‘It’s basically inaccessible without a phone’: are kids losing their love for music?

Children used to obsessively put CDs and 7-inches on repeat, but streaming means they need digital devices and parental permission to play music. And there's little being done to help

My daughter is nine years old. When I was her age, in 1989, I had my own small cassette player and a beloved pile of my own tapes - brand new, or made up of songs from the radio - that I could listen to whenever I wanted. The same went for my parents' modest CD collection (Genesis's Invisible Touch was awesome; their three Lionel Richie albums were boring). There were a few vinyl records knocking about and there were at least two radios - invariably set to Capital FM - that I could turn on whenever.

My daughter has none of these things. The only way she can access music is by making me get my phone out and play a song on my Spotify account. The inconvenience is trifling, but more painful and alarming is the growing gap between us when it comes to musical experience.