Created for entertainment and not intended for learning.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Amazon Music is a music-streaming app that requires an Amazon account, which is only for users 18 and older. Amazon's terms of service, though, allow for kids to use the service with the involvement of an adult. The app is free and connects to Amazon Prime music accounts or to an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription. One Amazon account can have up to 10 connected devices sharing music. Users can add their own music files to play from the app and sync their iTunes playlists. While there are no parent controls to restrict access to explicit lyrics, there are kid-friendly station options and no videos. Read the app's privacy policy to find out about the types of information collected and shared.
The app has become vaporware. Forced shuffling makes it impossible to know what media will be played when a specific song or album is selected. Unless parents are already paying the exorbitant rate for Amazon Music Unlimited, kids will be bombarded with ads demanding the user upgrade their service, and rarely get the content they expected. Worse, the app no longer correctly respects explicit music settings when forced shuffling is on...so do the math. Do you trust Amazon Music to deliver appropriate music, podcasts and videos to your kids? Absolutely not.
This is easy to use but it is for teens. There is a lot of bad songs that have sexual talk and cussing and parents don't have control. There are a lot of fine children's songs on here and there is no safety and privacy concerns.
What’s It About?
Amazon Music gives you access to all the music you buy digitally on the logged-in Amazon account as well as streaming options either from Amazon Music Unlimited or Amazon Prime Music. Create playlists or browse curated lists. Browse, search, and stream music from channels organized by decade, genre, song title, or artist. Even some CDs purchased on Amazon can be automatically ripped to an Amazon Music account to be streamed. Other music files can be loaded into and played from the app, including iTunes playlists.
With subscription choices, streaming and download options, and plenty of customization, this music-streaming app has almost everything listeners want -- and without the ads. Options include a sleep timer, choices for audio quality, and selections for cache size to keep music from hogging data and storage on the device. Suggested playlists and channels give a variety of music options. With an Amazon Echo device, users have access to a special subscription and can stream music through Alexa. There are no parental controls to restrict access to certain songs, though, so kids could have access to your full music library plus streaming options that contain explicit lyrics. Parents should know that the search history can be easily cleared, too.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about their favorite songs and easily try out new genres of music with Amazon Music's vast library.
Since there are no parental controls, parents may want to talk to tweens and teens about lyrics that may be objectionable and discuss their family guidelines for using those words in songs or in conversation.
Minimum software requirements:
iOS 8.0 or later; Android 4.1 and up
Last updated:
November 3, 2016
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