Sick of seeing your kids glued to their screens? Keen to introduce some screen-free fun that not only offers educational benefits but can help keep your child calm and relaxed too?
Audio players for kids have grown hugely in popularity over recent years and it’s not hard to see why. Whether used inside or outside the home, these child-friendly speakers encourage children to take control of their own listening, choosing from a range of age-appropriate content that can entertain, educate and even help them get a good night’s sleep. Promoting independence, audio players and their wide range of varied content can also help improve your child’s confidence, vocabulary and creativity.
Whether it’s an audio player that’s complete with a nightlight, suitable for travel or made for older children, here’s our verdict on the best kids’ audio players you can buy today.
Things to consider when buying an audio player for kids:
With a wide range of audio players for children to choose from, here are some things to consider when making your choice:
- WiFi requirements - Do you intend to use the kids’ audio player inside or outside of the home, or even a combination of the two? Some devices need to be connected to Wi-Fi to work, whilst others can be used without an internet connection once the content has been successfully downloaded.
- Portability - Is the audio player able to be moved around? Some audio players are mains powered and restricted to the location of your nearest plug socket, whilst others are more portable and can be carried around as required. For a portable audio player, you should consider the device’s size and weight based on your child’s age, particularly if you’d like them to move it between rooms to complement their playtime.
- Price - How much are you willing to spend? The cost of a child’s audio player generally varies between £60 and £100. You should think carefully about the features that matter the most to you. The more expensive models tend to come with additional features which whilst beneficial, you may be willing to sacrifice for a more affordable price tag.
- Price of content - What audio content is available on the audio player and how much does it cost? Do you need to sign up for a monthly or annual subscription, or can you buy content on an individual basis? You may also want to consider whether it’s possible to create your own content using legally downloaded MP3 files or voice recordings.
- Range of content - What range of content is available and how appealing will this be to your child? Does the audio player have access to licensed content such as popular TV shows and modern stories? Content can include anything from music and stories to meditations, activities and podcasts, as well as age-appropriate music.
- Quality - How robust is the audio player? Will it withstand being dropped or handled by a small child? Does it require a case to protect it, and if so, how much will this cost?
- Ease of use - How easy is the device to use? Are the controls intuitive and easy to operate by your child, or is your child likely to need assistance?
- Battery life - If applicable, how long does the battery last when off-charge? Does it require batteries or can it be recharged via USB/USB-C cables?
With these things in mind, here’s the ES Best verdict on the best audio players for kids that you can buy in 2023.
Best kids’ audio players at a glance:
- Best for overall: Yoto Player - £89.99, Amazon
- Best for travel: Yoto Mini - £59.99, Amazon
- Best for young children: Tonies Toniebox - £79.95, Amazon
- Best for older children: Amazon All-New Echo Dot Kids - £64.99, Amazon
- Best for user friendliness: Voxblock - £59.99, Voxblock
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Yoto Player
Best for: overall
Specification: Size: 11 x 11 x 10.5cm | Weight: 600g | Battery life: Up to 10 hours | Headphones: Wired 3.5mm jack | Age recommendation: 3-12 years
Stand-out features:
- Fun pixelated screen
- Night light and OK to Wake clock
- Free podcasts
- Free Radio station
Thanks to the step-by-step instructions on the Yoto app, the Yoto Player is quick and easy to set up, with the ability to connect the Yoto Player to wifi and have it ready in mere minutes. Parents can control all of the settings, including screen brightness and maximum volume remotely via the Yoto app, even turning on and off content from another room if required. Once downloaded, content on Yoto cards can be used without a WiFi connection, whilst certain content such as radio and podcasts require access to the internet to work.
With an almost space-age design, the Yoto Player is an attractive and compact cube-shaped audio player which can be used as a fixed device on charge in your child’s bedroom or thanks to its 10-hour off-charge battery life, as a portable player inside and outside the home.
The controls are simple and intuitive, with large easily accessible buttons on top of the device, meaning even younger children can control the Yoto Player without assistance. The small yet robust credit card-sized Yoto Cards are easy to insert, with the audio stopping instantly when the card is removed from the device.
Thanks to the large pixelated screen, children will love seeing brightly coloured Yoto icons which change for each track of the card.
