Spotify launched its dedicated app for children, Spotify Kids, in beta form in Ireland last October, before taking it to Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand in November. Now the app has gone live in the UK and Australia, as part of a promised global rollout in every country where Spotify’s Premium Family plan is available. It’s still in beta though.
Spotify’s editorial team has been choosing content for the app in the UK, with a lineup that includes CBeebies, Little Mix, Rastamouse, George Ezra, Hey Duggee, McFly, Adele, Craig David, Calvin Harris, Spice Girls, Take That and Busted. Helluva potential festival lineup, eh?
The pitch to parents is that everything will be safe for children’s ears, with two slightly-overlapping categories: ‘older kids’ aged 5-12 and ‘younger kids’ aged 0-6.
Spotify is far from the only digital service launching child-specific features. YouTube Kids is a key part of YouTube’s strategy (not least because the company copped a $170m fine from the US Federal Trade Commission last September for illegally collecting personal information from children without parental consent, on its main service). YouTube added music videos to YouTube Kids in 2018, as part of its launch of an older (8-12 year-olds) tier for that app.
Meanwhile, Deezer and Napster have both launched kid-specific features in the past. Spotify Kids will certainly be welcomed by parents, although we suspect the tweens of 2020 (aka the TikTok generation) may not all agree with being herded into a ‘kids’ branded experience, be it Spotify or YouTube.
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