Top Kids and Family Podcasts (December 2016)

It's time once more to take a look at the nebulously-ranked world of podcasts, this time for December.  (Here is October's list of top-ranked kids and family podcasts.  No, there was not a November list.)

There was definitely a little movement in the list this time around, with some new entries, although the rankings of these particular podcasts within the "kids and family" charts in the iTunes and Stitcher kids and family charts are generally in the same range as last time.

As with last month, none of the podcasts ranked here ranked within the "all podcasts" chart on iTunes, and even the number of podcasts on one of the two lists dipped to 28, down from the all-time high of 29, though still up from 22 in June.

As always: this is a blunt instrument, combining pure rankings from two fairly opaque charts, and for a variety of reasons has only marginal value as a measure of quality.  (Results compiled from Top 100 podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher "kids and family" charts on Thursday, December 1, 2016.  Podcasts that appear on both charts are listed with numbers; remaining podcasts only appeared on one list.)  In this particular month, the hybrid nature of the chart probably penalizes what may be the most popular podcast, the brand-new Disney Story Central podcast.  It's only available on iTunes, and can't chart on Stitcher.  So: grain of salt noted.

Two other reminders:

1.  If you're looking for a list that has most (or all) of these podcasts, check out my comprehensive list of podcasts for kids.

2. If you're interested in the future of podcasts for kids, you might be interested in Kids Listen, a grassroots organization of podcasters and folks like me interested in helping high-quality audio for children thrive.  We're looking for other interested folks -- producers or otherwise -- to join in!

With that out of the way, let's get to the chart.

1. Stories Podcast

2. Brains On

3. Storynory

4. The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian

5. Tumble

6. The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel

7. Story Time

8. Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified

9. Story Pirates

10. Spare the Rock Spoil the Chld

11.  But Why?

12. The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd

13. The Cramazingly Incredifun Sugarcrash Kids Podcast

Others (listed alphabetically): 1001 Classic Short Stories and Tales, Activated Stories, Book Club for Kids, Children Stories and Joyful, Children's Fun Storytime, Disney Story Central, Family Folk Tales, Little Stories for Tiny People, Molly and the Sugar Monster, Official Adventures in Odyssey, Podcast Kid, Shabam!, Short and Curly, Sparkle Stories, The Story Home

Announcing the Best Kids Music of the Decade

I've spent a long time thinking about kids music and trying to elevate the genre's visibility, both generally and as well for the very, very best of it.  One of the efforts I'm most proud of relative to that latter category is the Fids and Kamily Music Awards, which compiles top 10 lists from a lot of people who spend a lot of time listening to a lot of kids music.  The 2016 awards will be announced later this week, but this summer I realized that this would be the 10-year anniversary of starting the awards in 2006.

With that in mind, we put out a call to Fids & Kamily judges past and present and asked them to give us their list of the best kids music of the past decade.  To help them a bit, we limited the choices to the 122 ranked winners over the first ten years of the awards, and told them to give us their 20 choices, ranked in the same general way they rank their top 10 lists for the regular awards.

The result is a list of the top 20 kids music albums of the past decade, with another 20 albums awarded honorable mention.  The top five?

1.  The Okee Dokee Brothers - Can You Canoe? (2012)
2.  Molly Ledford and Billy Kelly - Trees (2015)
3.  Dan Zanes and Friends - Catch That Train! (2006)
4.  Justin Roberts - Jungle Gym (2010)
5.  Justin Roberts - Pop Fly (2008)

That is an excellent, excellent list, in my opinion, a great start to any kids music library (be that an actual library, or a family's iPhone playlist.  I encourage you to see the rest of the list of the best kids and family music of the past decade.  I'll have some thoughts on the results at some point soon, but for the moment, thanks to all the judges, artists, readers, and Bill Childs of Spare the Rock Spoil the Child, a Fids & Kamily co-founder who continues to work on this with me today.

Logo credit: 2006-2015 Fids and Kamily Awards logo courtesy Jeff Bogle / Out With The Kids

Top Kids and Family Podcasts (October 2016)

If it's approaching the end of the month, that means it's time once more to take a look at the nebulously-ranked world of podcasts, this time for October.  (Here is September's list of top-ranked kids and family podcasts.)  For the most part, the order is the same, and the rankings of these particular podcasts within the "kids and family" charts in the iTunes and Stitcher kids and family charts are generally in the same range as last month.

As with last month, none of the podcasts here ranked within the "all podcasts" chart on iTunes, but the number of podcasts on one of the two lists remains at 29, an all-time high, up from 22 in June.

As always: this is a blunt instrument, combining pure rankings from two fairly opaque charts, and for a variety of reasons has only marginal value as a measure of quality.  (Results compiled from Top 100 podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher "kids and family" charts on Monday, October 24, 2016.  Podcasts that appear on both charts are listed with numbers; remaining podcasts only appeared on one list.)

Two other reminders:

1.  If you're looking for a list that has most (or all) of these podcasts, check out my comprehensive list of podcasts for kids.

2. If you're interested in the future of podcasts for kids, you might be interested in Kids Listen, a grassroots organization of podcasters and folks like me interested in helping high-quality audio for children thrive.  We're looking for other interested folks -- producers or otherwise -- to join in!

With that out of the way, let's get to the chart.

