It’s 1st hour. 7th Grade Harper, is in her math class and just wants to listen to music while she works. When she goes to her account, all she sees is a gnome biting a wire. Without access to music, Harper is unable to be as productive as she normally is. 

If you have recently checked Spotify, you are probably aware that you are no longer able to access your account. Whether it’s your home or school chromebook, as long as it’s a school account, students are unfortunately unable to listen to music using Spotify.

Music is very important to many student’s school days. To gather student’s thoughts on this topic, I spoke with some provoked students; but first, I talked with Mr. Smiley.

I asked Mr. Smiley, “Why is Spotify blocked?”, and he responded, “Spotify has an age requirement of 18. When 13 year olds are using it, they need parent permission. As a school, we can’t get permission for every student with a chromebook.” He continued to say that the school finally has the software to block Spotify, which is why it wasn’t blocked before. I also asked him how he thinks Spotify will affect his students. Mr. Smiley acknowledged, “I have a playlist on my Spotify account called ‘Concentration’, I can listen to that when I’m trying to do work as background noise to help me concentrate.” He continues, “I understand that students might use Spotify to focus, but other students might listen to more rock, or reggae, which doesn’t have the same effect.”

I talked with 7th Grader Harper, a student who has her own computer, I asked her how often she uses Spotify on a daily basis. She responded, “I use Spotify on a daily basis. I use it almost every hour because it helps me focus. I also listen to it at home.” I also asked how she feels about Spotify being blocked. Her response was, “Ever since they banned Spotify I don’t get much work done in school and I do most at home because I can listen to Spoitfy there. I don’t have Apple Music or anything so I just listen to Spotify. When they blocked Spotify I knew I wasn’t going to get much work done but I’m still trying without music and all”.

I had a chat with 8th Grader Hala, and I also asked her how often she uses Spotify on a daily basis. She responded, “I use Spotify everytime I’m just silently doing my work. It just keeps me entertained.” I then asked her why she thinks Spotify is blocked, her answer was, “I don’t know why Spotify is being blocked. I get that it could be distracting for some people, but for the most part it’s just a way for students to stay focused.”

I spoke with 7th Grader Hetvi, I asked her how often she uses Spotify on a daily basis. She answered, “I use Spotify all  the time when I’m trying to get classwork done.” I then asked her how she feels about Spotify being blocked. She responded, “I don’t think it should be blocked. I’ve never found it a distraction. It also helped me be more productive. It helped me enjoy doing the classwork I do. Now I sit and look at the clock while I wait till class is over.”

I spoke with 6th grader Weston about this topic, and I asked him how often he uses Spotify on a daily basis. He responded, “I use Spotify like everyday”. I also asked him how feels about Spotify being blocked. He answered, “I am pretty mad.”

I had a chat with 7th Grader Hailey, I asked her how she feels about Spotify being blocked. Her response was, “I don’t feel like it is very fair. It is only music, and it isn’t being used in a bad way”. I also asked her how often she uses Spotify on an average school day. She answered, “Pretty often. I used it whenever teachers said that we could listen to music, and I also listened to it while I was doing work”.

I had a conversation with 7th Grader Anna, I asked how often she uses Spotify on an average school day. She responded, “Pretty often. I like using Spotify instead of Apple Music because there are more personalized playlists.” I also asked how she feels about Spotify being blocked. Her response was, “I think that it’s stupid to block it because a lot of students use it to focus in school, and I think that they might block other music websites too.”

I discussed this topic with 6th grader Christian. I asked how often he uses Spotify on a normal day. His response was, “I use Spotify not necessarily at school a lot, but I do tend to use it a lot at home.” He continues, “Sometimes I do use it at school when I’m taking a test or a quiz and my teacher lets me use it.” I also asked how he feels about Spotify being blocked. His answer was, “I don’t think that it should be blocked because we should just be able to listen to music.”

I talked with 7th Grader Addison, and asked her how often she uses Spotify on an average school day. She stated, “I use Spotify almost every other day because it’s a great way to listen to music while doing work and it often helps me study” I then asked her how she feels about Spotify being blocked. She answered, “I feel it shouldn’t have been blocked. I get some times kids could have been listening to music when they weren’t supposed to, but you can just stop them from using their headphones. Spotify was a safe website to listen to music, and now kids might be going to 3rd party websites to listen to music that can possibly put our Information at risk, so I don’t think it should be blocked”

I had a chat with 6th grader Marq about his thoughts on this situation. I asked him how often he uses Spotify daily. He responded, “I use Spotify most of the week.” I also asked him how he feels about Spotify being blocked, “I feel like SPotify shouldn’t be blocked because we should be able to listen to music.”

I talked with 8th grader Ella, and I asked her how often she uses Spotify on a daily basis. Her response was, “I use Spotify whenever I have free time in school, and I like to listen to it all the time when I can.” I also asked her how she feels about Spotify being blocked, she answered, “I don’t like it because there are a lot of other music things that aren’t blocked. Also, teachers give you permission to listen to music.”

Music has been scientifically proven to help students focus in class and at home. Some students find it very difficult to focus in class without music. With this important factor in students’ learning being taken away, I wonder how grades will be affected. I know that it’s the end of the year, and students’ are already tuning out, but music was the one thing that kept students productive.

While students can still listen to 88.1 the park, it may not always be music they like, and with all of the ads, it can get even more distracting at times. Students could use Apple Music, but it’s only a 1 month free trial until you have to pay for it. Some students might use Apple Music at home, and could log into that account, but that’s not an option for many students.

As you can see, many students are heavily affected by the blocking of Spotify. It really helps kids focus and it just brightens their day in general. This may seem like a small issue, but in reality, it is really affecting student’s performance, mood, and possibly their well being.