How To Make Your Child Mixtape using Yoto Make Your Own Cards (In Canada!)

This is a tutorial on how to add music to the Yoto Player: Make Your Own Cards. You can use these cards with the Yoto Player and Yoto Mini Player. 

When I initially bought these cards for our player, I found it difficult to get music onto the cards because you need to have mp3 files that you own. They can't be downloaded within a streaming app, like Spotify or Google Music. 

It was difficult to find a place to purchase digital music in Canada but we've found a great option.

Where to Buy Music In Canada

If you're in Canada, 7digital is the easiest way to purchase mp3 song files for Make Your Own (MYO) cards. Some albums allow you to buy the individual songs and others require you to buy the entire album.

If you're in the US, you have a few more options, mainly Amazon Music or Bandcamp. These options do not work in Canada. 

If your local library pays for a subscription to https://www.freegalmusic.com/, then you can get up to 5 free mp3 downloads a week. Toronto Public Library does not provide access to Freegal Music but many other Canadian libraries do so it's worth checking if you already have a library card. 

If you also have a large music library in itunes, you can also export previously purchased iTunes music into mp3s and use add those to Make Your Own cards as well. Just note that iTunes (now Apple Music) no longer allows you to purchase music. 

How To Buy Music on 7 Digital

Step 1: Search for your favourite music.

In this example, I am searching forThe Wiggles.

Step 2: Choose an album

Step 3: Within each album, you will either be permitted to buy the entire album because the individual tracks are not sold separately

Or you will have the option to buy individual tracks from the album.

Make sure you purchase 320kbps mp3 files. Any other file format will have to be converted before adding to a MYO card so it's easiest to just buy the mp3. 

Once you have purchased your album or songs, download them to wherever your phone usually downloads files. 

Now it is time to head to the Yoto app on your phone.

Go to the Make Your Own section and click the New Playlist button to go to the My Playlists dashboard (this will open in your web browser automatically).

NOTE: If your mp3 files are on a computer, you'll need to create the playlist on your computer. If you're on your computer, go to https://my.yotoplay.com/my-cards. Make sure to log in using the same email address as you use for the Yoto app.

In the My Playlists page, tap the blueAdd Playlist button

Give the Playlist a name, choose some artwork, and then click Add audio.

Follow the instructions to find and upload your audio files.

This is what it looks like to navigate and find your audio files on an Android device:

This is what it looks like to navigate and find your audio files on an iOS device

Once you have all your desired audio files in your playlist, clickCreate.

You can add as many tracks as you like, change the icon for each track, and give this playlist a name. 

Lastly, link your playlist to a MYO card.

Back in the Yoto app you will see your newly created playlist in the library. 

Tap your new playlist to go to the detail page, then tap the three dot menu and selectLink to a Card. 

Insert a Make Your Own card into your Player and confirm by tappingLink in the pop-up panel.

You should see a red 'record' icon on the player display, followed by a green tick to indicate a successful link. 

Take your card out of the player and reinsert it to play your new playlist.

In my experience it can take 10-30 minutes before the card starts working properly after syncing so if the new playlist doesn't play right away, just give it some time.