We want to get our kids some form of 'smart' speaker for their rooms. They do not have TVs in their rooms & do not have smartphones, so a regular BT speaker won't work.

Want something that can do Spotify & the like, but with parental controls or limited abilities & none of the 'speaker is always listening' type stuff [as much as can be avoided for a wifi connected device].

We had a Dot years ago, and that seemed to work decently, I'm sure there's other alternatives around, but have no idea what to look at.

So with no TV or phone ~ what is the source of the music?

We have an Amazon Alexa Dot, and a Echo Show, it has it's own connection to wifi and you can stream music, videos, set alarms to get them up for school.

They also have one for kids, from the link

WHERE LEARNING MEETS FUN – Kids can ask Alexa to play music, read a bedtime story, get help with their homework, and more. Stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and others.




Link

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
So with no TV or phone ~ what is the source of the music?

Rather than merely being an external output option for a TV/phone like a bluetooth speaker, there are a number of "smart speakers" available that connect to your wifi and have built-in processors to play music via apps like Spotify, Prime Music, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Pandora, etc.

Think of it similar to playing music via an app on your phone, just with limited app options, and voice controls only instead of touch screens.

Thanks HRK, I'll look into the kids Dot.
Might be great for my middle kid, oldest may be on the fence.

They have normal non-kiddie Dots too, in gray, white, or blue.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
We want to get our kids some form of 'smart' speaker for their rooms. They do not have TVs in their rooms & do not have smartphones, so a regular BT speaker won't work.

Want something that can do Spotify & the like, but with parental controls or limited abilities & none of the 'speaker is always listening' type stuff [as much as can be avoided for a wifi connected device].

We had a Dot years ago, and that seemed to work decently, I'm sure there's other alternatives around, but have no idea what to look at.

My younger boys have a Sonos Play:1 SL (No hardware mic) in their Bedroom. They can use the Sonos ecosystem to play music, and I have a Spotify account with "explicit" music filtered out tied into it. They don't use it much for music, at least as much as I thought. My daughter uses the snot out of hers though, so I imagine that when my boys get a little older and want to escape up there for doing homework, it'll see more use. They currently have the local Christian radio station come on as their alarm clock, via that speaker, and they like hearing traffic and weather before we drag them out of bed.

My oldest son has one in his room as well, and he uses the Sonos Chime for an alarm, and has 5 different times/days setup for this. It's pretty cool. I've only heard him use the music once or twice, but he's not really up there hanging out all that often.

All of my Sonos products are currently the microphone-free products, but I've noticed that the "SL" versions aren't really available for purchase anymore, at least not new.

An alternative is the IKEA versions. They're "SONOS" compatible speakers and also don't include mics. They have a bookshelf version, a flat-panel version, and a lamp-based version. I can't speak for the panel speaker, but the bookshelf and lamp products both include the same technology as the Sonos Play:1 down to the circuit board and capacitor components. (At least they did when I watched some teardown videos a few years ago.)

Hope this helps.

Update: We got the Kids Dot
A few complications. Cannot connect to a kids/teen profile on an Echo.
Cannot connect to a Spotify account, other than the one linked to the Alexa profile.

We're going to try setting them up their own Amazon accounts, and see if we can set them up that way & connect to Sportify that way.