids want and also what sells to the parents who pay.
Since its launch in Ireland, Spotify Kids has rolled out to Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil.
It has also added more content since its original debut, says Spotify.
“We heard loud and clear that both parents and kids are craving more content in the app, so we’ve been increasing the number of tracks available. We’ve also heard from parents that they want even more control of the content, so we are working on some exciting new features,” noted Spotify’s Chief Premium Business Officer Alex Norström, in a statement.
The company isn’t yet going into detail about the upcoming additions, but says they’ll be focused on giving parents more control over the child’s experience. Typically, that would mean letting parents make more specific choices about what’s being streamed. But since parental controls are already available, it could mean letting parents pick specific songs or perhaps, block them. Time will tell.
Today the Spotify Kids app has over 8,000 songs in its catalog — 30% more than when it first arrived in Ireland, and growing.
It also has more local content, with 50% of the catalog in the app localized by market. Its collection of kid-friendly audiobooks and stories has grown as well, and the app now offers over 60 hours of stories, including fairy tales, classics, short stories, and stories from Disney Music Group.
In response to user feedback, there’s also now more bedtime content like lullabies, calming music and sounds, and bedtime stories. (And yes, this finally means that Spotify parents will stop having their year-end Spotify Wrapped ruined by lullabies.)
In the U.S., Spotify Kids launches today with over 125 playlists (approximately 8,000 tracks.) In addition to mainstream kids’ music, the catalog includes Spanish-language, Country, Christian, Motown, and Soul Dance Party playlists. There’s also a Trolls World Tour playlist and another for Frozen.
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, there’s also a new global playlist called “Wash Your Hands” which includes songs that teach kids to wash hands and to cough and sneeze properly. This includes the new song from Pinkfong “Wash Your Hands with Baby Shark.”
And to aid parents now educating children at home, there’s a “Learning” playlist hub where you’ll find songs about the ABC’s, counting, science and more.
The app is available today in the U.S., Canada, and France on iOS and Android. The app is a free download, but requires a Spotify Premium Family membership.
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From the Spotify Newsroom:
Spotify Kids Is Now Available in the U.S., Canada, and France
Last year, we helped bring families together with Spotify Kids—our stand-alone app in beta designed specifically for kids ages three and older. The app, which has been exclusive to Spotify Premium Family subscribers in select countries, was developed with safety and privacy in mind. It’s an ad-free experience where young listeners can explore sing-alongs, soundtracks, and stories on their own or with their families. Now, at a time when so many kids are home from school, we’re bringing the experience to even more people as the app rolls out in the U.S., Canada, and France—and we hope parents there will find it useful as well.
This comes off our initial launch of Spotify Kids in beta in Ireland, followed by Sweden, Denmark, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. With more than 125 playlists, Spotify Kids makes it easy for families to listen to their favorite songs and stories while also discovering new ones. Everything on Spotify Kids has been hand selected by our editors, so you can be sure that the content is both kid friendly and—most importantly—fun!
We’re constantly working on ways to make the Kids experience even better, and we had the opportunity to take into consideration the ideas and feedback from parents who have already used the app with their kids. So here’s what’s new and launching soon on the app:
More to love
In the U.S. and Canada, there are now more than 8,000 songs available in the Kids app—that’s 30% more than when we first launched. And because variety is the spice of life, every day we’re adding more songs in all markets. We’ve also added more audiobooks and stories to the library, including Disney Music Group Stories, fairytales, classics, and short stories.
Bedtime is even better
Parents told us that they love using Kids around bedtime, so we’ve added more lullabies, calming music and sounds, and bedtime stories to help lull your little ones to sleep. Sweet dreams!
A more customized experience
Parenting is personal. That’s why we’re working on giving parents more control over what kids can (and can’t) listen to and new features that will allow parents to further customize the experience. In addition, half of the content you’ll find in Kids is based on what’s popular in the country you live in.
Even more educational content
There has always been a focus on educational musical content for kids on the app, including a playlist hub called Learning that features songs that teach kids about counting, the ABC’s, science, and more. Recently, we also added a new global playlist with songs to help kids learn general hygiene best practices, like how to wash their hands and cough and sneeze properly into their elbows. This playlist features the newly released song from Pinkfong, “Wash Your Hands with Baby Shark.” Plus, relevant educational content on the app will continue to grow.
We even have some new offerings specifically for our U.S. users. Here are some of the unique features U.S. families can expect:
Diverse content
The U.S. is a melting pot of cultures, and the music our listeners stream reflects that. So in addition to all the core favorites you’d expect, the U.S. Kids app also includes Spanish-language, country, Christian, Motown, and soul dance party playlists.
Pop culture crazy
Just like the main Spotify app, Kids taps into the big cultural moments listeners love. For example, we know that movies and music go hand in hand, which is why you’ll find the Trolls World Tour playlist and an official Frozen playlist featured in the app.
Because two heads are better…
We’re working alongside children’s brands like Disney Music Group, KIDZ BOP, and Nickelodeon to create totally unique Spotify Kids content and experiences. Stay tuned: we think you’ll like what you hear.
The Spotify Kids app is available exclusively for Spotify Premium Family subscribers at no additional charge and can be downloaded on iOS or Android devices. New Premium subscribers are also eligible for one month free of Premium Family—just visit spotify.com/family.
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More Nick: Nickelodeon Embarks on New Direction with its Biggest, Most Wide-Ranging Content Slate Ever | Nick Upfront 2019!
Originally published: Thursday, October 31, 2019.
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