Gabb Music: The Best Music App for Kids
Gabb Music: The Best Music App for Kids
When Spotify arrived in the United States in 2011, most people had never heard of music streaming. By the end of 2012, over one million Americans were paying a monthly subscription.
The following year, streaming’s impact was so big that Billboard adjusted their rating system to include streaming data on top charts, later declaring 2013 the year that streaming officially became unignorable.
Flash forward a decade and streaming is an assumed aspect of the music-listening experience for kids today, which they typically do for 2.5 hours a day.
In many ways, this is an awesome thing. Easy, affordable access to music allows more kids to tap into the positive impact of music — something that research has made clear. For example:
- Music can relieve tension and boredom.
- Music helps adolescents deal with loneliness and controls mood, and can help kids in their process of identity formation.
- Music provides kids a way to achieve group identity.
But the power of music brings potential for negative effects as well. For example, studies also show a correlation between listening to explicit content, like lyrics glorifying violence or sexual promiscuity, and similar behaviors in adolescents.
In the past decade of streaming’s dominance, there has been a lack of safe music streaming options built just for kids. Parents were in a tricky position — how do we give kids access to all the positives music can offer without exposing them to all the negatives it can also provide.
It’s no surprise that a safe music streaming app became the most frequent request we received at Gabb. In response, we launched Gabb Music in June 2022 and Gabb Music+ in 2024.
Kid-Friendly Music Apps
If you’ve searched Google Play or the Apple app store, you may have come across apps like Baby Mozart or Sesame Street Makes Music.
These apps are geared toward teaching kids about music, how to make music, or are games that use classic tunes like nursery rhymes. These aren’t helpful if you want an app that lets your kids play music they want to listen to.
Prior to Gabb Music, the best options for kid-safe music streaming were “kid versions” of apps that were obviously made for adults.
What this typically resulted in was one of two things:
- basic parental controls that can be toggled on within the adult app, but that do a poor job of properly protecting your kids, or
- a watered-down listening experience for your kids that offers them kid-sung covers of hit songs and nursery rhymes that kids — especially teens — are not interested in.
With Gabb Music, we took the kids-first philosophy we used to create Gabb phones and applied it to music streaming to offer kids the freedom and control to safely listen to music their way.
Gabb Music is The Largest Kid-Friendly Music Library in the World
Gabb Music is a safe music streaming service built from the ground up for kids and teens. It offers listeners the largest kid-safe library of music, including new releases and top hits from all genres and decades.
Using a first-of-its-kind process, Gabb Music scans millions of the most popular songs in the world using the best tools available and some of Gabb’s very own technology so nothing inappropriate gets through.
As a final step, Gabb’s Curation Team reviews the songs and builds mixes and playlists to help kids discover and appreciate the best music out there without parents worrying about what might pop up next.
We filter lyrics, titles, artist names, and images to ensure there’s no explicit language or inappropriate subject matter. We don’t just bleep out explicit lyrics, we remove them entirely.
Parents don’t have to stress about inappropriate content slipping through the limited controls that were added to adult streaming apps as an afterthought.
It’s music streaming with the peace of mind parents are looking for and the library of music kids are looking for.
Gabb Music vs Gabb Music+
Families can choose from two different subscription options: Gabb Music or Gabb Music+.
Gabb Music provides a radio-style listening experience. Kids simply pick a station (mix) and let it play. They can skip up to 6 songs in an hour and have the ability to like and dislike songs, tailoring their music to their preferences.
Our curation team is constantly updating and adding new mixes so your kids can discover new music and enjoy old classics. Mixes include genres, activities, moods, decades, and more. Kids can find mixes either on the Homepage or the Discover tab. Their listening history will be saved under the My Music tab.
Gabb Music+ is everything great about Gabb Music with added customizations, so kids and teens can make the music theirs. With Gabb Music+, users can search specific artists or songs, enjoy unlimited skips, create playlists, and even download music to listen to on the go.
Currently only available on Gabb phones, Gabb Music and Gabb Music+ are exactly what happen when kids are the top priority in tech innovation.
Has your family used Gabb Music yet? Tell us what you think in the comments!
liv on Jun 14, 2022 11:32 AM
i havent gotten the app on my phone yet, but it says its all up to date. why?