We love how the Yoto Player supports a healthy bedtime routine, thanks to the calming complimentary sleep radio and ‘sleep sound’ content. The nightlight, in a choice of colours, produces a subtle yet reassuring glow in your child’s bedroom, whilst the digital clock visually changes from a moon to a sun logo when it’s time for your child to get up.
Yoto has a wide range of content (over 700 cards) suitable for all ages, with new cards (both physical and digital only) released regularly. Prices start at just £5.99 for single cards, with some of the most popular cards including titles from Disney, Julia Donaldson, Paw Patrol and Classics such as The Secret Garden and The Famous Five. We love their recent collaboration with Moshi Kids (mindfulness and meditation) and the new Thomas and Friends Collection which is sure to be a nostalgic choice loved by children and parents alike.
In addition to the Yoto cards available to purchase, Yoto also offer a wide range of free content including podcasts, child-friendly radio and soundscapes (ideal for younger listeners as a backdrop to creative play). You can also purchase Make Your Own Cards, to create your own content using MP3 files or voice recordings.
Buy now £99.99, Amazon
Yoto Mini
Best for: travel
Specification: Size: 7 x 7 x 4cm | Weight: 160g | Battery life: Up to 20 hours | Headphones: Wired 3.5mm jack | Age recommendation: 3-12+ years
Stand-out features:
- Small and portable for travel
- Free podcasts
- Free Radio station
After the success of the original Yoto Player, Yoto launched the Yoto Mini back at the end of 2021. Designed to be a smaller, more portable player suitable for travel, the Yoto Mini provides access to the same wide range of free content as the original, as well as using the same credit card sized Yoto cards for playing preloaded content.
Whilst the Yoto mini doesn’t have a nightlight, many of the original features remain, including an (albeit smaller) pixelated screen that shows an image of the content being played. It has intuitive, simple controls which are easy to operate, even with small hands.
Thanks to its 20-hour battery life and incorporated headphone jack, the Yoto Mini is ideal for listening to audio content during long car journeys or travelling by train or plane. Using the Yoto Headphones (sold separately) siblings can even make use of the headphone daisy chain function, which allows two children to share the Yoto Mini and listen simultaneously.
The Yoto Mini is small and lightweight (weighing less than the weight of an apple) making it highly portable and easy for children to carry. To protect the player from drops and accidents, however, we do recommend adding the silicone Mini Adventure Jacket (which is available in a choice of 7 colours).
Buy now £59.99, Amazon
Tonies Toniebox
Best for: young children
Specification: Size: 7 x 7 x 4cm | Weight: 160g | Battery life: 20 hours | Headphones: Wired 3.5mm jack | Age recommendation: 3-12+ years
Stand-out features:
- Cute hand hand-painted figures loaded with content
- Robust padded audio player
- Creative Tonies (blank characters which can be loaded with 90 minutes of content)
Available in a choice of six fun shades, the Toniebox is a brightly coloured cube-shaped speaker with a child-friendly shockproof padded casing. A robust and engaging audio player for kids, especially those of preschool age, Tonies’ unique selling point is audio and play combined.
Setting up the Toniebox is as simple as downloading the MyTonies app, before syncing the player to your Wi-Fi connection. You’ll also need to create an account where you can manage all of your Tonies, including any content you’ve created yourself.
Content is played via hand-painted preloaded Tonies characters, which not only make a fun creative play toy in their own right but play the content automatically when placed on the top of the Toniebox. Once a Tonie is played for the first time, content is downloaded and stored digitally using the Toniebox’s 8GB internal memory, allowing Tonies to be used inside and outside the home, even without access to the internet.
The Toniebox starter set comes with one creative Tonie, a blank character which can be loaded with 90 minutes of the content of your choice, including MP3 tracks, music or voice recordings - great for a bedtime story from Nanny, or your child’s favourite stories read out loud.
At 2-3 inches tall with a magnetic base, Tonies look visually stunning out on display, making the Toniebox a great accompaniment to a child’s bedroom, ideally on low shelves so your child can pick and choose the stories they wish to listen to.
Content, whilst varied, is best suited to a younger audience, although new characters are added to the Tonies library very regularly, with a rapidly expanding content base covering everything from Peter Rabbit and The Gruffalo to Peppa Pig and PJ Masks. Tonies generally retail at £14.99 each, with bundle offers such as 5 for the price of 4.
