Spotify offers parents new kids app filled with bedtime stories

The owner of the world’s largest paid online music service is expanding the reach of its kids app after successful tests in more than a half-dozen countries. — AFP Relaxnews

Spotify Technology SA is offering parents cooped up at home a new way to entertain their kids.

The Swedish audio streaming giant will roll out a kids app in the US, Canada and France, the company said on Tuesday. The new app includes more than 8,000 songs, as well as audio books and bedtime stories, all of which are handpicked by the company’s editors. More than half of the songs and stories are tailored to the local markets.

The owner of the world’s largest paid online music service is expanding the reach of its kids app after successful tests in more than a half-dozen countries, including Ireland, Sweden and Mexico. While Spotify has more than 270 million users, Spotify Kids is available only to people who pay for Spotify’s premium family plan, which costs US$15 (RM65) a month in the US and allows for six different accounts.

Demand for kids’ music is at an all-time high as millions of families hunker down at home hoping to avoid the coronavirus. Consumption of children’s music surged 12% in the US last week.

A separate kids app will allow parents to let their young ones use an app that lacks the violent and lewd lyrics in many of the songs on Spotify. It also allows parents to separate their listening from their kids’ so they stop getting nursery rhymes in playlists based on their listening history.

"Parents can reclaim their own Spotify libraries and all the personalization that they love, while their kids can develop a love for music and stories through an experience that’s designed for them,” Alex Norstrom, Spotify’s chief premium business officer, said in a statement. — Bloomberg