Parents' Guide to

Amazon Music

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Common Sense Media Review

Amanda Bindel By Amanda Bindel , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 13+

Account-based music player; no ads, but no parent controls.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 14+

Based on 7 parent reviews

age 14+

Invest in another music streaming service

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.
age 14+

The butt review

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.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (7 ):
Kids say (4 ):

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.

App Details

  • Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
  • Pricing structure: Free (free with Amazon Prime account, more access for $7.99-$14.99/month)
  • Release date: October 12, 2016
  • Category: Music
  • Topics: Music and Sing-Along
  • Publisher: AMZN Mobile LLC
  • Version: 6.0
  • Minimum software requirements: iOS 8.0 or later; Android 4.1 and up
  • Last updated: November 3, 2016

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