We love the new range of sleep-inducing content including the Tonies Sleepy Friends range, offering a combination of calming songs and stories to provide a smooth transition to the land of nod. Tonies also have a recent collaboration with the mindfulness app Calm, using meditations and breathing exercises to help children relax and unwind as part of their bedroom routine.
Buy now £79.95, Amazon
Amazon All-New Echo Dot Kids
Best for: older children
Specification: Size: 10 x 10 x 8.9 cm | Weight: 340g | Battery life: N/a as mains powered | Headphones: n/a | Age recommendation: 3-12 years
Stand-out features:
- 12-month subscription to Amazon Kids+
- 2 year no quibble guarantee
- Help with homework, jokes and filtered music
If you’re looking for an audio player for an older child, adding a smart device to your child’s bedroom can be a popular choice, especially if you have other Alexa devices inside your home. The Amazon Echo Dot Kids (2022 release) comes in a choice of two child-friendly designs - a green owl or a purple dragon; both of which make a fun and cute accessory to match their bedroom decor. Mains powered, the Echo Dot Kids is less portable than some other audio players on our list and is designed to become a more permanent audio solution for use inside the home.
Unlike the original Echo Dot, the Kids edition only provides age-appropriate responses, doesn’t allow voice command orders and filters out music with explicit lyrics from Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify to protect younger ears.
Aimed at children aged 3-12, it also comes with 12 months of free access to Amazon Kids+, a library of 1000s of children’s audiobooks, games and music including licensed characters such as Numberblocks, Harry Potter, Disney and The Gruaffo to name but a few.
It’s worth noting that after the 12 months have passed, your Amazon Kids+ subscription will automatically renew at £3.99 per month (£1.99 for Prime members), without which this player is effectively a regular Bluetooth speaker. That said, it’s a small price to pay for parents’ peace of mind.
Using the Alexa app, parents can retain full control of the device, including the ability to turn down the volume, setting time limits and even switch off the microphone if preferred. The handy drop-in functionality also allows parent communication between devices - a great way to notify your kids when dinner is ready.
Whilst younger children may enjoy playing games and Alexa’s skills such as Simon Says, telling jokes or even making fart noises, older children can ask Alexa for help with their homework, set reminders, have dance parties in their bedroom or listen to audible audiobooks whilst falling asleep.
Buy now £64.99, Amaozn
Voxblock
Best for: user friendliness
Specification: Size: Compact, handheld device | Weight: Unspecified | Battery life: Days | Headphones: 3.5mm jack | Age recommendation: Ages 3-12
Stand-out features:
- Battery life that lasts days, not hours
- Sleep mode with 20-minute auto shut-off
- Sustainable book-shaped blocks to play content
- Connectivity free - no internet required
A more recent addition to the kids’ audio player world, but certainly one to watch is Voxblock, which launched at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2022.
Available with a protective bumper in a choice of four colours, this book-shaped audio player offers a simple, no-frills design that is ideal for travel. Content (audiobooks) are played via blocks which play automatically via the internal speaker (or through wired headphones) when slotted onto the device.
Voxblock is incredibly simple to use, with no app, no downloads and no internet connectivity required whatsoever, making it the only completely ‘offline’ player on our list.
There are over 100 audiobook titles to choose from costing between £9.99 and £11.99 each, with the growing library already including options such as Maggie Sparks, Horrid Henry, Hotel Flamingo and Enid Blyton’s Wishing Chair. You won’t find any licensed characters here but in many ways that is part of Voxblock’s charm. Around the size of a cassette tape, these audio blocks are also made from sustainable materials and look wonderful stacked together on a bookshelf, making them fun to collect and swap.
We love the battery life on the Voxblock, which unlike some other players will last for days not hours. Voxblock also has a handy Bedtime Mode, which automatically shuts off after 20 minutes of use - just enough time for your child to drift off whilst listening to their favourite book.
Buy now £59.99, Voxbox
Verdict
When it comes to value for money, longevity and variety of content, the Yoto Player hits the top spot as our best audio player for kids. With a wide range of free content including child-friendly radio, podcasts and sleep sounds, the Yoto cards also offer an extensive choice of stories, music and activities for children of all ages. The nightlight feature also makes the Yoto Player a multi-functional accessory for your child’s bedroom, offering additional support for a healthy bedtime routine.
