from Hacker News

Are Kids Losing Their Love for Music?

by gargs on 5/22/24, 11:22 AM with 20 comments

  • by Foreignborn on 5/22/24, 1:52 PM

    Has anyone built a screenless music player for their kids, or perhaps other projects that allow safe, independent exploration without a phone?

    I'm interested in creating something for my children to discover music beyond my own collection. My kid doesn't have a phone, and so doesn't really have any autonomy in finding and playing music (as the article points out).

    I recall DIY projects with NFC-enabled printed albums or perhaps using eink tags (though expensive). Maybe I'd hook it up to some api like Bandcamp (or *arr apps if need be).

  • by empressplay on 5/22/24, 1:42 PM

    MP3 players aren't hard to find (neither are MP3s for that matter), also used CDs, records, tapes etc, and players for same

    This article seems to be an answer in search of a question

  • by zecg on 5/22/24, 12:15 PM

    > The only way she can access music is by making me get my phone out and play a song on my Spotify account.

    I gave my kids Newpipe (that can download .opus files) and VLC (IMO it's clunky as an audio player, but they like it). Occasionally they'll want a full album, so I fire up the ol' Nicotine+ and download it.

  • by winternett on 5/22/24, 1:43 PM

    Big industry and Ai companies are flooding the Internet with low-grade music. This is their tactic to holding far better independent music out of view, because if indie music took over, there would be no going back to big industry music.

    Coupled with social apps like TikTok & Instagram and streaming companies like Spotify not allowing indie artists to grow without paying serious ad money, the larger industry is actively preventing independent music from being heard, and running undercover grifts on artists that aren't making a dime off of their work.

    When people go to sites like YouTube and Spotify, it's very difficult to find an artists best work, these sites do everything to steer listeners towards big industry music, rather than helping independents to grow. Tech sites are grifting hard working musicians that aren't getting any reimbursement for their work, and there should be more accountability, because we're all being pelted with artificial and weak music as a result.

    Kids love music, but they literally can't find the best of it anymore because of anti-competitive behavior by tech companies and the big music industry.

  • by nothercastle on 5/22/24, 3:34 PM

    There isn’t a good way to give your kids access to music without getting them access to a phone. Since we don’t own music anymore and it’s all streaming it’s only available on devices that are also internet gateways.