Music for tweens and teens

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miamivice
Posts: 2973
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:46 am

Music for tweens and teens

Post by miamivice »

My 10 year old daughter asked to see if she could get a Spotify account. That threw me off, I know nothing about Spotify.

So, I am hoping that wise Bogleheads will know something about music that tweens and teens like.

- How do your kids partake in music?
- What is Spotify and is this something we should consider for our tween?
- What other music options should we consider?
- In your family, who pays for the music?

Thank you!
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kelway
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Location: Nashville, TN, USA

Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by kelway »

Spotify is like radio on demand. On a mobile phone, you might ask it to play The Beatles, but it will play music *like* The Beatles (same genre). On a computer, however, you can play whatever song you want and it will play that song. So you don't need to pay for anything (paying would get you out of some ads that aren't so intrusive and would enable song choice on mobile).
Last edited by kelway on Sun Mar 21, 2021 9:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
CalcHP12c
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by CalcHP12c »

Music streaming service. It’s our favorite subscription! Better than Netflix and Disney plus.
There is a feee version, but our family (teens and preteens) love the paid version. Listen to whole albums or genres or playlists, without commercials. Don’t own the music, but I listen too mire music and greater variety. Podcasts too!

If you have Amazon prime, check out Amazon music to see if that satisfies your need. Or Apple Music.
livesoft
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by livesoft »

Ask the parents of your child's friends for all this info.

I only use free music and never pay for music. My spouse only uses free music, too. My kids are adults now and I suspect they pay for music, but I don't really know.
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CascadiaSoonish
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by CascadiaSoonish »

Spotify is great and there are family account options that are really convenient when there are multiple users and devices in a household. That said, I get the impression most of the kids are streaming their music via YouTube with no subscription fees required. So there are multiple paths forward here.
HereToLearn
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by HereToLearn »

My children are college/post-college and they each pay for their own Spotify account. I believe they pay $5/month while enrolled in college and $10/month once they graduate. The college account seems to come with free Hulu access?

Many years back when they started buying music on iTunes, I decided that I didn't want them to charge their music purchases on my CC, so I had each create his own iTunes account. I gave them iTunes gift cards for random holidays: Valentine's, Easter, Christmas, etc. Each used his own iTunes gift card to purchase music for his own account. (I think they shared music also.)

If you do not want to be responsible for the recurring payment stream, you could buy your D a Spotify gift card for special events and this way she would realize there is a cost associated with it. Having said this, many people I know pay for family Spotify accounts, but the one person gift card approach might work for you with only one user.
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Doom&Gloom
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by Doom&Gloom »

I wish our kids would have been satisfied with Spotify. There are many more expensive options available.

[adult side-note:] DW & I have had a family Spotify account for several years. I love it.
Afty
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by Afty »

Spotify is very popular (maybe the most popular music streaming service), it lets you stream whatever music you want. We pay for a family plan for us and our 2 kids. We are able to prevent the kids' accounts from playing songs with explicit language.
onourway
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by onourway »

1) We have a family Apple Music account and HomePods in each room of the house. Siri recognizes everyone’s voice so it knows who is speaking and requesting music. They have access to the same account on their computer and devices.

2) Spotify is the other main music streaming option and fine as well. They have family and free tiers as well. I would pay for it to avoid the commercials.

3) I would get what your kid wants unless you have another good reason. If you are Apple users and they don’t have a strong preference, I would lean towards Apple Music as it may be bundled with other Apple services and is better integrated into the Apple universe.

4) The parents pay. It’s only $15/month for the entire family. We’d pay the same just so my wife and I could listen to different things at the same time.
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Devil's Advocate
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by Devil's Advocate »

We have free Spotify, pandora, iheartradio.

My 8 yr old has access to Amazon music paid account on the echo in bedroom. Pretty nice. Echo can read books, play music, give random Trivia, set ⏰.

DA
treesinthewind
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by treesinthewind »

We have a spotify family account. I don't see that anyone has mentioned the parental controls. Parents can filter specific accounts (eg, the kids') so that explicit content is not accessible. We were getting worried that they would stumble across explicit material they weren't ready for. It has helped with that, although things like certain tracks from "Hamilton" for example will also be blocked.
lazydavid
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by lazydavid »

We chose to kill two birds with one stone and subscribe to YouTube Premium on a family plan. For $15/mo (looks like it's $18 for new subscribers), we get ad-free YouTube, as well as YouTube Music (Formerly Google Play Music Premium), for 6 people (though there are only 4 of us). YT Music isn't as comprehensive or popular a service as Spotify, but it is more than enough for us. But really, it's worth it to get rid of YT ads on its own, the music service is just an added bonus. :mrgreen:
Chadnudj
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by Chadnudj »

miamivice wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 9:23 pm My 10 year old daughter asked to see if she could get a Spotify account. That threw me off, I know nothing about Spotify.

So, I am hoping that wise Bogleheads will know something about music that tweens and teens like.

- How do your kids partake in music?
- What is Spotify and is this something we should consider for our tween?
- What other music options should we consider?
- In your family, who pays for the music?

Thank you!
If you have an Amazon Prime account, you already are paying for Amazon Music, which gets you some (but not all) of the benefits of Spotify. You might work with your daughter to see if that would work and offer her some of the savings on not having to pay for a Spotify account as an incentive.

That being said, Spotify is a decent deal -- monthly subscription that gets you access basically to all the music you'd ever want, although you wouldn't own any of it. So rather than paying an uncertain X amount to own downloaded copies of whatever music you would have bought, you pay a certain Y amount to have access to it (but not ownership) via Spotify.
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JupiterJones
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by JupiterJones »

Yup, it seems that, like with movies and TV, the music market has moved largely to streaming services, with Spotify being the front-runner from what I can tell.

And the advantages and drawbacks with something like Spotify vs. actually owning the media are similar as they are with streaming video. On the plus side, you've got instant access to a vast library of titles, all for one monthly price. That's a pretty good deal.

On the minus side though, you're at the mercy of the service as to what those titles actually happen to be. If you have mainstream musical tastes, and/or you're not too picky about what you listen to (that is, you're happy settling with plan B or plan C), then you'll be fine. But if you want to listen to something specific, you may be out of luck. Or you may be in luck one month, and then find the artist has been dropped the next.

(Again, this is no different than something like Netflix, where you're sure to find something interesting, but you won't always find a particular title you wanted to watch. Or you might find that a series you've been binging will suddenly vanish before you could finish it.)

And of course this all depends on an internet connection, which is no problem for many, but can be for some. Listening to Spotify in the car may be an issue for those without unlimited data plans or who regularly drive through areas of spotty network reception, for example.
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bloom2708
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by bloom2708 »

Both Spotify and Pandora have free options. Ad supported. Limited skip and other features.

Other than explicit language of some songs, I see no issue creating a free account for a kid with a phone or tablet.

We have a Family Apple Music subscription. 6 users for $14.99. It is pretty amazing to "rent" almost all music for the cost of 1 CD per month.
Broken Man 1999
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by Broken Man 1999 »

I gifted all the grandchildren Echo Dots. Their Dots have parental controls, assuming the parents set them up. Oldest turns 13 this October.

I certainly asked parents for permission to buy the Dots, and informed them of the ability to restrict the music available. They have access to Amazon Music; plenty of artists to listen to, hopefully screened by the parents, and hopefully not including Lil Wayne.

Broken Man 1999
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FIBoston
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Re: Music for tweens and teens

Post by FIBoston »

Spotify Premium Family plan does everything you want. This is also the best way for your kids to listen to music. Let them explore.
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