Disney Enters the MP3 Market With Players Aimed at Children
By STEPHANIE KANG
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 29, 2005; Page D5
Here's music to the ears of kid consumers who want an iPod of their own: a new wave of digital audio players designed specifically for junior rockers.
Walt Disney Co. is set to announce today the release of a $49 digital audio MP3 player aimed at 6- to 12-year-olds. Like most digital audio players, Disney's Mix Sticks allows users to download music from the Internet or from CDs copied on a computer. But the device also allows users to plug-and-play music by inserting postage-stamp-size memory cards called Mix Clips, which can hold about the same amount of music as a CD. One of the four models, which also play Windows Media Audio music files, features Tinker Bell on the casing with the slogan "Sassy Pixie."
Mix Sticks is the latest in a slew of youth electronics products catering to the growing number of children who are tossing aside traditional toys like action figures and dolls for digital video cameras, cellphones and videogames. Electronics specifically targeted at kids is a fairly new category, but sales leapt 40% in 2004 from the year earlier, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based market-research firm NPD Funworld. That is compared with 3% sales growth for the traditional toy industry, to $20.1 billion, in the period. And retailers such as Target Corp., Minneapolis, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville, Ark., now have aisles devoted to youth electronics.
Disney isn't the only MP3 toymaker. Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc. both stock devices that can play MP3 music files. Closely held MGA Entertainment, Van Nuys, Calif., recently released an MP3 player shaped like a lipstick, under its Bratz dolls brand. But marketing to "tweens" -- as the 8-to-12 age group is known -- can be tricky. While their tastes grow increasingly sophisticated, their purchasing decisions are still tightly controlled by their parents. With 128 MB of storage, or enough for about 60 songs, Mix Sticks offers the basics of an MP3 player at a price point that Disney hopes parents will like.
Disney designed the player after discovering that kids still buy nearly all of their music in stores, despite the growing popularity of online music, says vice president of Disney Electronics Chris Heatherly.
"It's a way for kids to get started with digital music" while offering the ease of "plug-and-play music that solves all the problems a kid is going to have getting started with MP3," says Mr. Heatherly. "We think it does make sense for kids who are really starting their music collections."
The Mix Clip cards will sell for about the same price as a CD. Disney will roll out four Mix Clip albums, including "Radio Disney Ultimate Jams, Greatest Hits Volumes 1-6" with songs from Hilary Duff, James Brown and Lou Bega, as well as songs from Disney Channel television shows like "That's So Raven" and "Lizzie McGuire."
Mix Sticks, Mix Clips and accessories like a set of speakers shaped like a silver and white mini-jukebox with flashing lights will be sold in retail stores at Target, Wal-Mart, Sears Holdings Corp.'s Sears stores and Limited Too, a division of Too Inc. Additional memory cards can boost storage capability to 1 GB, or about 500 songs. The player includes rechargeable battery, earbuds, USB connector, and lanyard for wearing the device around the neck.
"Kids want the hottest new product -- this brings it down to an age level where the kids are competent doing it without feeling too frustrated and parents are comfortable with the content," says Reyne Rice, a trend analyst with the Toy Industry Association. Besides, she says, most "parents aren't willing to spend money on the real thing."
The last time the toy industry found a hit in music was five years ago with Hit Clips, tiny portable music players that could be clipped onto a key chain or backpack and played about a minute of music. More than music quality, analysts say, kids liked collecting the small clips, which came in a variety of different colors.
It's important that the "product is sophisticated enough that the kid doesn't feel like it's beneath them," Ms. Rice says. "They're accepting them as alternative to the real thing."
Write to Stephanie Kang at stephanie.kang@wsj.com
By STEPHANIE KANG
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 29, 2005; Page D5
Here's music to the ears of kid consumers who want an iPod of their own: a new wave of digital audio players designed specifically for junior rockers.
Walt Disney Co. is set to announce today the release of a $49 digital audio MP3 player aimed at 6- to 12-year-olds. Like most digital audio players, Disney's Mix Sticks allows users to download music from the Internet or from CDs copied on a computer. But the device also allows users to plug-and-play music by inserting postage-stamp-size memory cards called Mix Clips, which can hold about the same amount of music as a CD. One of the four models, which also play Windows Media Audio music files, features Tinker Bell on the casing with the slogan "Sassy Pixie."
Mix Sticks is the latest in a slew of youth electronics products catering to the growing number of children who are tossing aside traditional toys like action figures and dolls for digital video cameras, cellphones and videogames. Electronics specifically targeted at kids is a fairly new category, but sales leapt 40% in 2004 from the year earlier, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based market-research firm NPD Funworld. That is compared with 3% sales growth for the traditional toy industry, to $20.1 billion, in the period. And retailers such as Target Corp., Minneapolis, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bentonville, Ark., now have aisles devoted to youth electronics.
Disney isn't the only MP3 toymaker. Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc. both stock devices that can play MP3 music files. Closely held MGA Entertainment, Van Nuys, Calif., recently released an MP3 player shaped like a lipstick, under its Bratz dolls brand. But marketing to "tweens" -- as the 8-to-12 age group is known -- can be tricky. While their tastes grow increasingly sophisticated, their purchasing decisions are still tightly controlled by their parents. With 128 MB of storage, or enough for about 60 songs, Mix Sticks offers the basics of an MP3 player at a price point that Disney hopes parents will like.
Disney designed the player after discovering that kids still buy nearly all of their music in stores, despite the growing popularity of online music, says vice president of Disney Electronics Chris Heatherly.
"It's a way for kids to get started with digital music" while offering the ease of "plug-and-play music that solves all the problems a kid is going to have getting started with MP3," says Mr. Heatherly. "We think it does make sense for kids who are really starting their music collections."
The Mix Clip cards will sell for about the same price as a CD. Disney will roll out four Mix Clip albums, including "Radio Disney Ultimate Jams, Greatest Hits Volumes 1-6" with songs from Hilary Duff, James Brown and Lou Bega, as well as songs from Disney Channel television shows like "That's So Raven" and "Lizzie McGuire."
Mix Sticks, Mix Clips and accessories like a set of speakers shaped like a silver and white mini-jukebox with flashing lights will be sold in retail stores at Target, Wal-Mart, Sears Holdings Corp.'s Sears stores and Limited Too, a division of Too Inc. Additional memory cards can boost storage capability to 1 GB, or about 500 songs. The player includes rechargeable battery, earbuds, USB connector, and lanyard for wearing the device around the neck.
"Kids want the hottest new product -- this brings it down to an age level where the kids are competent doing it without feeling too frustrated and parents are comfortable with the content," says Reyne Rice, a trend analyst with the Toy Industry Association. Besides, she says, most "parents aren't willing to spend money on the real thing."
The last time the toy industry found a hit in music was five years ago with Hit Clips, tiny portable music players that could be clipped onto a key chain or backpack and played about a minute of music. More than music quality, analysts say, kids liked collecting the small clips, which came in a variety of different colors.
It's important that the "product is sophisticated enough that the kid doesn't feel like it's beneath them," Ms. Rice says. "They're accepting them as alternative to the real thing."
Write to Stephanie Kang at stephanie.kang@wsj.com