1. (tie) Stories Podcast

1. (tie) Brains On

3. Storynory

4. Tumble

5. Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified

6. The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd 

7. Story Time

8. Story Pirates

9. Spare the Rock Spoil the Chld

Others (listed alphabetically): 1001 Classic Short Stories and Tales, Activated Stories, Barefoot Books, But Why, Children Stories and Joyful, Children's Fun Storytime, The Cricket, Disney Music Block Party Podcast, Ear Snacks, Family Folk Tales, Kid Friday, Little Stories for Tiny People, Molly and the Sugar Monster, My Baby Monsters, Official Adventures in Odyssey, Podcast Kid, Sparkle Stories, The Story Home, That Story Show, The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel

Radio Playlist: New Music October 2016

Near the end of October, and there's a whole bunch of music as the Grammy window comes to a close.  I've probably missed a few, in fact, but that just means next month's list might also be full of stuff.  (As for last month's list, you can list to that here.)

As always, it's limited in that if an artist hasn't chosen to post a song on Spotify, I can't put it on the list, nor can I feature songs from as-yet-unreleased albums.  But I'm always keeping stuff in reserve for the next Spotify playlist.

Check out the list here (or right here in you're in Spotify).

**** New Music October 2016 (October 2016 Kindie Playlist) ****

“Heroes” - Ted Leo

“Countdown Kids with Lucky” - Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band

“I’ve Got So Much To Give” - The Laurie Berkner Band

“Live in Colour” - Marlow & the MIX

“Bottom of the Ocean” - Todd Downing

“Zoo ’n’ Doo Dah” - Valerie Smalkin

“Aint Nothing Like a Friend” - Mauro Magellan

“You’ve Got Me” - Sara Lovell

“Dissolve” - The Deedle Deedle Dees

“Round and Round We Go” - Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys

“Hello Moon” - Jennifer Paskow

“Farm Animals” - The Alana Banana Show

“Senor Opuesto” - Nathalia

“Rolling Down the Hill - Justin Roberts

“How Can You Tell If It’s Going To Rain” - Andrew & Polly

Top Kids and Family Podcasts (August 2016)

Time once more to take a look at the nebulously-ranked world of podcasts.  This month's list differs slightly from last month's list of top-ranked kids and family podcasts.  For the most part, the order is the same, and the rankings of these particular podcasts within the "kids and family" charts in the iTunes and Stitcher kids and family charts are generally in the same range as last month.  (So, too, is the general placement of the most highly-ranked podcasts here within the "all podcasts" chart.  What is a continued improvement is the number of podcasts on one of the two lists, 28 -- the same as last month, but still up from 22 in June.

As always: this is a blunt instrument, combining pure rankings from two fairly opaque charts, and for a variety of reasons has only marginal value as a measure of quality.  (Results compiled from Top 100 podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher "kids and family" charts on Wednesday, August 17, 2016.  Podcasts that appear on both charts are listed with numbers; remaining podcasts only appeared on one list.)  I will also note that it's subject to considerable sway by a single high-profile article or event.  For example, after this Popsugar article on 15 podcasts for families came out after my research, the rankings of several podcasts that made the list jumped significantly so that 6 of the top 10 podcasts on iTunes were listed below (compared to 2-4 at other times) and OWTK's Kid's Music Monthly, which wasn't on the top 200, jumped to 27.

Two other reminders:

1.  If you're looking for a list that has most (or all) of these podcasts, check out my comprehensive list of podcasts for kids.

2. If you're interested in the future of podcasts for kids, you might be interested in Kids Listen, a grassroots organization of podcasters and folks like me interested in helping high-quality audio for children thrive.  We're looking for other interested folks -- producers or otherwise -- to join in!

With that out of the way, let's get to the chart.

1. Stories Podcast

2. Brains On

3. Radio Adventures of Eleanor Amplified

4. Storynory

5. Tumble

6. Story Pirates

7. Story Time

8. Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child

Others (listed alphabetically): 1001 Classic Short Stories and Tales, Activated Stories, Audio Books for Children, Barefoot Books, But Why, Children's Fun Storytime, Cramazingly Incredifun Sugarcrash Kids, Ear Snacks, Family Folk Tales, Goop Tales; Little Stories for Tiny People, Molly and the Sugar Monster, Official Adventures in Odyssey, Podcast Kid, Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd, The Secret Diaries of Tara Tremendous, Short & Curly, Sparkle Stories, The Story Home, That Story Show

Top Kids and Family Podcasts (June 2016)

It's been nearly six weeks since I last produced a list of top-ranked kids and family podcasts, so it's time to see what's up in the nebulous world of podcast rankings.

This month's list is nearly identical in both composition and ranking to the May chart, but I will say that my perception -- I don't have the raw data from May -- is that the rankings of the kids podcasts within the iTunes and Stitcher kids and family charts are higher today than when I checked them last month.  My perception could be wrong, or it could be purely a result of timing, but I'm retaining the data this go-round to see if something changes next month.

As always: this is a blunt instrument, combining pure rankings from two fairly opaque charts, and for a variety of reasons should not solely (or even primarily) be used as a measure of quality.  (Results compiled from Top 100 podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher "kids and family" charts on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.  Podcasts that appear on both charts are listed with numbers; remaining podcasts only appeared on one list.)

Two other reminders:

1.  If you're looking for a list that has most (or all) of these podcasts, check out my comprehensive list of podcasts for kids.

2. If you're interested in the future of podcasts for kids, you might be interested in Kids Listen, a grassroots organization of podcasters and folks like me interested in helping high-quality audio for children thrive.

With that out of the way, let's get to the chart!

1.  Brains On

2. Stories Podcast

3. Storynory

4. Story Pirates

5. Tumble

6. Story Time

7. Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd

8. Spare the Rock Spoil the Child

Others (listed alphabetically): Audio Books for Children, Barefoot Books, But Why, Classics for Kids, Ear Snacks, Family Folk Tales, Little Stories for Tiny People, Molly and the Sugar Monster, Podcast Kid, Porters Podcast, The Secret Diaries of Tara Tremendous, Sparkle Stories, The Story Home, That Story Show