Spotify Brings Standalone Kids’ App to U.S., Featuring a ‘Wash Your Hands’ Playlist

Todd Spangler

31 March 2020 at 8:00 am·3-min read

Spotify is giving more housebound parents — and their cooped-up kids — a new tool to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The streaming giant on Tuesday launched Spotify Kids, a walled-off app with over 8,000 curated songs for children ages 3 and up, in the U.S., Canada and France.

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Of course, it’s not some kind of altruistic move to help stressed-out tot caretakers: Spotify Kids is only available on the Spotify Premium Family tier, $14.99 per month in the U.S., which provides access for up to six accounts. The company hopes the standalone children’s app spurs signups and upgrades to its priciest package. (New Spotify subscribers are eligible for one month free of Premium Family.)

The ad-free Spotify Kids app features 125 playlists handpicked by a team of editors. Those include playlists for singalongs, soundtracks, stories, and artists like Taylor Swift, Shakira, and Justin Bieber. In the U.S., the app features playlists for Disney’s “Frozen” and Disney Princess franchises, as well as Universal Pictures’ “Trolls World Tour,” which is slated for direct-to-digital release April 10. There also are Spanish-language, country, Christian, Motown and soul dance party playlists.

In addition, Spotify Kids includes a coronavirus-related “Wash Your Hands” playlist, with songs to help youngsters learn how to their wash hands properly and ensure good hygiene when they cough or sneeze. The playlist includes Pinkfong’s newly released “Wash Your Hands with Baby Shark” song — which, for some, may be a dubious selling point. The app also provides educational music content, like a “Learning” playlist hub that with songs teaching kids about counting, ABCs, science and other topics.

Spotify Kids first launched in beta in Ireland last October, and has since expanded to Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

According to Spotify, roughly 50% of the content on Spotify Kids is localized by market. It provides more than 60 hours of stories, including titles licensed from Disney Music Group. Since the app’s initial rollout, the company also added more bedtime content, including additional lullabies, calming music and sounds, and stories.

“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,” Spotify chief premium business officer Alex Norström said in a statement. The company says it’s also is developing new features to give parents even more control over content available in Spotify Kids.

Spotify Kids is available for iOS and Android devices, exclusively for Spotify Premium Family subscribers at no additional charge.

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