Toddlers are growing up tech savvy with the latest gadgets at their disposal. Katie Notopoulos, a BuzzFeed News Reporter, wrote about an experience with her five-year-old son and his virtual pal, Amazon Echo Dot. Her son yelled commands to his sidekick: “Alexa…play poopy diaper.” Although she wasn’t a fan of the word “poop” being used liberally, she let it slide this one time. Her curiosity peaked when Alexa replied: “OK, playing ‘Poopy Diaper’ from Spotify.”
What in the world did this toddler ask for? What did Alexa grasp that his mom could not fathom? Even though she was confused, Alexa caters to the child’s musical preferences with lyrics covering “poop, diapers, dog poop, stinky butt, farts.”
Song creators accredit much of their success and revenue to Amazon Music — the default music player for Alexa. Joey Helpish, an artist and song therapist, banks on toddler whims by using Alexa as the main source of plays for his popular melody “Poopy Stupid Butt.”
Kids are brainstorming, gold mines for this artist. Helpish and his partner, Kristen Muir, oversee a music school in Oregon that specializes in working with autistic kids and assisting them through the creative process of song development. This is a noble way of masking free labor. “We did a big songwriting session with these three kids,” Helpish said. “I said, ‘Give me five syllables to start,’ and the little four-year-old girl screamed, ‘Poopy stupid butt!’ And the next 10 minutes were me writing down everything the kids were yelling at me that poopy stupid butt was doing.” He added the song to Amazon Music along with many other tunes by the young talented lyricists.
Everyone can laugh at the bizarre “Poopy Stupid Butt” track but the revenue from the music helped cover the medical bills when the couple was broke. The revenue from Amazon Music got them several hundred dollars for their emergency needs.
For the strategic adult, kids can be a source of income-generating ideas. Why wait until 18 to get the return on investment?
Source: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/alexa-play-the-poop-song