Gabb on Jun 14, 2022 03:25 PM
Thank you for reaching out Liv. One way to troubleshoot this is to turn your phone off and back on a couple of times. This should solve the problem. Please reach out to our customer service team if you are still experiencing issues.
nora on Jun 16, 2022 08:50 AM
hi, is there a way to view all genres to find a mix you want? i have to keep tapping through other mixes to get to one i cant see otherwise, and i havent been able to find kpop, but thats on the website. can you help me find the kpop mix?
Gabb on Jun 20, 2022 09:58 AM
Hi Nora, thank you for reaching out. Gabb Music does not allow searching of certain artists. It is more like a Pandora version of the platform. When we release Gabb Music Plus, users will have the ability to search certain artists and playlists to be able to play exactly what they're looking for. This is still being fully developed but should roll out in the coming months.
Cristie Mercer on Aug 08, 2022 10:44 AM
Is there a place where I can see some samples of the country artists that will be on the Gabb music plus app?
Gabb on Aug 15, 2022 04:22 PM
Hi Cristie, thank you for reaching out! Right now, anyone who has Gabb Music can get a taste of what the artists will be on Gabb Music Plus. There is not currently a way to search artists and songs without the subscriptions, but we will take this feedback to our team.
Jeremiah on Sep 26, 2022 10:46 AM
Love the concept. However, without a list of genres and examples of artists, I cannot make a fully informed decision to proceed with a subscription. Although various typically unhealthy items are filtered, I also want to know what positive influences are allowed - specifically spiritual influences, "some" Disney music, and movie theme music, (instrumental & vocal). Did a quick google search but not finding much.
Gabb on Sep 27, 2022 12:06 PM
Hi Jeremiah, Thank you for reaching out and providing your feedback. Gabb Music is a large library of clean music. Each song has been automatically and then manually filtered to make sure it complies with our standards. Most Disney music has passed standards as well as gospel music. Anything with swears, innuendo, drugs, or anything blatantly inappropriate will not be available on Gabb Music.
Allison on Oct 17, 2022 05:05 PM
I love that you have this! I’ve been searching for something exactly like this for my kids. My issue is that I would love to have the availability to purchase and download it onto my I phone. My youngest isn’t old enough for a watch/phone yet but I would love an option that he can choose the musicals we ride in the car. Is this an option?
Gabb on Oct 19, 2022 03:34 PM
Hi Allison, thank you for the compliments! We are lucky to have your support. As of right now, Gabb Music only works on Gabb Phones but we are hoping to make it available to all phones in the future so follow along on our social channels and look for updates.
Ryan on May 15, 2023 04:32 PM
HI, the Gabb company has been talking about "Gabb Plus", and continues to say it will come out soon. But it has been a year now, and projected dates?
Gabb on May 25, 2023 10:11 AM
Hi Ryan, we do have the Gabb Phone Plus, it came out last year. It's available on our website at gabb.com!
Michelle on Aug 05, 2023 02:05 PM
If you want gabb music to rival with spotify or apple music, then kids need to be able to search songs and create their own Playlist. We were very disappointed to find that kids can not search songs and that this service is a "radio" station type service. Kids can pick the station and type of music but not specific songs. For kids who are already using other streaming apps for music, gabb music was a huge let down.
Gabb on Aug 07, 2023 01:46 PM
We hear you! And appreciate your feedback on this! We do plan on having this search feature on our Gabb Music Plus option. We hope to be releasing our Gabb Music Plus feature soon. We will be sure and update our customers when this is released!
nevie on Feb 21, 2024 01:01 PM
i love this app
Gabb on Feb 21, 2024 05:42 PM
We love to hear this!
Everything You Need to Know About Gabb Phone Plus: The Ultimate Guide on Feb 26, 2024 01:22 PM
[…] Exclusively available on Gabb Phone Plus, Gabb Music Plus is the premiere version of Gabb Music. In addition to everything mentioned above, it allows kids to customize their own playlists, search for specific songs, and download their favorites directly to their device. […]
brian on May 08, 2024 07:35 AM
I like the app
Gabb on May 08, 2024 06:23 PM
We're so glad to hear this!